Book Review: Put Your Heart in Your Mouth by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD.

Diet has a huge impact on your heart health. This is part of Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride’s main idea in this clarifying explanation of the etiology and risk factors of cardiovascular disease. She takes time to describe in understandable detail what cardiovascular disease is, and sheds light on where the diet-heart hypothesis has swayed people in the wrong direction about how diet affects heart health.

One main point that I learned was that cholesterol is produced in the body and greatly valued by the body. Dr. McBride explains that if you are not eating cholesterol then your body will produce it because it is such a vital component to the body’s healing. The body depends on it so much that it catches all the leftover cholesterol from the large intestines so as to recycle it in the body. Another factor that was fascinating to learn was what heart disease actually is- inflammation. The never-ending healing of lesions in the veins are only trying to be healed by the body with the help of cholesterol. This is why we find cholesterol in atherosclerotic plaques, but it is because inflammation wins over the healing process that this plaque begins to block blood flow.  Thirdly, I learned why there is a high correlation between diabetes and heart disease. This is because of the high inflammatory state of the body during metabolic syndrome. Having too much insulin and glucose in the blood creates a pro-inflammatory environment in the vascular walls which inhibits any healing of the endothelium when it is injured.

In one way, this book was helpful for me to have a balanced understanding of why a vegetarian diet would be appealing for people at high risk cardiovascular conditions. This is because of the focus on anti-inflammatory foods which include lots of vegetables and whole foods, not processed foods. But, I think this book holds lots of great wisdom about anti-inflammatory ancestral foods and cultivation practices that have also been forgotten and consist of grass-fed home cooked meats and rendered fats.