By the way, doctor: Can even one fatty meal cause heart problems?
But we're not quite off the hook. Most cases of sudden cardiac death and nonfatal heart attacks occur because blood flow through a coronary artery (the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle) gets blocked suddenly. While atherosclerosis surely contributes to most of these cases, another factor is the tendency of the diseased artery to go into spasm, clamping down so that little if any blood can get through. And there's some evidence that the tendency for arteries to go into spasm is increased for a few hours after people eat a meal heavy in saturated fats.
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