Your Stupid Gut Wants to Kill Your Dumb Heart

Maybe you want to hold off on having that Burger King delivered to your home (it’s a thing now, lord help us), because your gut’s lust for garbage meats might be breaking your health nut heart.

In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that when gut bacteria feasts on foods like meat and eggs, they produce a compound that might increase your risk of heart disease.

Participants in the study with high levels of the compound, called trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), in their blood were 2.5 times more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or to die over a three-year period compared with those with low levels of the compound. Even among people with no traditional risk factors for heart disease, high levels of TMAO were linked with an increased risk of these cardiovascular events.

Obviously a billion further studies are needed before anyone actually finds credence in these claims — and even then, bacon freaks aren’t turning their back on their beloved dead animal products just because of silly heart disease.

Of course, experts are urging common sense rules when it comes to dealing with foods that are high and fat in cholesterol, and blah blah blah. Which you already do (or don’t!) because a study like this comes out every five minutes. Bon Appetit!