{"id":831675,"date":"2026-08-31T07:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T07:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/831675\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T07:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T07:38:14","slug":"a-cardiologist-rule-for-healthy-eating-is-avoiding-this-food-nbc-7-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/831675\/","title":{"rendered":"A cardiologist rule for healthy eating is avoiding this food \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

People worried about their heart health<\/a> must often change their diet<\/a> to lose weight, get blood sugar under control and lower cholesterol levels.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the best way to eat to prevent heart disease?<\/p>\n

Dr. James Stone, a cardiologist at the South Heart Clinic in Harlingen, Texas, calls dieting \u201cthe biggest mental warfare we\u2019ve ever been taught\u201d because many of his patients think they have to eat low-calorie, low-fat meals that aren\u2019t satisfying \u2014 an eating regimen that can\u2019t be sustained, he says.<\/p>\n

The doctor is less concerned about fats and calories than one particular group of foods.<\/p>\n

Heart health tip of the day: Limit high-starch white foods<\/p>\n

Stone defines this as added sugar, excess salt, white bread, white rice, white flour and white pasta.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have one rule: I don\u2019t touch white. Everything I eat is fruits, nuts, proteins, vegetables. And there are only three liquids: water, black coffee, unsweetened tea,\u201d Stone tells TODAY.com<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople get confused. Like, \u2018OK, doc, don\u2019t eat white \u2014 not even eggs or cauliflower?\u2019 That\u2019s not what I\u2019m talking about. I\u2019m talking about the high-starch foods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why it matters<\/p>\n

A\u00a0diet high in added sugar<\/a>\u00a0raises the risk of high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, cancer and premature death, a\u00a0review of studies<\/a>\u00a0found.<\/p>\n

Eating too much added sugar can also contribute to health problems such as weight gain, obesity and Type 2 diabetes, the\u00a0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>\u00a0notes.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0bit of salt<\/a>\u00a0is necessary for good health, but most Americans consume too much.\u00a0Excess salt<\/a>\u00a0can cause water retention, increasing blood volume and putting extra pressure on the arteries, says registered dietitian Natalie Rizzo, nutrition editor for TODAY.<\/p>\n

Refined grains, like white rice or white bread, are\u00a0missing parts of the whole grain<\/a>, she adds, a process that removes about a quarter of the protein and at least half of the nutrients, like antioxidants and fiber, according to the\u00a0Whole Grains Council<\/a>. Refined carbs are digested quickly, leading to a blood sugar spike, registered dietitian Samantha Cassetty\u00a0notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

People should \u201cprioritize fiber-rich whole grains and significantly reduce the consumption of highly processed, refined carbohydrates that displace real nourishment,\u201d the\u00a0Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2025-2030)<\/a>\u00a0advise.<\/p>\n

Eating whole grains, rather than refined grains, can help prevent cardiovascular disease, a\u00a0review of studies<\/a>\u00a0found.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at your plate. (If) you see white bread, pasta, rice, flour, sugar, salt, you\u2019re in a bad way. You\u2019re going to slowly get diabetes and come to a cardiologist, and we\u2019re going to have issues,\u201d Stone says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

How to get started<\/p>\n

Fill your diet with whole foods, Stone advises.<\/p>\n

That means natural, unprocessed or minimally processed foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, meats, eggs, whole grains, beans, dairy and seafood, according to the\u00a0Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2025-2030)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These foods are full of nutrients and often provide fiber, including soluble fiber, which can help\u00a0lower LDL cholesterol<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also look for color, choosing a vibrant orange\u00a0sweet potato over a white potato<\/a>, for example, Stone advises.<\/p>\n

The pigments in fruits or vegetables signal plant compounds that have \u201cpowerful antioxidant activity,\u201d\u00a0researchers note<\/a>. Of course, there are plenty of whole foods that have a white color and are highly nutritious such as cauliflower, onions, fennel, garlic and many more.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of years ago, humans walked everywhere; ate fruits, nuts and vegetables; and occasionally ate meat if they were able to hunt it, Stone points out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how we were engineered to be. What happened is we got lost, and we started eating white,\u201d the cardiologist says.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop eating white. That\u2019s my rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story first\u00a0appeared on TODAY.com<\/a>. More from TODAY:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People worried about their heart health must often change their diet to lose weight, get blood sugar under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[65202,97,682,269],"class_list":["post-831675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-diet-exercise","tag-health","tag-health-wellness","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}