Diet & Heart Disease

From a review of the literature, there are many theories related to the formation of heart disease, including lack of exercise, overweight, high blood pressure, smoking, and exposure to carbon monoxide gas (Fallon and Enig 19). In addition to these theories of heart disease, the American Heart Association has espoused the theory since the 1960s that the major cause of heart disease in Western nations (atherosclerosis) is dietary, "the lipid hypothesis, namely that dietary saturated fat and cholesterol lead to elevated levels of cholesterol in the blood, and that these elevated levels of cholesterol cause the pathogenic atheromas that block blood vessels" (Fallon et al. 15). Other authors like Mary P. McGowan in her book, Heart Fitness for Life, agree with the theory that diet has a profound impact on the formation of or prevention of heart disease. In this book, the author provides a wealth of statistics that demonstrate heart disease is the number one killer in American society, making its prevention all that more significant. McGowan provides personal case studies that show how individuals adopt unhealthy lifestyle habits, from diet to smoking, that contribute to the formation of heart disease. In some of these case studies we see an individual named George who started unhealthy habits like smoking at age nine and quit six weeks after a heart attack at age 38. Until his heart attack and reassessing his values and past experiences, Geor

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