A recent article in the NY Times shocked many of us who
follow health research: Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic now believe that
saturated fat and cholesterol only play a minor role in heart disease. They believe that a little-known chemical
called TMAO is actually the major player in heart disease … in fact, it may
even be causing heart disease.
It turns out that carnitine, which is found in high
levels in red meat (and eggs, and to a lesser extent, poultry, fish and dairy) may
start a chain reaction leading to heart disease by a newly discovered
mechanism: Meat eaters have a certain
type of bacteria in their guts that get their fuel from carnitine, and when
they eat meat, this bacteria burps out a little-known chemical that is
converted by the liver into TMAO. It is now
thought by these researchers that TMAO is the major culprit in heart disease
because it allows cholesterol to penetrate vessel walls, and also prevents the
body from getting rid of excess cholesterol.
In a ground-breaking study, five meat eaters and one
long-time vegan (who shouldn’t theoretically have the carnitine-eating bacteria
in his gut) ate a full steak. Afterward,
their blood was checked for TMAO, and all the meat eaters had very high levels
of TMAO in their blood, but the vegan had virtually none. Since vegans don’t ingest carnitine, they
don’t have the bacteria in their guts that lead to TMAO. Further studies have proven a strong
correlation between TMAO and heart disease.
Interestingly, since TMAO is created in a chain reaction
started by bacteria, it’s thought that antibiotics that target the bacteria can
lower heart disease risk. In fact, these
researchers found that when meat-eaters ate a steak but took an antibiotic
beforehand, TMAO did not show up in their blood.
But I say, no need to be on antibiotics for the rest of
your life … just go vegan!
To learn more, you can read the article in the NY Times
here:
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