Empower Your Heart Health Series: How Ultra-Processed Foods and Supplements Can Contribute to Cardiovascular Risk

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You know, you think about a protein powder, you think about an

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electrolyte powder recovery powder, you think it's food. It's not.

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It's actually a supplement. So it's not as regulated. So consumer

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labs finds high levels of arsenic lead in a lot of these

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foods, but they're also ultra processed. There was a

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study that looked at individuals who are following the mediterranean diet,

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the vegan diet, all these different diets for heart health, and they were looking

Speaker: 00:00:27

at the level of ultra processed foods they were consuming. And this wasn't

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like your yodels and your junk food. This was actually like anything

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that was defined by the Nova scale. So the nova scale kind

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of looks at the degree of processing. So protein powders,

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electrolyte powders, that all would go into that group. And

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they found that it elevated a inflammatory marker called

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cystatin C that causes plaque to rupture.

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And those individuals had a higher risk of another heart attack

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within five years from their previous one because of the high

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levels of ultra processed foods in their diet.

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Welcome to a special October edition of

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Open Heart Surgery with Boots. All month

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long, we're diving into heart healthy eating with

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none other than my cardiac dietitian,

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Michelle Rothenstein. Each Tuesday, we are

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serving up bite sized ten to 15 minutes

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episodes to give you practical tips to keep your

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heart in tip top shape. Whether you're recovering

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from surgery or just looking to show your heart a little extra

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love, Michelle's got you covered. Don't forget to

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check out our

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patreon@www.patreon.com.

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open heart surgery with boots there we are building

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a community of fellow heart buddies where we are going

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to start meeting up on Zoom and being of support to each

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other. And I'll be curating special

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playlists to help you get started on your heart

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journey if you're just starting out. So thank you so

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much for being here. Thank you for supporting this podcast.

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I am so excited to bring Michelle to

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you every Tuesday for the month of October. So let's get

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right to it. Hey, welcome back to another episode of

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Open Heart Surgery with boats. I am your host, Boots Knighton. You know

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that by now, hopefully. And you

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hopefully have been joining me this month with Michelle,

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my cardiac dietitian. We are doing a

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five part series. This is part number four.

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And if you are just now finding me in this

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podcast, please be sure to go back and at least listen

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to the previous three installments of

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Michelle's wisdom because this is all building

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up on top of each other to culmination. Next

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week. Of Michelle's ultimate, like,

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scream from the mountaintop. Advice for all of us heart patients.

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But there's just so much to take into account when

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you're thinking about your heart. And we just don't get the information

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from our cardiologists, from our surgeons.

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Everyone's kind of in their silos. I don't think anyone's

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ever intentionally trying to leave out information. Michelle

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just really seems to shine and glow

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in her wisdom of what she is bringing to us from her role as

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cardiac dietitian. And so today we are going to talk

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about oxidative stress. And it's interesting,

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because I'm thinking back to one particular incident just even

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earlier this summer. So Michelle and I, you

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and I, are recording this towards the end of September, 2024.

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And I have had this mindset. I had been an

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athlete prior to my heart journey and then kept trying

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to get back to my old self. And

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that has just been its own spiritual journey of

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letting go and radically accepting where I'm at in my life now.

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But earlier this summer, I was still a part of a

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gym that I have now chosen to leave. But

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there was just such, this atmosphere of pushing

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ourselves and competition. And I attempted

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to race in this running race

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uphill to the top of a mountain, and it

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caused me extreme chest pain for

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a week afterwards. And you helped me

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understand the role of oxidative stress and

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its impact on the heart. Yeah, that was a tough

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learning moment for me. I think it's not talks

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about enough. Right? When you're an athlete, you want to push, you want to push,

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you want to push. And a lot of times, people also had this

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notion, well, I am an athlete, so I have a strong heart. You

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know, I can do all of this. So my heart's strong. And

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being an athlete and exercising is awesome

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for heart health. It is really good for strengthening the heart

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muscle, allowing for good blood flow. I fully support it.

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But what a lot of times, people are not pairing and understanding

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is that it is a stressor on the body, and it promotes

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particularly oxidative stress, which is stress in the

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cell that can actually make ldl become

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oxidized and start the atherosclerotic process.

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In research, we see that athletes have an increased

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risk of coronary artery calcification. They have an increased

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risk of having fibrosis, a thickening of the heart

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muscle. And a lot of it comes to play, where

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nutrition is not properly paired with exercise. And

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so I spend a lot of time in all of my work together, whether someone

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is sedentary or very active to understand the role

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of physical activity and the importance of pairing

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proper nutrition with exercise to combat

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oxidative stress. I want to take a step back, though, for a second.

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I think oxidative stress sounds like a big science word

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and people are probably like, what is that? So I want to

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visualize it for you in a way. So, you know, when you open up, you

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cut open up an apple, you cut up open an avocado, you leave it on

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your counter. That causes browning, that

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causes oxidation. That's what happens in the

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cells in your artery wall when they're damaged.

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Ew. Yeah, but we can stop that. Have you

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ever taken, like a lemon and squeezed it over the

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apple or the avocado? Or if you've ever kind of paired it with a

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sulfur containing food, like an onion, you stop the

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oxidation. Why is that? Because those nutrients are

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needed in the glutathione pathway, which helps

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to combat oxidative stress before it even

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starts. So my point here is that

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we can't be looking at lifestyle components in

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silos. You can be an athlete, but if you don't pair

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nutrition with it, you're not going to get the best benefit you're going to. You

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can still have oxidative stress if you eat well, you have

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a heart healthy diet, you exercise, but your sleep is not

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good. You have sleep apnea that's not controlled, you're going to have more oxidative

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stress. Your body is struggling to recover from

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the. From actual good sleep quality. You know, when you're awake,

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your body is working, it's creating free radicals. It's

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in an oxidative stress kind of standpoint, your sleep is

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restorative. It helps to actually boost your antioxidant

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defense system. So if we don't have good sleep hygiene, we aren't

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getting the nutrients in our diet. That helps to promote

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melatonin production. That's also going to increase oxidative

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stress. So I want to bring this component

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up because we can do something about it, but we have to be

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intentional. If I have many individuals who want

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to continue their athlete journey, and I support that, it's part of their

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identity. As long as you're breathing through it, you're not spiking

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up your blood pressure in the moments of those, and you're not over pushing

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yourself, you can still do the things that you love to do from an exercise

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standpoint, but you must pair nutrition with it, and you must be

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fueling your body pre and post to support your

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heart health alongside it. So we need specific

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antioxidants, we need specific proteins, we need specific

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carbohydrates to help replenish our storage and

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to help combat oxidative stress. And when you have heart disease

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alongside of it, oxidative stress can be increased. And

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so the levels of the antioxidant pathways, like the

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glutathione pathway, like the sod pathway,

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the superoxide dismutase pathway, these pathways help

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to really boost our antioxidant load, and they require

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nutrients that we can get through our food supply. So that's what we want to

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focus on. And that's a big part of the puzzle that I think is not

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talked about enough and really should be. Wow. And

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we don't need to rely on a trap.

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As an athlete myself, a trap I have fallen

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into is all the different recovery

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drinks. Mm hmm. And the pro. And you and I have talked

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at length about protein sources, like all these different protein

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powders and the recovery drinks and the. During athletic,

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you know, during cycling and prior, like, there's like all

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this marketing. So marketing. Oh, my gosh, the

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marketing. So those are considered supplements.

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You know, you think about a protein powder, you think about an

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electrolyte powder, recovery powder, you think it's food. It's not.

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It's actually a supplement. So it's not, as regulated. Consumer

Speaker: 00:10:03

labs finds high levels of arsenic lead in a lot of these

Speaker: 00:10:07

foods, but they're also ultra processed. There was a

Speaker: 00:10:10

study that looked at individuals who are following the mediterranean diet,

Speaker: 00:10:14

the vegan diet, all these different diets for heart health, and they were looking

Speaker: 00:10:18

at the level of ultra processed foods they were consuming. And this wasn't

Speaker: 00:10:22

like your yodels and your junk food. This was actually like anything

Speaker: 00:10:26

that was defined by the Nova scale. So the nova scale kind

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of looks at the degree of processing. So protein powders,

Speaker: 00:10:33

electrolyte powders, that all would go into that group. And

Speaker: 00:10:37

they found that it elevated a inflammatory marker called

Speaker: 00:10:40

cystatin C that causes plaque to rupture.

Speaker: 00:10:44

And those individuals had a higher risk of another heart attack

Speaker: 00:10:47

within five years from their previous one because of the high

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levels of ultra processed foods in their diet. Not to say you have to

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have no ultra processed foods or no convenience items. You can

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have convenience items, but you can get a good

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recovery drink, a good recovery drink, a good recovery

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meal with real food. And that's what you should be really focusing

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on. Because instead of the recovery drink. Exactly.

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Okay. You know, there are some ones that are better than others, but from a

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convenience component of it, we really want to avoid the high

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machinery foods that add a lot of extra things that our body

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does not need, and we need to really take a step back. I always

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say, you also have to understand that if you're on any heart

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medications, a lot of those can actually interfere with the heart

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medications, too. So you should bring all of these to the attention

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of your cardiac dietitian, to the attention of your doctor, so that

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they can do a thorough evaluation to make sure it's not causing any

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harm. But potential benefit supplements are one of those topics where

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everyone wants that magic pill. They want the marketing to actually be

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true. It's hard not to trust it. And so I'm not saying that it's

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easy, but I do believe that you should get a third look on it.

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So in my group program, in my one on one program, I say, hey, show

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me everything. And usually I'll give you a whole explanation of why I

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like it, why I don't like it, who it's good for, who it's not good

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for. If you're on this medication, don't take it. So you understand

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why. Why would I? I'm not just gonna say no. I'm not just

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gonna say yes. I'm gonna give you an explanation because that puts an

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empowered approach to what you're eating into your diet that's gonna help your

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heart versus cause any potential harm. And you've been great

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with that for me. Cause I'll show you something that I've taken in the

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past or currently taking. And what you do is you just immediately go to the

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website and you can just tell me right then and there, this is good. This

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is not good. This is why. And, yeah, it just helps. It

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helps it stick. If we humans, we need to

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know the why behind things. Our nervous system needs to know.

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I'd also just like to. I'd love how you just said, like, it's hard.

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Like, when there's. We're. When we're. When we are wanting just to feel

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better, when we want to lose the weight, when we want to get back to,

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like, who we were before our heart event. It

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is so easy to fall victim

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to marketing that promises you

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the world, like, that you can get back to that weight,

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that performance metric. I've fallen for it.

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And I give myself grace for that. Because when you go through

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heart surgery, it's so epic, it is so traumatic

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and so life impacting. I

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know I have had days where I'm just so forlorn

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and feeling out of hope, like, no hope.

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And, oh, but if I just take this supplement. If I, you know,

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I just get it. And I just want to, like, normalize that for people. It's,

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and it's a shame that, like, the marketing industry, I don't want to

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be so accusatory, but I mean, I know I have felt victim of

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the. Marketing industry, so not to, it's hard not

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to. And you know what? I like to also say that it's

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good to have a plan. So a lot of my clients first come to me

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and they're like, I'm scared to take my blood pressure. If it's high, what's going

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to happen? And I go, but we're going to have a plan together. So when

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you're ready, you'll take your blood pressure because it's an important metric to follow.

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And if it's high, then we'll add this to your diet. If

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we know every day at 02:00 p.m. you have a stressful meeting, we can add

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this to your diet half an hour before, and we can find things within what

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you like to eat to help with opening up the arteries and allowing for better

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blood flow. We have an action plan. So I think that idea of,

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okay, I need to take something to know that I'm doing better for my heart

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can be applied to how you nourish your body, can be applied to how you

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talk to yourself. It can be applied to how you move your body,

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how you present yourself and prioritize your health.

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Those are ways that we can take that. Okay, I am a

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heart patient, but it doesn't mean I don't have the power to control my day

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to day. And I want to really push that idea of,

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hey, you can control more than you

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think, but you need to have that mindset to say, I'm going to

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do something positive for myself today. I'm going to nourish my

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body and then also connect. Wow. When I nourished my body,

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when I prioritized my health, I had more energy, I felt

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better. I was not short of breath. I felt all of these

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amazing things because when you recognize the link, you're

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going to do it more and more. And so that leads to the longevity

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plan of a heart healthy lifestyle. Because you feel

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good when you nourish your body, you feel good when you give

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and prioritize your health because you need it in order to

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do the other things that you love to do. I love that. And

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a nugget I'd like to leave everyone with today that Michelle

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taught me a few weeks ago is make it a good

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day? Like, don't just say, oh, have a good day. No,

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like, we. We have a choice on for

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the most part. I mean, unless, like, there's a planet in retrograde or

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whatever. But, like, like, we have the choice

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of making it a great day. We choose our attitudes,

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we choose what we put into our bodies on a day to day basis

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and just start with one meal a day. Just take those

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smaller steps. Cause you are so worthy

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of good health. You are worth it. All

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right, so come back for our last

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installment of this incredible series with Michelle

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next week. Thank you for being along on this ride. Be

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sure to find her. I will have all the ways to get in touch with

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her in the show notes she is offering. Michelle, real quickly, you

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want to just talk about your course that you are offering

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up in November? Sure. Yeah. So I do a six

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week heart optimization group program. I call it optimize. And it

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is a six week live cohort where I do it

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live. And this is going to be my 18th time that I'm doing it live

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because of the sense of community. It gives you access to

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ask me questions. It gives you access to really understand

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what's going on in your blood vessels and what can we do about it.

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So every week, for six consecutive weeks in this lecture

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series, it's actually seven weeks. Cause we skip over the American

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Thanksgiving holiday in terms of a lecture. But you still have access to

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me. And we really dive deep into these understandings

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of inflammation, endothelial dysfunction,

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oxidative stress, lipid optimization,

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micronutrient deficiencies, really focusing

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in on the underlying root causes of heart disease and what can we

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do about it? Right, so you have to understand what's going on.

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Then you have to take an understanding of, okay, how do I know if that's

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happening in my body? What are the signs, what are the labs? And then

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what can I do about it? Through science based nutrition and lifestyle medicine, what's

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the why? So it really gives you all that knowledge,

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but I also want you to implement it. So I give you easy

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ways to implement this into your diethyde. And then we

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keep building on each week. And so you have access to ask me

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questions. You are starting your knowledge journey, but

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also really implementing it, so you're getting good results. So

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I just. It's such a great community that comes together. Everyone has heart

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like related goals, everyone screened before they join.

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And it's just a lovely cohort. I love doing it. They're also recorded.

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So if you can't meet the live lectures that are scheduled on Fridays at

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00 p.m. eastern Standard Time. Don't worry, you can always watch

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the recording. You can ask questions anonymously to the Google form,

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or you can ask in the open community forum where I'm always

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accessible to you. So everyone is really great in past

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cohorts of sharing what they're doing, sharing supplements, sharing just questions

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that they want to know, sharing anything that's helpful to

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them. And everyone's learning together. So you're learning from other people's

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questions and you have your own questions that are piggybacking off other people's

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questions. So the cohort is just a really supportive place to

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be and it helps you take action and take

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an empowered approach in your heart health to really understand and build

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your confidence on what's a truly heart healthy diet so that you can live a

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long and thriving life. I love the cohort. If you want more information,

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you'll put it down in the show notes as well. Yep. Awesome. Thanks for

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that. All right, one more Tuesday to go, so

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be sure to come back for one last nugget from

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Michelle next week. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks so much.