The American Heart Association (AHA) released a report on April 27, 2023, ranking the most common US diets regarding heart health. The report shocked Americans and worried doctors. Paleo and Keto diets scraped the bottom of the list, ranking as the least heart-healthy diets. Americans and doctors had praised ketosis diets since 2015 when it seemed like the newest and most effective way to lose weight and feel good. On the Keto and Paleo diets, you try to limit carbs and sugars while gorging on fats. This way, your body burns fat as fuel instead of sugar. Because your body burns fat, you appear to lose weight which most Americans equate to healthiness. However, these high-fat diets could be more damaging to your health than we ever imagined.

The AHA’s report ranked various US diets based on their guidelines and criteria for heart-healthy eating. Their criteria follow ten significant points, including getting protein from plants, limiting fats, and eating various fruits and vegetables. You may see the contradiction here. On Ketogenic diets, most protein comes from animal sources, you consume primarily fats, and you limit most fruits to reduce your natural sugar intake. Therefore, because Keto and Paleo miss AHA’s significant criteria, they couldn’t rank at the top of their recommendations. But why does it matter? If you are losing weight and feel good, who cares if the diet doesn’t work for doctors?

In a national obesity crisis, Americans have learned to equate thin to healthy and fat to sick. The problem with this viewpoint is that the human body is never that simple. While obesity can be caused by eating high amounts of sugar and fat, someone who appears thin could still be sick. Recently, doctors have been able to use Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines to scan the body for fat. Many clinics have seen an increase in obesity rates among people who appear to be skinny. This includes an increase in fatty tissue and organs. One organ in particular that doctors have noticed to be fatty is the heart. This uptick in unhealthy heart cases has alerted the AHA and prompted them to conduct their heart-healthy diet study. They quickly found a correlation between the amount of protein derived from animals and the chance of developing heart disease. In short, if you want to kill your heart, eat animal products and high-fat foods.