Blood Pressure & Health

Fast food chains and restaurants should provide a side-order of statin drugs free of charge so that customers can neutralise the unhealthy effects of burgers, chips and other fatty food, experts said yesterday.

Unhealthy Eating

Researchers from Imperial College London said that taking a low dose-statin — a pill designed to lower cholesterol — could offset the increased risk of a heart attack after eating a cheeseburger and a milkshake.

Unhealthy Food

Although the drugs don’t cut out the health risks of fatty foods completely, they could be offered in fast-food restaurants alongside unhealthy condiments such as ketchup and mayonnaise, the researchers suggest.

But the British Heart Foundation warned that the drugs should not be considered a “magic bullet” against the risk of heart attacks and strokes, which kill about 140,000 Britons a year.

Darrel Francis, who led the latest research at the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial, said: “Statins don’t cut out all of the unhealthy effects of burgers and fries. It’s better to avoid fatty food altogether.

“But we’ve worked out that in terms of your likelihood of having a heart attack, taking a statin can reduce your risk to more or less the same degree as a fast food meal increases it.”

The number of British adults taking cholesterol-lowering statins has doubled to six million in the past five years despite concerns that they are being over-used and have unpleasant side-effects.

Mostly the drugs are prescribed by a doctor, to patients at particular risk of a heart attack or stroke, to reduce the amount of unhealthy “LDL” cholesterol in the blood.

But one statin, simvastatin, is already available in low doses (10mg) over the counter at pharmacies without a prescription. Doctors are divided on the benefits of the drugs for otherwise healthy people, however.

The Imperial College researchers point out that the cost of the tablets has fallen sharply in recent years, from about £40 a month to £1.50 a month.

Dr Francis said yesterday that it was “ironic” that people are free to take as many unhealthy condiments in fast food outlets as they like, “but statins, which are beneficial to heart health, have to be prescribed”.

“Everybody knows that fast food is bad for you, but people continue to eat it because it tastes good,” he said. “We’re genetically programmed to prefer high-calorie foods.

“It makes sense to make risk-reducing supplements available just as easily as the unhealthy condiments that are provided free of charge. It would cost less than 5p per customer — not much different to a sachet of ketchup.”

Previous research has shown a clear link between total fat intake and blood cholesterol, which is strongly linked to heart disease. Recent evidence suggests that trans fats, which are found in high levels in fast food, are the component of the Western diet that is most dangerous in terms of heart disease risk.

In a study to be published in the American Journal of Cardiology this week, Dr Francis and colleagues analysed data from a large cohort study to quantify how a person’s heart attack risk increases with their daily intake of total fat and trans fat.

They compared this with the decrease in risk from various statins, based on a meta-analysis of seven randomised controlled trials.

The results showed that most statin regimes are able to compensate for the relative risk increase from eating a cheeseburger and a small milkshake.

“When people engage in risky behaviours like driving or smoking, they’re encouraged to take measures that minimise their risk, like wearing a seatbelt or choosing cigarettes with filters,” Dr Francis added. “Taking a statin is a rational way of lowering some of the risks of eating a fatty meal.”

A very small proportion of regular statin users experience significant side effects, with problems in the liver and kidneys reported in between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 10,000 people.

The Imperial researchers said statins have among the best safety profiles of any medication, but they said studies should be conducted to assess the potential risks of allowing people to take statins freely, without medical supervision.

A warning on the packet could emphasise that no tablet can substitute for a healthy diet, and advise people to consult their doctor for more advice, Dr Francis said.

However, the idea has practical drawbacks, including that restaurants or food chains may require a license from medicines regulators before they could distribute medication.

Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation added: “The suggestion that the harmful effects of a junk food meal might be erased by taking a cholesterol-lowering statin tablet should not be taken literally,” he said.

“A junk food diet has a wealth of unhealthy consequences beyond raising cholesterol. It can cause high blood pressure through too much salt, or obesity through eating meals loaded with calories. These are all risk factors for life-threatening health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke.

“Statins are a vital medicine for people with — or at high risk of developing — heart disease. They are not a magic bullet.”

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Are You Eating Too Much Salt

Almost everyone eats too much salt and this can have grave consequences on out health.  Salt has been shown to raise blood pressure readings increasing the risk of stroke and heart disease.

Q. I worry that I eat too much salt. How do I wean myself off it while still enjoying my food — and making sure I get enough salt for good health?

A. We need only 1.4g of salt a day to keep body fluids balanced, allow nerves and muscles to work properly and to stay in good health. Given that the average Brit eats about 9g a day, a deficiency is the least of your worries.

So how do you cut down to 6g a day, a level that experts say will help to lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke and improve bone and kidney health? The first approach is to go cold turkey, swapping all salty versions of foods for those with much less. For example, having two Shredded Wheat, which contain no salt, in place of a 50g bowl of Special K will save 1g, having a couple of crispbreads (with just a trace of salt) instead of a 22g pack of sour cream and chives rice cakes another 0.6g, and having home cooked lean mince instead of a burger another 1.9g. Within a couple of weeks, your taste buds should be accustomed to low-salt eating.

The easier approach is to wean yourself off more gradually, particularly if you are trying to change your family’s habits too. A good place to start is by understanding where our salt intake comes from. Most, 35 per cent, is from foods such as bread and breakfast cereals. This always surprises me as you would think that things such as crisps were bigger contributors, but we tend to eat breakfast cereals and bread more regularly and in biggish amounts, hence the larger contribution.

The food industry has been lowering salt in bread and breakfast cereals, so cutting back is getting easier. Also, some brands have less than others. Two Oatibix, for example, have 0.2g compared with 0.5g for a 50g bowl of Shreddies.

Generally, bran flakes, high-fibre bran cereals, fruit and fibre, frosted cereals and cereal hoops have a lot more salt than porridge, salt-free muesli, puffed wheat and Shredded Wheat-type cereals.

With bread, opt for loaves with less than 1.1g of salt per 100g (0.4g per slice) and remember that speciality breads, such as ciabatta, olive and sundried tomato, tend to contain the most salt.

Meat products such as bacon, burgers and sausages supply 26 per cent of our salt, 9 per cent comes from products such as ready-made salads, vegetable dishes and chips, and 8 per cent from milk and milk products, such as cheese.

When it comes to meat and fish, plain cuts are virtually salt free while those made into products such as kievs, ready meals and pies or that have been smoked will be high in salt. If you are a cheese- lover, ricotta, Cheshire and Wensleydale are usually lower than Feta, Roquefort, cheese strings and cheese spreads.

The rest of our salt comes from home cooking and the salt we add at the table. Cutting back requires discipline and making the most of spices. Add cinnamon and honey to roast carrots, or a dash of lemon juice and black pepper to steamed vegetables. Use more plants, flowers, herbs and spices, such as ginger, garlic and chilli, in cooking and opt for balsamic vinegar instead of other salad dressings to make your salt-lowering ambitions more palatable.

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