Superfoods can lower blood fat and protect cardiovascular health

Natural "superfoods" that have been confirmed by clinical research and are not overly processed can indeed help lower blood lipids and protect cardiovascular health. However, their role is as a "plus point" in the diet rather than as a "special medicine", and it cannot replace formal lipid-lowering treatment and an overall healthy lifestyle.

Last week, I met a 62-year-old Uncle Zhang in the clinic. He came to me with half a bag of imported chia seeds and freeze-dried cranberry powder. He said that he had been eating yogurt mixed with yogurt for breakfast every day for more than three months. Last week, his LDL was still 3.7mmol/L, which did not drop at all. He asked me if I was buying fake products. In fact, he is not the only one who has this confusion. Nowadays, the superfoods are so popular on the Internet that they can lower blood lipids in one week and reverse arterial plaques after half a year. This has caused many people to spend a lot of money to stock up on food. In the end, it has no effect and feels that it is all an IQ tax.

In fact, academic circles have always been divided into two groups regarding "super foods".

Researchers in the field of nutritional biochemistry generally recognize the "food matrix effect" of some food ingredients - that is, the combination of active ingredients in the food ingredients can indeed regulate blood lipids, but it is not an IQ tax. For example, beta-glucan in oats. A controlled trial in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" confirmed that consuming more than 3g of high-purity beta-glucan every day for 8 weeks can reduce low-density lipoprotein by 5%-8%. This effect is certified by the FDA as a health claim. ； There are also Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in deep-sea fish, which can reduce the level of triglycerides in the blood and reduce the inflammatory reaction in the blood vessel wall. Its cardiovascular protective effect has been included in the "Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Dyslipidemia in Chinese Adults".

However, scholars in the field of public health are very resistant to the concept of "super food" and feel that it is essentially a marketing gimmick created by capital. Many highly praised imported superfoods, such as acai berries, quinoa, and cold-pressed pomegranate juice, have similar nutritional contents to our common local mulberries, brown rice, and fresh pomegranates, but are more than ten times more expensive, making the price-performance ratio ridiculously low. A while ago, I came across a blogger selling "fat-reducing kale powder" for more than 200 per can, which is 30 times more expensive than fresh kale. It is also flavored with maltodextrin, so I really can't fault it.

From the perspective of having been in clinical nutrition for 10 years, I do not recommend that everyone blindly pursue Internet celebrity superfoods, nor do I need to kill all such ingredients in one go. I have a 48-year-old patient with hyperlipidemia who always said he couldn't control his mouth and didn't like to take health care products. I asked him to replace his morning white porridge with half a bowl of boiled pure oats, and eat steamed seabass three times a week, about 150g each time. He used corn oil for half of the lard for cooking, and I didn't let him buy any expensive super foods. During the three-month review, his triglycerides dropped from 2.9 to 1.7, and his low density also dropped by 0.4mmol/L. To put it bluntly, superfoods are like small buffs you add when playing games. If you are not equipped well and are based on a diet high in oil and sugar, no matter how many buffs you eat, you will not be able to beat the boss of hyperlipidemia.

Many people eat super foods to no avail. To put it bluntly, they are stepping on a trap. For example, some people buy oatmeal crisps with sugar and non-dairy cream added. They call it a super food. In fact, half of the mouthful is filled with trans fat, which is good if it does not raise blood lipids. ； There are also people who eat salmon, drink milk tea and eat fried chicken. They think that they can make whatever they want if they have a guarantee of superfoods, but that is definitely useless. I once met a girl who drank two large glasses of kale juice on an empty stomach every day in order to lower blood lipids. However, her blood lipids did not drop much. She drank herself to the point of acid reflux and was sent to the gastroenterology department. It was really unnecessary.

Oh, by the way, there is another bottom line that I want to make clear to everyone: if your blood lipids are much beyond the normal range, or you have even developed problems with arterial plaque or coronary heart disease, you must take medicine as directed by your doctor. You must not use superfoods to replace statins or other lipid-lowering drugs. It can only add an extra layer of protection to you on the basis of regular treatment and a light overall diet. If you expect to cure hyperlipidemia by eating a certain kind of food, it will delay the condition.

After all, protecting your cardiovascular system never relies on a certain kind of food. Embedding these high-quality ingredients into your three daily meals, ordering less oily and salty takeaways twice, and staying up less late will be more effective than any sky-high-priced super food.