People who eat a vegetarian diet have less heart disease compared to people who eat meat. Andreas Moritz explains what makes meat a leading cause of health problems. Raena Morgan: There are actually studies that show vegetarians have less heart disease than carnivores. Andreas Moritz: Absolutely. And that’s not necessarily because of the fats. Initially, many years ago, people were told avoid fats like butter. RM: Saturated fats. AM: Yes. And they then introduced margarine, which in fact turned out to be the worst thing for the heart. So refined hydrogenated vegetable oils are now a leading cause of heart disease, and they got that. Then they thought cholesterol is caused by fat,- RM: The big villain. AM: -so they banned fat from the diet and they found that backfired too. So fat is not- if it’s healthy fat, they have nothing to do with heart disease. In fact, coconut oil, which they banned in the early years and replaced with margarines, that turned out to be a great protector for heart disease. So it helps with heart disease. Olive oil is a great protector of heart disease. That’s why in the Mediterranean diet they use a lot of olive oil, they have very low incidence or used to have- until they started overeating protein as well,- RM: Okay. AM: -that they had very, very, very low incidence of heart disease. So fats are really out of the equation except the harmful fats, which can definitely cause heart problems. The protein factor, when you eat meat and you heat it you . . .

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