Eating unhealthy fats increases your risk of cardiovascular disease, including development of blood clots, while eating healthy fats improves your cardiovascular health. Medications can treat blood clots, preventing complications and even a fatality. Although it is unlikely, one meal containing high amounts of unhealthy fat may increase your risk of a blood clot, particularly if your arteries already have a buildup of plaque. Consult your doctor about your diet and risk of blood clots.
Blood Clots
Blood clots are clumps of hardened blood inside your arteries or veins that partially or completely block blood flow. There are two types of blood clots. A thrombus is a blood clot that stays where it was formed in your blood vessel or heart. An embolus is a thrombus that breaks away and travels in the blood to a different location, such as your lungs or brain. Blood clots can cause ischemia, a condition characterized by blockage of blood flow and oxygen from reaching tissue in that location, increasing your risk of tissue damage or death.
Unhealthy Fat
Unhealthy fats include saturated fat and trans fat. Saturated fat is found in animal products, including red meat, poultry, pork, seafood and whole-milk dairy products, such as milk, ice cream and cheese. Saturated fat increases blood levels of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, the “bad” cholesterol, and elevates your risk of cardiovascular disease. A healthy diet minimizes intake of saturated fat or limits it to less than 7 percent of your total calories. Trans fat, including hydrogenated vegetable oils, are industrially produced for use in processed foods, such as margarine, breads, cakes and snack foods and fried foods. Trans fat is favorable for food manufacturers and restaurants because it extends the shelf life of processed foods and withstands repeated heating for frying high-volume fast foods. Trans fat is even worse for your cardiovascular health than saturated fat because it increases LDL cholesterol and decreases HDL cholesterol, the “good” cholesterol.
Causes of Blood Clots
Atherosclerosis causes blood clots. Atherosclerosis is characterized by a buildup of fats that causes plaque in and on your artery walls that blocks blood flow. Plaque causes blood clots when a piece breaks away and becomes lodged somewhere else in the vessel. Atherosclerosis can occur anywhere in your body, but often affects your coronary arteries. Increased blood levels of LDL cholesterol increases your risk of plaque development.
High Fat Meal
Eating one meal that contains saturated fat can cause a blood clot. Scientists at the Heart Research Institute in Sydney, Australia, discovered one meal containing saturated fat inhibits the ability of HDL cholesterol to reduce inflammation in the artery, resulting in reduced blood flow, according to research published in the "Journal of the American College of Cardiology" in August 2006. Inhibiting HDL cholesterol reduces your body’s ability to protect the arteries from promotion of plaque that clogs the blood vessels; that, in turn, increases your risk of blood clots.
References
- Harvard School of Public Health; Fats and Cholesterol: Out with the Bad, in with the Good; 2010
- MedlinePlus; Blood Clots; June 22 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Arteriosclerosis / Atherosclerosis; June 23 2010
- "Journal of the American College of Cardiology"; Consumption of Saturated Fat Impairs the Anti-Inflammatory Properties of High-Density Lipoproteins and Endothelial Function; Stephen Nicholls, et al.; Aug 15 2006
- Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; Think Again before Eating High-Fat Meal Saturated Fat; August 2006
