Aug. 29, 2016 07:55 UTC

If you were told to eat butter, coconut oil and olive oil every day as part of your heart-healthy diet, what would you think?

Like most, you’d probably think it’s a crazy suggestion. After all, we’ve been indoctrinated for years on end that we should avoid fat for a healthy heart. However, according to cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, the nutrition facts we’ve all been led to believe are wrong.

Adopting a Mediterranean diet after suffering a heart attack is actually more powerful than aspirin, statins and even heart stents.- Aseem Malhotra

“As part of a heart-healthy diet, I advise my cardiac patients to enjoy full-fat cheese, along with olive oil and vegetables,” Malhotra told the New York Times. Malhotra also recommends enjoying meat and eggs, including the yolks.

According to the New York Times report, “the dangers of high cholesterol are overstated.” A fact that has now been widely recognized.

The American Dietary Guidelines Committee removed the concern about cholesterol in the new dietary guidelines released in 2015, stating that:

“Previously, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended that cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg/day. The 2015 DGAC will not bring forward this recommendation because available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol…cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”

Malhotra is also a researcher with published works in various medical journals on topics including cholesterol, heart disease, physician responsibility in cardiology, healthy eating, saturated fat, sugar and much more.

Malhotra is not the only doctor to embark on this crusade to promote a higher fat diet. Other doctors include American cardiovascular expert, Steven E. Nissen; American pediatric endocrinologist, Robert Lustig; Swedish expert, Andreas Eenfeldt; British dietitian, Trudi Deakin; American heart surgeon, Dwight Lundell, American endocrinologist, David Ludwig; Australian anaesthetist, Rod Tayler; American brain specialist, David Perlmutter; American obesity specialist, Sarah Hallberg, British obesity expert Zoe Harcombe and many more.

One of the key messages many of these doctors are pushing is that sugar and excess carbohydrates are the number one enemy of heart disease, not fat.

If for some reason saturated fats may still seem like a stretch to you, there is nothing to fear in consuming vegetable sources of fat, as most research confirms that polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are the best heart-healthy fats to consume. For instance, among other research, olive oil has been shown to protect against coronary artery disease and reduce the risk of  cardiac events events.

As Malhotra stated: “I tell my heart patients that adopting a Mediterranean diet after suffering a heart attack is actually more powerful than aspirin, statins and even heart stents,” he said. “I’m not saying these treatments aren’t beneficial — they are. But the lifestyle changes are even more powerful, and without the side effects.”