Heart Healthy Oils
Help Cure Heart Disease!

Gene Millen, Author - Revised 5/11/15

Gene Millen, Heart Health Coach I'm Gene Millen, your host on this website with my wife Bernie. Prior to my 6-way heart bypass in 1990, I knew very little about which cooking oils are heart healthy and which ones to avoid.

Heart healthy oils are essential to fight heart disese and also promote weight loss and energize our hearts.

For more than 30 years, we have been bombarded with the message to eat less fat and oils for the sake of our hearts and our waistlines.

Fats and oils have usually been associated with heart disease, cancer, hardening of the arteries, and ugly body flab. The very word fat is rarely promoted as one of the heart healthy foods although our bodies need it for good health, and even survival.

But now a growing number of researchers are saying that in trying to squeeze some of the heart-damaging grease from our diets, they have sent us the wrong message.

It's not fat that is the problem...but the kinds of fats and oils we consume. We need heart healthy oils!

My eyes were opened wide in 1995 to the necessity of including heart healthy oils in our diet. I was browsing in the health section of our local bookstore when an intriguing title caught my eye. "Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill."

I couldn't resist taking a look, and I soon discovered that the author, Udo Erasmus, has an international reputation, and is one of the original pioneers in the study of fats and oils.

Udo is reverently known as "His Royal Oiliness" and is considered to be an expert in healthy foods and healthy diets.

Dr. Erasmus' academic credentials include a BS in zoology, an MA in psychology, a PhD in nutrition and graduate studies in genetics and biochemistry.

Udo's 450 page book is the culmination of tracking down thousands of original research studies on heart healthy fats and oils, and those that he says can kill us. It isn't an easy read but it contains a wealth of information that you won't find anywhere else. It lists in detail the heart healthy oils, and why they should be included in our diets.

Trans Fat...The Artery Clogging Killer.

One of my pet peeves is the out of date information provided by the American Heart Association website. Their advice is to "limit trans fats and saturated fats in the diet" as though they were equally dangerous.

Contrary to what you often hear from the experts, saturated fats are heart healthy oils, and trans fats can kill us.

In the ongoing Nurses Health Study each 2% increase in trans fat consumption converted to a whopping 93% increase in coronary heart disease.

A study published in The Lancet in 1994 showed that almost three-quarters of the fat found clogging arteries is trans fat.

Trans fat is is formed by pumping hydrogen into an oil to make it solid and increase the shelf life.

This process changes the molecular structure and turns a perfectly good oil into a toxic product. Any oil heated to a high temperature for deep frying (as in French fries) is loaded with trans fat...even if it started out as a heart healthy vegetable oil before "processing."

Trans Fats Are Not Heart Healthy Oils!

Whenever you see "partially hydrogenated oil" on the label you know it has trans fats...and they are definitely not a heart healthy fat. This includes most packaged foods and margarines, including those that say "cholesterol free". A very clever advertising trick.

Udo says that trans fats impair the protective barrier around cells, which is vital for keeping cells alive and healthy. Allergic reactions may result and immune function may be impaired.

Olive Oil...A Very Heart Healthy Oil

Current research sheds new light on the role of olive oil in the Mediterranean diet. High in mono unsaturated fat and a good source of antioxidants, olive oil is the region's principal source of fat and is believed to be a key reason for their lower rates heart disease.

Be sure you purchase extra-virgin Olive oil. The so-called light olive oil is of poorer quality and does not have fewer calories. A recent study shows that a high intake of extra-virgin olive oil was associated with preservation of cognitive functions in healthy elderly people.

Good Fats - Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)

EFAs are called essential fatty acids because our body must have them but cannot make them and have been proven to significantly reduce risk heart disease. They lower the LDL bad cholesterol, triglycerides and also blood pressure.

One great thing about Omega 3 oils is that they will not make you fat. They are used for energy and do not end up in the fat cells.

One omega 3 oil that I discovered that is a heart healthy oil health is krill oil, which in my opinion is the absolutely best omega 3 oil.

What is Krill Oil and how is it superior to fish oil?

For years, the medical establishment touted fish as the ultimate heart healthy food, citing its abundance of omega-3 oils.

There's a serious problem with most of the fish you find in the stores and restaurants. It has been raised on a farm, not the wild environment that creates the omega 3's you need for heart and brain health..

Farm raised fish are usually fed a diet corn, cereal grains and other additives. This unnatural diet of Omega 6 food causes the salmon's omega-3 levels to plummet.

And that's just one of the many biological transformations they go through.

Salmon and other fish raised in captivity are dramatically changed by the experience; the fish farmers have to inject them with an orange-colored dye to make their flesh look like real salmon. Trust me, this is not a good thing.

Krill Oil...the Ultimate Heart Healthy Oil

Krill are shrimp-like invertebrates or crustaceans that are harvested from the icy Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean.

Highly intelligent great whales, seals, penguins and sea birds depend on krill for their nutritional needs.

Krill aren't a new source of nutrition either. They've been harvested as a heart healthy food source for both humans and domesticated animals since the 1800s. Possibly even earlier in Japan where they're considered a delicacy.

Well, this heart healthy fat treatise has been a lot to digest (pardon the pun) but the bottom line is simple.

To live a long and healthy life avoid the bad fats and increase heart healtlhy cooking oils.

One of Mark Twain's more insightful quotes is

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits."

With that in mind I am taking up the challenge to help you reform yours.

I wish I had discovered this "Miracle Oil" a long time ago!

Check out CoQ10, Krill Oil and more heart supplements
at our Heart Supplement Store.

Thanks for joining us on the journey to
Vital Heart Health for Life!

Clinical Studies - References

¹Walter Bortz, M.D., Stanford researcher