I used to write for the San Francisco Chronicle, an entire page one day a month. I loved it. One day my editor, Michael Bauer, called me in and said he had two comments; 1) “Your most recent article was fabulous and, 2) You’re fired!”

What happened?

This was in the early 1980’s. I had just written an in-depth, well-cited study about the upcoming epidemic of diabetes. I wrote how sugar, and even the avalanche of hidden sugar, was putting us at risk of many other health problems including depression, anxiety, cognition and heart health. Sounds right on, yes?

Turned out that C & H Sugar was a major advertiser in the San Francisco Chronicle. The company demanded my resignation.

Fast forward to 2015. This year showed us that sugar hurts the heart more than salt. Even the American Heart Association has said that they were wrong. In fact studies now show that some conditions like heart failure are worsened on lower salt diets.
Salt is not heart’s enemy. It’s sugar.

Today we have yet another study putting yet another nail in the salt coffin and pointing an accusing finger at sugar.
Viet Le, MPAS, PA-C, a researcher with Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, and colleagues gave results (at the American Heart Association 2015
Scientific Sessions, November 8th) documenting that heart attack patients showing up in ERs fared better if blood sugar levels were tested and treated, than if they weren’t.

Close to 6000 patients treated for MI between 2002 and 2013 were examined. If blood sugar was borderline or high and they were treated for it, over time their heart health improved. If their blood sugar was high and not treated, they had 1.5 times increased issue for another major heart event within a year after the first one.

If the blood sugar was addressed, this increase risk was completely nullified!!!

Moral of the story: don’t give sugary chocolates for Valentine’s day, give xylitol or stevia sweetened ones, if you want to care take your beloved’s heart.

What blood levels say your heart health is at serious heart attack risk?

1) A fasting glucose of at least 126 mg/dL and

2) A HbA1C (3–month read out of average red blood cell sugar) of at 6.5% or

more.

THIS MEANS THAT YOUR BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS (FASTING AND HA!C) ARE MORE IMPORTANT INDICATORS—MOST OF THE TIME—THAN YOUR CHOLESTEROL. NUTRITIONISTS HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR DECADES.