Everyday food that's 'destroying your heart' according to top surgeon
Ben Williams
Featured Image Credit: magicmine/Getty Images
A heart surgeon has issued a warning over foods he says are quietly putting people at risk long before they ever end up needing an operating room.
While many of us know the usual advice when it comes to heart health, such as cutting down on takeaways as part of your diet, watching salt intake, and not living entirely off beige freezer food — one expert has claimed the issue may be hiding in much more ordinary places.
Dr Philip Ovadia, who says he has carried out more than 3,000 heart surgeries, explained that some items found in most people’s kitchens could be contributing to the sort of damage he sees during operations.
Rather than pointing the finger at red meat or saturated fat, he said highly processed carbohydrates are the everyday foods people should be paying closer attention to.
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In his YouTube video, the surgeon said: “This food drives insulin resistance, triggers chronic inflammation, and is slowly destroying your heart.”
Dr Ovadia claimed he can often see the impact inside the body, describing plaque that is ‘soft, unstable, and highly inflammatory’ and can suddenly rupture and block an artery.
He also described ‘hard, calcified plaque’ which can slowly restrict blood supply over time.
According to him, the problem comes down to several key factors, including insulin resistance, chronic high blood sugar, inflammation, and visceral fat.
He added: “I don't just mean candy and soda,” before listing a number of foods he believes people should cut out completely.
Those foods included white bread, bagels, breakfast cereals, crackers, pasta, crisps, granola bars, flavoured yogurt, fruit juice, instant oatmeal, and most wholegrain packaged products.
That means some of the items many people reach for at breakfast, lunch, or as a supposedly sensible snack could be among those he is warning against.
Dr Ovadia continued: “Even foods marketed as healthy, like low-fat granola, whole wheat bread, and rice cakes, are loaded with these refined carbs.
“These foods spike your blood sugar and your insulin repeatedly, they promote chronic inflammation, they drive visceral fat storage.
“And they create exactly the inflammatory environment that turns into that soft, unstable plaque I see causing heart attacks every week in the operating room.”
His advice is to swap heavily processed carbohydrates for what he describes as ‘real whole foods’, including vegetables, animal proteins, and healthy fats in their natural form.
The warning comes amid growing concern around ultra-processed foods more broadly, with fellow heart surgeon Dr Jeremy London also previously advising people to avoid products full of additives and artificial ingredients.
He suggested staying away from foods ‘your grandmother wouldn’t have’ had in her kitchen.
The NHS lists heart attack symptoms as including a crushing or squeezing chest pain which may spread to the arm, neck, or jaw, shortness of breath, sickness, indigestion-like discomfort, sweating, and pale, blue, or grey skin.