Asparagus soup

May 24, 2011 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

Asparagus is a member of the lily family. They are one of nature’s most perfect foods, containing no fat or cholesterol. Asparagus provides a good source of potassium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin A, thiamin and folic…

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Health Benefits of Pumpkin

May 6, 2011 · Posted in diets to lower cholesterol · Comment 

Pumpkins provide excellent nutrition especially pumpkin seeds which contains essential fatty acids, proteins, vitamin B and zinc. The actual flesh of the pumpkin contains Vitamin A and C, Calcium, Thiamine, Phosphorous and Potassium. Pumpkin keeps your whole body healthy by building your immunity. Eating pumpkins help to keep the skin and eyes healthy, plus there is a lot of dietary fiber in Pumpkin.

Pumpkin is one of the most nutritionally valuable foods known to man. Moreover, it’s inexpensive, available year round in canned form, incredibly easy to incorporate into recipes, high in fiber, low in calories, and packs an abundance of disease fighting nutrients.

Naturally when one thinks of Halloween you think of pumpkins. At this time of year we see pumpkins on every block and street corner. They are the season. Most people are not aware of the many nutritional benefits of pumpkin. They are extremely high in antioxidants and beta-carotene. Beta-carotene has been identified as a leading heart-disease and cancer fighter.

Pumpkins belong to the gourd family. Pumpkins, along with cantaloupe and squash, contain an ingredient called cucurbitacin. This powerful substance has been shown to help prevent or inhibit prostate cancer from growing. In addition, it is linked to prevention of urinary tract infections and other bladder problems like incontinence.

Pumpkin seeds benefits are many, amongst other things they are a very good source of the minerals phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, amino acids and zinc. Eating seeds will improve your nutrition. Seeds are also a good source of other minerals including zinc, iron and copper and a good source of protein Vitamin C and other nutrients, such as Niacin, Vitamin E, and vitamin K, Calcium, Iron and other vitamins, and are even said to lower cholesterol, improve bladder function, ease depression and prevent kidney stones.

Pumpkins are not just for making pumpkin pies and carving into scary faces at Halloween. In fact, there are lots of savory pumpkin recipes including classic pumpkin soup, pumpkin stew and you can even use this tasty squash family vegetable in salad recipes.

Pumpkin seeds have been found to help prevent against prostate gland enlargement due to the chemical substances called cucurbitacins it contains. The essential fatty acids in pumpkin seeds are also necessary for prostate health, and zinc (which pumpkin seeds are especially high in) is great for the reproductive systems and has been shown to reduce prostate size.

Pumpkins seeds also contain phyto-sterols, essential fatty acids (EFAs). These EFAs have many benefits that protect blood vessels, nerves, protect all tissue, including the skin, and they can help reduce cholesterol levels in the blood. The pumpkin seeds are high in protein, one ounce of seeds provides about seven grams of protein.

Pumpkin seeds can be eaten raw or cooked. When eaten as snacks of about 1/4 or 1/2 cup, it can deliver the goodness as mentioned above. Pumpkin seeds as synonymous to good health so make it a part of your regular diet by keeping some in the fridge in a tightly sealed container.

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People’s Pharmacy: Clearing up confusion about vitamin D intake

December 12, 2010 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

People’s Pharmacy answers queries on clearing up confusion about vitamin D intake; a recipe to combat cockroaches; and eating avocados to lower cholesterol.

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Nuritional Myths and Facts

October 29, 2010 · Posted in diets to lower cholesterol · Comment 

Nutritional Myths and Facts

You can get all the nutrition from your supermarket (or from the infamous four food groups).  If you believe this, you are a candidate to buy a piece of the Brooklyn Bridge.
 
First, let’s destroy that myth of the “four food groups”.  If that were indeed true, a meal at Burger King would be “nutritious”.  No serious observer believes this – but it has all 4 food groups.  Would you believe that this absurd FFF (four food fictions) is STILL being taught in medical schools and nutritionist courses in all too many colleges?  (Nutritionists are those wonderful people who give you those “delicious” meals in schools, prisons, and hospitals.  Need I say more about this?)

Next, why can’t we just eat healthy foods from our supermarket?  Need a few reasons?

 1.    Fruits and veggies are picked green and artificially ripened with chemicals.  These same fruits and veggies are sprayed with insecticides that are also deadly to us humans.  We do accumulate these, albeit slowly, and it takes additional nutrition to help our bodies get rid of these chemicals.

2.    Many growing areas in the US are overworked and many more are more than a bit deficient in minerals needed for nutrition, and taste.  You can easily prove this – just try growing your own tomatoes, or even getting them fresh from some of the local fruit stands.  Bite into it – If the juice and seeds don’t squirt 3-4 feet, it’s not really picked ripe.  AND THE TASTE!  Not at all the same as those blobs of red plastic you get from the supermarket.  In Florida, zinc has to be added to fertilizers to grow oranges.  Milk from Florida cows contain no zinc.

3.    Food animals are fed hormones to increase their weight. These hormones are illegal for athletes to use, but legal for farmers.  If that’s not bad enough, consider this – about half of all antibiotics in the US are used in food animals.  I lived in Puerto Rico some years back, and when I found out about the very high level of penicillin in the milk. my kids stopped getting milk.  Most of the cows there are tuberculin. Nice hey?

 This factor of antibiotic use in our food is one of the prime factors facing us with bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics.  Antibiotics are way overused and even abused by the medical profession as well as by food producers

In cows, pigs, and sheep, the hormones and antibiotics and other chemicals ingested by these animals is found largely in fatty tissues.   (From cows that browse along highways, high levels of lead – from lead additives to gas – were found.  This is why bone derived calcium is still not too good in the good old USA.). As we eat these meats, we get these chemicals as well.  How do we get rid of them – well, it takes extra vitamins and minerals to excrete them.

4.      Chickens are no longer the chickens our grandparents knew.  Now, they’re grown to “eating” size in a small cage, fed a “scientific” diet – not for nutrition – but for fastest growth.  This results in much more fat and much more chemical input in this fat.  When my wife and I were cruising around the Caribbean, and getting food in native markets, the difference in taste amazed us.  It was not only the chicken, but also the beef and pork.  It was often gotten from a shack with a dirt floor, and there were flies everywhere, but I know that it was much healthier (and tastier) for us than what we are now getting from our supermarket. The taste difference was marked, and the lack of fat was noticeable.

There have been many “disturbing” reports about cancerous growths and tumors in chicken and turkeys grown in these “factories”.  In addition, it seems that the automatic pluckers get chicken feces into the machinery, and both of these are passed on to us, the lucky (???) consumers.

5.    Any scientist or even any knowledgeable person in the US can tell you that our environment is being poisoned by the chemicals we are putting into it.  Our air, our water, and our soil are not even close to what it was 100 years ago.  All of these chemicals are getting into our bodies in ever increasing amounts, and it takes ever increasing amounts of vitamins and necessary minerals to excrete them.

6.    White bread and “Enriched” flour. This is one of the biggest jokes of all on us consumers.  When steel rollers were invented around the turn of the century, the wheat germ and the fiber casing were removed.  (It was then thought that fiber was not necessary to health because it wasn’t absorbed.  That’s just another scientific stupidity.)  This resulted in very white flour that was prettier and easier for housewives to use.  A couple of problems became apparent – the lack of several vitamins actually caused several deficiency diseases in people who were eating it.  Anemia and schizophrenia were probably the worst, but there were others.  The US government looked into it and decided that the wheat people had to add back a “few” items to reduce this problem.  So, they added back iron, and 3 of the B vitamins.  The advertising folks couldn’t admit that white bread had been “poisoning” the consumers, so they added the beautiful word “enriched” to this flour.  Isn’t advertising wonderful?  It sells garbage as good!

This “new” white flour removed over 40 vitamins and minerals very necessary to our health.  They added back in only minimum amounts of the 4 “most” needed ones.  That’s the equivalent of robbing a man of his clothes in a blizzard, and handing him back his tie, thereby “enriching” him! 

7.     Sugar and processed foods. In 1900, the average intake of sugar was about 5-6 pounds per year per person.  Today, that number is well above 200 pounds.  In that same 1900, there were few “processed foods”.  What was eaten was grown fairly near, and eaten in season.  Today, the supermarket is loaded with processed foods.  Just look at a few labels!! Read the list of the chemicals in almost every food on the shelf!

These are only the most important reasons for taking vitamin and mineral supplements.  Remember that to get rid of these accumulating chemicals, we need increasing amounts of vitamins and minerals, but because of some of the above factors, we are getting less and less.  Maybe, those people who lived in 1900 could get their nutritional needs better satisfied from their foods, but only a fool would believe it today.  (I doubt that they got enough either.)

Megavitamins are dangerous (and/or toxic).  More nonsense that simply isn’t true.  Of course, vitamin A in very huge doses can be toxic, but it’s pretty difficult to get that much vitamin A by accident.  Most adults can tolerate up to 25,000 IU per day for several days, and even if too much is taken over a long period, the symptoms are pretty clear and obvious (yellow skin, eyes, jaundice like).

 Some MD’s (without much vitamin knowledge) heard that B6 can cut down PMS symptoms, and prescribed it for patients.  Their patients came back after months with some different symptoms.  Then, some MD’s put out papers calling B6 “toxic”.  What every knowledgeable practitioner knows about the B complex is that it works together, and large amounts of any one MUST be balanced somewhat with a minimum of the rest.  Another case of not knowing enough!   Generally, you can take huge amounts of most B vitamins without any effects as long as you take sufficient amounts of the rest of the complex.  It’s much more dangerous to your health to take too much calcium or some of the other minerals.

Do you (and yours) need vitamin and mineral supplements? The answer is a resounding YES.  Just because you feel pretty healthy is no reason to forego them.  If you want to say healthy, you’ll get on them, and stay on them.  Remember this – You are what you eat.

Cholesterol Myths.  All the media hype about cholesterol makes it an “enemy”, which is just not so.  Cholesterol is a fat that’s a precursor to several hormones necessary to life.  As a matter of fact, sunlight on the skin changes cholesterol into vitamin D. So, without cholesterol, we’re in serious trouble.

So, if cholesterol is “good” what’s the entire hullabaloo about? Well, it seems that some researchers found that high levels of cholesterol in the blood correlate to high incidence of heart problems.  Also, artery plaque is composed of cholesterol (and other fats) along with calcium.  Many medical researchers immediately “jumped” to the conclusion that cholesterol was “bad”.  Lots of articles came out in various magazines written by so-called medical “experts”.  The upshot was that foods that contain cholesterol were “banned” by many MD’s.  These included eggs, butter, cheeses, and meats.  (A British research paper that showed people eating 6 eggs per week had lower cholesterol levels than those that ate none was ignored by most AMA “experts”)

Once upon a time, there was a cardiac specialist MD who had high levels of cholesterol. He also had a family history of heart problems (a good reason to go into cardiac specialty just as some psychiatrists and psychologists go into their professions because of personal problems.)

 He stopped eating any cholesterol-laden foods, and continually tested his HDL and LDL levels.  He was very surprised to find that his cholesterol didn’t drop.  He was a bit smarter than most, and he did more research, and found that 80% of the cholesterol in the blood is manufactured in the liver, and is NOT derived directly from the cholesterol in food.  And, that’s not a fairy story!!  So, if the liver makes it, why does it go high? 

To understand this, you need a bit more information.  When you eat something, it is broken down into very small bits in order to pass thru the intestinal walls.  Protein is broken down into individual amino acids, starch is broken into various sugars, and fats are broken down into various fatty acids.  An egg is broken down into all the essential amino acids needed for humans, some small sugars, and some fats which include cholesterol.

Next, let’s look at sugar which is the real culprit.  When starches are broken down into sugars, they in turn, are changed to glucose, which the body needs for energy.  Once the glucose is in the blood stream, it is literally forced into all cells in the body by insulin. 

If you are running a marathon, your body uses it as energy.  BUT, if you are watching TV, you don’t need much energy, so the cell converts this into “future” energy by changing it into a fatty acid, and ejects it back into the bloodstream.  Depending on several factors, this fatty acid can be any combination of three basic types. (The term “triglycerides” means 3 fatty acids.)

Now, the liver “sees” this triglycerides level rising, and it starts to use some of these to make cholesterol in order to “balance” these levels.  This is why high cholesterol levels are linked to high triglyceride levels. 

At the turn of the last century, the average person in the US ate 5-10 lbs of sugar PER YEAR.  Today, it’s up to over 200 lbs a year.  If you want to correlate things, correlate this – in Africa among poor persons who eat a diet literally free of sugar, there is NO diabetes, NO occluded arteries, inn fact, NONE of our “civilized diseases”.  If these “poor” persons are “helped” to eat a modern diet full of sugar, they develop all these diseases.  Now, that’s a real correlation.

There’s another correlation that I use as an analogy. People who drive older used cars have lower cholesterol than people who drive new luxury cars. The moral – don’t drive a new luxury car!  Of course, it has nothing to do with the car, but the correlation is generally true simply because the people who drive a luxury car eat more sugar laden (high carbohydrate) diets.  It’s the same thing with foods containing cholesterol.  (Another might be drawn about poorer families, including blacks that develop better athletes!)  Is sugar a real enemy?  You make up your own mind.  I’m addicted to it, and so are most of the people I know.

Eggs are not eaten by millions of people because the medical profession in its usual wrong-headedness trumpeted that correlation, and the media made it worse (also as usual).  In fact, eggs are the most perfect food for humans.  Measured on a scale of 100, eggs rate 99.99, and all other foods only reach 98 or less.  Eggs actually contain lecithin, another fat that actually lowers cholesterol.  (Remember the dieter who drinks a diet soda with his doughnut so it doesn’t count.  Not quite the same!)

A study in England, reported in the Lancet, 25 or so years ago, found that persons who ate 6 eggs per week had lower cholesterol than persons who ate none.  Several studies have also shown that persons who eat butter live longer and better than those who eat margarine.  Margarine has nickel (used to make oils into fats), trans-fatty acids, and it has close to the same fatty acid content as butter.  Isn’t it interesting that lately scientists are also coming to the same conclusions?

I personally eat eggs 3-5 times per week, and we use only butter in our house.  We try to only eat whole wheat bread, and/or whole wheat cereals.  Of course, I also take even more than the recommended vitamin/mineral supplements, and that undoubtedly helps me.  From all the research I’ve done and read, that’s one man’s educated opinion, you make up your own mind.

The above is covered in much greater detail in my book “The Health Revolution” that can be downloaded free from my website.

About Author
Phil Bate PhD – Retired Orthomolecular Psychologist Inventor of Neuroliminal Training solving brain problems of: ADD/ADHD/Autism, Depression, Insomnia, Epilepsy, etc http://DrBate.com aE”http://Neuroliminal.com

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Vitamin C – a Natural Remedy for High Cholesterol

June 15, 2010 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

High cholesterol: two words that strike fear into the hearts of many people. High cholesterol: something that can strike more than fear into a person’s heart if it goes untreated. Conventional medications for the treatment of high cholesterol may or may not be effective, but they certainly cause side effects: muscle pain, nausea, and if taken for too long, liver damage. Clearly medication is not a long-term measure, which is why many people try to find a natural remedy for high cholesterol; something that can lower cholesterol levels, and keep them down. Is Vitamin C a natural remedy for high cholesterol? That is what we will discuss in this article. But first…

The Skinny on Cholesterol

The truth is that most of the cholesterol in your body does not come from the diet, but is produced by your own body. What? How could your own body do such a thing to you! But cholesterol is vital for the body to function, as it is used in cell repair and maintenance. When doctors or nutritionists talk about high cholesterol, they are referring to the amount of cholesterol in the blood. Cholesterol travels in the blood so that it can be used anywhere in the body as and when it is needed. However, if blood levels become too high, cholesterol deposits itself onto the walls of your arteries, as a kind of “plaque.” As the cholesterol builds up, the blood has less and less space to travel through the arteries. This causes a build-up in pressure, and high cholesterol easily leads onto hypertension, and hypertension severely increases the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

So, a natural remedy for high cholesterol must seek to lower cholesterol in the blood, rather than eliminating it all together. What natural supplement could help in this?

Vitamin C’s role in High Cholesterol Treatment

Vitamin C is considered an excellent natural remedy for high cholesterol because of its properties in dealing with the effects of high cholesterol and because it actively reduces cholesterol levels in the blood.

Vitamin C deals with the effects of high cholesterol

Vitamin C is a good natural remedy for high cholesterol because it helps to widen arteries and so minimize the effect of cholesterol deposits on the artery walls. A study conducted on rabbits showed that high doses of Vitamin C can prevent the narrowing of arteries by anywhere between 4% and a whopping 50%. Counteracting the effects of high cholesterol in this way effectively “buys time” for you, so that Vitamin C can reduce cholesterol in other ways.

Vitamin C deals with the cholesterol in your blood

Vitamin C also helps in increasing fibrinolytic activity, which is responsible for removing cholesterol plaque from the arteries. A number of studies conducted on animals suggest that Vitamin C can reverse plaque formation caused by high cholesterol, making it an excellent natural remedy for high cholesterol. Vitamin C also eliminates excess cholesterol in the bloodstream by converting it to bile.

Vitamin C keeps the cholesterol levels down

Vitamin C isn’t just a natural remedy for high cholesterol, it can also maintain healthy levels of cholesterol in the blood. There is a continuous recycling process where excess cholesterol in the blood is removed and converted to bile (as mentioned above). This process only occurs when you have enough Vitamin C in your body. However, in the absence of enough Vitamin C, the conversion of cholesterol into bile is affected and cholesterol accumulates in the bloodstream.

Vitamin C does all of the above. Safely

Vitamin C is also incredibly safe compared to high cholesterol medications, and even compared to other vitamins, having no known fatal dosage or side-effects. If Vitamin C is taken in extremely high dosages then minor side-effects can occur, such as stomachache or diarrhea, but we’re talking huge dosages here. People have been reported taking 150 times the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C (RDA of around 100mg). Up to 2000mg of Vitamin C daily is considered by most experts to be completely safe, with no harmful side effects.

Bottom line: Vitamin C safely deals with the effects of high cholesterol, lowers cholesterol, and then keeps it down.

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Targeted: High Cholesterol; Safety: Avoid Vitamins Overdose, Supplement Drug Interactions; Quality: Freshly Made with Brand Ingredients.

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Low-Fat and Low-Cholesterol Diets

April 22, 2010 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

Persons suffering from atherosclerosis often have a particularly high intake of refined sugar which, if not burned, is quickly converted into saturated fat. Animals fed sugar instead of starch develop high blood cholesterol; and the essential fatty acids in their blood and tissues decrease far more than when starch is fed. The blood cholesterol of healthy volunteers fell when they ate unrefined starches, but substituting sugar caused their blood fats and cholesterol to increase markedly. In the United States the consumption of such foods as potatoes, dry beans and peas, and whole-grain bread and cereals has unfortunately decreased steadily while the sugar intake has increased and paralleled the rise in atherosclerosis. If we are to combat this disease, natural starches should be appreciated and refined sugar restricted. The more deficient diets become, however, the greater is the craving for both sweets and alcohol.

Every Nutrient Appears To Help Prevent Atherosclerosis

Pectin effectively reduces experimental high cholesterol. Vitamin B12 accelerates the production of bile salts, thus decreasing the cholesterol in the blood. Lecithin increased markedly and cholesterols fell to normal when coronary patients were given 100,000 units of vitamin A daily for three to six months. Adequate protein causes the blood cholesterol to fall provided it is not obtained from well-marbled steaks or roasts accompanied with rich gravies and potatoes French-fried in hydrogenated fat. Alcohol not burned as calories and an excess of carbohydrate and/or protein are so quickly changed into saturated fat that they cause the blood fats and cholesterol to increase as readily as if saturated fats were eaten. Monkeys undersupplied with vitamin C produce cholesterol six times more rapidly than do well-fed animals. Severe atherosclerosis in rabbits and guinea pigs has been corrected by giving large amount – 50 times the normal requirement–of vitamin C; and the formation of bile acids and the excretion of cholesterol both increased. When patients with atherosclerosis and high blood pressure received large amounts of this vitamin, their blood cholesterols fell markedly and their blood pressure slowly dropped. The fact that toxic substances from cigarettes destroy vitamin C may in part explain why heavy smokers are susceptible to atherosclerosis.

Animals whose thyroid glands take up iodine readily are not susceptible to heart disease; and giving iodine to rats prevents atherosclerosis produced by feeding excessive amounts of cholesterol. When 12 drops of 10 per cent solution of potassium iodide were given in milk three times daily to hospitalized coronary patients, in a single month the blood lecithin increased markedly, the cholesterols dropped, sometimes as much as 125 milligrams, and the size of the fat and cholesterol particles was reduced. Heart pain decreased, and the patients felt “fresh and cheerful.” In cases where the basal metabolic rate had been low, or the speed with which the body utilizes energy was subnormal, it increased 11 to 28 per cent. Though adequate iodine with vitamin E stimulates the thyroid gland and thus accelerates the utilization of cholesterol and fats, it has been particularly neglected.

Every variety of animal allowed only two meals daily develops severe atherosclerosis, but when the identical kind and amount of food is taken in small, frequent feedings, excellent health is maintained}87 Numerous small meals also correct atherosclerosis even after it has become severe. Similarly, coronary patients given six or more small meals daily rather than the same kind and amount of food in one to three larger meals have invariably shown marked decreases in the blood fats and cholesterol. Stress makes atherosclerosis worse by increasing the need for nutrients required to utilize fats; and cortisone therapy, which simulates severe stress, quickly elevates blood fat and cholesterol. Stress is not necessarily destructive provided the increased requirements are met.

Though atherosclerosis is often considered to be hereditary, when 123 persons of two families, all of whom had excessively high blood cholesterols, were given improved diets, their blood fats and cholesterols readily decreased.Such families undoubtedly have unusually high genetic requirements for certain nutrients needed to utilize fat.

When low-fat diets have been given to patients with atherosclerosis, appetites have usually become ravenous. Excessive calories, mostly from starches and sugars, have been consumed and quickly changed to saturated body fat, causing the blood fat and cholesterol to soar. The size of fat and cholesterol particles has also become much larger; the amount of cholesterol changed to bile acids has greatly reduced; and coronary patients adhering to such a diet have become markedly worse. The American Medical Association has warned physicians not to recommend such diets, but they are still being used.

Diets low in cholesterol have also achieved exactly the opposite from what was hoped. Such diets throw the liver into a frenzy of cholesterol-producing activity, causing the amount in the blood to increase. Conversely, liver biopsies showed that when volunteers were fed 3 or 4 grams of cholesterol daily-far more than would ever be obtained from foods-the production of cholesterol by the liver was “almost completely suppressed.” Experimental heart disease has been produced with diets completely devoid of cholesterol. Nevertheless, low-cholesterol diets have restricted so many excellent foods that the very nutrients needed to utilize fat and cholesterol have been decreased or omitted. Eggs have been condemned, their high lecithin and methionine content ignored. Even mayonnaise has been forbidden, yet it averages 52 to 67 per cent essential fatty acids and 10 to 14 per cent lecithin. Volunteers recovering from heart attacks have consumed daily for varying periods 10 eggs, 16 egg yolks, the fat from 32 eggs, and even 9 to 60 grams of pure cholesterol; their blood cholesterols have not increased provided the eggs were cooked without saturated or hydrogenated fat.

Some experiments have shown that butter has increased blood cholesterol, yet persons in Denmark, Switzerland, and Finland eat far more butterfat than we and have much less heart disease. Certain African natives obtain 60 to 65 per cent of their calories from butterfat, but all their foods are unrefined; they have no atherosclerosis, no heart disease, and their blood cholesterols average an amazingly low 125 milligrams. In the days when atherosclerosis was unheard of in America, butter was slathered in or on practically every food not cooked in cream. Butterfat appears to be a problem only when nutrients needed to utilize it are undersupplied.

Lowering Blood Cholesterol

Though blood cholesterol varies constantly, that of persons with atherosclerosis is uniformly high, or usually above 250 milligrams in about a half cup of blood (100 cc). A group of patients with heart disease or cholesterol tumors had average blood cholesterols of 259 and 423 milligrams respectively; and persons over 60 years of age with cholesterols above 260 milligrams have been found to have twice as many strokes as others with cholesterols below 200. Physicians do not agree on the amount most compatible with health, but it appears to be below 180 milligrams. If a diet is adequate in every respect lowering the cholesterol to 180 milligrams or less is usually not difficult. For example, one man whose cholesterol was 330 shortly after a heart attack quickly reduced it to 170 milligrams and then more gradually to 121. Almost every week someone whose cholesterol was formerly high tells me, “My doctor says my cholesterol’s now the lowest he has ever taken,” and quotes a figure ranging from 130 to 150 milligrams.

None of these persons has avoided eggs, liver, or butter but they did obtain magnesium, iodine, lecithin, yeast, skim or whole milk, the antistress formula, and supplements of vitamins A, D, E, and the B vitamins. A few have taken 250 milligrams each of cholin and inositol six times daily for a short period. All were asked to reduce natural saturated fats and to avoid every form of hydrogenated fats including anything prepared with them, such as French-fried foods and package mixes; and each had 1 tablespoons of mixed vegetable oils daily. Not only did the blood cholesterols decrease, but the appearance, energy, and general well-being of these individuals can well be envied.

In correcting experimental atherosclerosis, it has been found that some fatty deposits, especially those in the arteries of the eyes and heart, remain long after the blood cholesterol is normal. Such a finding indicates that an adequate diet should be followed for months or years after apparent recovery.

Have Your Cholesterol Determined Annually

Every person with a high blood cholesterol is a potential candidate for a heart attack, a stroke, high blood pressure, and/or various abnormalities resulting from prolonged faulty circulation. For this reason, every individual, regardless of age, should have an annual blood cholesterol determination. If this figure is above 180 milligrams, immediate steps should be taken to lower it. Untold suffering and innumerable premature deaths could be prevented were such a procedure followed. There is no evidence that cholesterol alone causes general atherosclerosis, strokes, or heart attacks, but an elevated blood cholesterol invariably accompanies these abnormalities.

Author: David A Crawford
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