Archive for the ‘Healthy Fats’ Category

DNA Evolution and Primal Diet

Thursday, February 10th, 2011
dna evolution, dna diet, dna and diet

Does your DNA like your Diet?

Most people wonder what could possibly be the connection between DNA and diet. Are they related really, and how? The truth is that everything that happens or doesn’t happen in our body is controlled by the DNA in our tiny cells; one way or another. Our genes, which are made of DNA, are constantly alert and fully capable to check what we are doing, feeling, eating etc and respond accordingly. I really don’t want to go into the details of how they do that at the moment but they do. It is vital to be aware, understand and eventually know that what we eat interacts in very predictable ways with our genes and this interaction will determine 100% the physiological response which will subsequently regulate our metabolism and our health.

When it comes to our food things are really simple. The food is broken down into microscopic particles in the gut which penetrate the intestinal wall, are taken by the blood stream and travel all over the body to be delivered to our cells. So whatever we eat will sooner or later be taken into the cells that make up our body. In the center of most of our cells is the nucleus, the home of our DNA.

Now, DNA has its likes and dislikes. It loves things like organic, raw vegetables, salads, high quality free range meat and eggs, natural saturated fats and everything that can be described as “primal”. On the contrary it literally despises processed “modern” foods like white flour products, sugary snacks, junk food etc. Everything about DNA has a good reason to be there and indeed the primal foods work really well with our genes. This means that the best possible outcome in terms of health, vitality and shape can be achieved when our diet consists of primal foods. These foods deliver the most well regulated metabolism, the strongest immune system you can have and they do that because they interact so well with our DNA.

Again the reason is simple. You see, primal foods have been the sole type of food consumed by humans for many thousands of years. Even before the advent of land cultivation, hunters and gatherers were depending on raw veggies, fruits, free range meat and fish they caught. This was the norm for a long long time, during which the DNA evolved to work well with nutrients coming from primal food. Our ancestors enjoyed organic and free range foodies because environmental pollution was not present and also the soil was “wild” meaning that it was naturally full of valuable nutrients; no fertilizers, no mass production or depleting the soil from its elements that are stored in the plants. So, primitive man had the privilege to feed on nature’s best produce.

To summarize, food is powerful information for our genes; not just calories. Whatever you eat gives a clear signal to your DNA towards health or the lack of it and the orders are carried out immediately. Maybe it will take some time for your body to get physically sick because although you keep giving it the wrong things, your genes are actually programmed to keep you healthy and therefore will try to give you all the signals they can for you to reconsider your diet. Most modern diseases are the sad sum of many years of wrong dietary and lifestyle choices to the point that the metabolism is completely out of sync, the defenses are down and the body is gradually poisoned by toxic products. Probably white bread, pasta, pizza, sodas and vegetable oils seem innocent and yummy but your body and DNA have a completely different opinion about them.

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Case Study: Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

heart disease

I am mostly glad to receive your emails about how you all guys integrate in your lives the principles outlined in this blog! A few weeks ago a reader contacted me about her husband’s case of severe Congestive Heart Failure and how he tackled this debilitating condition in a totally unconventional, yet highly efficient way. The lovely lady gave me permission to publish a post based on her husband’s case, explaining the diagnosis, suggested medical treatment and the regime this brave man decided to follow. I wanted to publish this post because above all I believe that our food can have a powerful effect and amazing healing power; our food is information to our genes. When we give our bodies the raw materials that promote health, our DNA has no choice but to promote health, it is genetically programmed to do so. Therefore, here it is, the first case study of this blog, proving that people around the world save their lives by going beyond the “conventional drug madness” of the medical society. I will briefly describe this case and then make some comments on this story, just to clarify a few details for us all.

For practical reasons and in order to keep the anonymity of the couple, let’s name the gentleman Mark and his lovely wife Jane. So, Mark was diagnosed with severe Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) in 2008; a debilitating and potentially deadly disease. This means that Mark’s heart was found to be unable to provide with enough blood to meet his body’s needs. According to Jane, his heart was much compromised to the point that “initially he was unable to do more than shuffle a few steps without pausing to catch his breath”.  The standard medical approach to this condition include prescription of statins, ACE – inhibitors, diuretics and anti – platelet drugs on top of a suggested fat free diet.

Most of you probably know that statins are given to lower the blood cholesterol levels (because most doctors still believe that cholesterol causes atherosclerosis and subsequently heart attacks).

  • Statins (Symvastatin): lowers blood cholesterol levels
  • ACE inhibitor (Lisinopril): lowers blood pressure, relieves heart stress
  • Diuretic(Furosemide): help to excrete extra water and fluids
  • Anti platelet (Plavix): prevents blood clots from forming,” blood thinning”

Mark took the full range of this cocktail of heart drugs (Simvastatin, Lisinopril, Furosemide and Plavix) for 3 months without any improvement whatsoever, on top of feeling very weak and lacking energy. He decided that there must be a better way to manage his disease so he quit taking all the above drugs except for the diuretic, which he quit taking as well a month later substituting it with cabbage water (cabbage is a natural diuretic). Jane wrote to me that at the point Mark quit his drugs his feet were really swollen as well.

Mark adopted a nutritional approach and also started to build his cardiovascular strength through exercise.  He would essentially take no drugs, except for supplements. For a period of time he agreed to take the minimum dose of a beta – blocker, due to the fact that his pulse was relatively fast (90s) but he no longer needs to take it. Beta blockers are used to manage heart arrhythmias and diminish the effects of stress hormones.  His diet at the moment is as follows:

Mark’s Diet
Yes foods Definitely No foods
Free range eggs Dark Turkey Grains and relevant products (bread included)
Free range pork belly Nuts: almonds Vegetable or seed oils
Sardines Very little fruit. Fruit juices
Steamed or Sautéed (in coconut oil) veggies
Loads of vegetables
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Spices: turmeric, cinnamon, ginger

Most of you are probably able to see how different this diet is from what any conventional doctor would ever recommend; most probably a cardiologist would have a heart attack just by reading this diet indeed!  It includes very healthy fatty foods like free range pork belly, sardines, free range eggs, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil as well. I must say that I am seriously impressed with Mark’s dietary choices and by the fact that he refused to continue with the mainstream drugs for his heart. He quit the highly toxic and inflammatory vegetable oils which are so popular now and substituted them with extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil; the perfect combination of high quality monounsaturated and saturated oil. The types of fats that Mark has chosen to eat, have contributed massively to his recovery, I have absolutely no doubt about that. His health has improved massively and is enjoying the benefits of a vibrant health despite the fact that his heart is certainly quite compromised from the chronic disease that was diagnosed in 2008. Jane said that “when I think that a simple tread mill test was abandoned because of concern over the precarious condition of his heart, I feel that the scale of the improvement needs no further measure”.

Mark is a living proof of several facts that modern medicine has reluctantly started to accept. Most important, cholesterol and dietary fat in general do not cause atherosclerosis and therefore do not pose any threat to our cardiovascular health.  In fact they contribute to genuine health, protect the heart and help the body recover fast; cholesterol is a healing molecule among other roles. As you can see Mark is much healthier with his dietary approach and exercise regime than he was when he was taking the heart drugs cocktail his cardiologist prescribed for his condition. He was brave enough to observe and acknowledge that these drugs were not helping him and then even braver to adopt a completely alternative solution.

Secondly, you can see the power of food in your health even when we talk about serious debilitating disease. Mark improved physically and regained much of his stamina by ditching the drugs and eating healthily. His body responded perfectly and recovered to the point that was physically possible given the injuries his heart sustained over the years. I guess that it becomes quite obvious that there are some foods and drugs that just cannot work well with our bodies (see toxic drugs, refined vegetable oils). On the other hand, it is also very obvious that there is a whole group of natural foods and substances that can produce miracles against all odds just because our bodies are perfectly adapted to assimilate and use (healthy fats, fruit and veggies).

 

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Eggs: The Perfect Food

Friday, July 30th, 2010

As thoroughly explained in my posts about cholesterol and arteriosclerosis, dietary cholesterol is not responsible for heart disease at all. In fact it is a necessary element of every healthy cell and by depriving our bodies of this molecule can cause serious problems. This makes eggs a really misunderstood food indeed… the truth is that they are perfectly balanced with high quality bioavailable protein that is actually used as a reference point to compare with all other types of dietary protein. Massive research studies, following people for more than 10 years of their lives prove now that there is no evidence associating egg consumption and risk of heart disease or stroke in neither men nor women. Also independent studies have demonstrated that people eating 4 or more eggs per week had lower cholesterol than people who ate 1 or less. Although these findings may sound like against common reason, they only prove the insanity of the cholesterol theory and the serious nutritional errors we have all been lead to. Except for the protein, eggs can give you generous amounts of the following nutrients: vitamin A, B12, B9, B6,B2 and D, as well as iron, calcium, omega 3, phosphorous, potassium and more.

The thing with all natural products is that they deeply reflect the conditions that the specific animal or plant was raised at. Literally the diet and way of life of an animal or the soil / fertilizers used for a plantation will determine the nutritional value of the final produce. Of course chicken are not an exception here so the different types of eggs you can buy, can literally be entirely different products. The categories (and what they mean) you will customarily find in the super market are more or less as follows:

  • Conventional:  Factory – farmed chickens living in arrays of cages. Each hen has about 67 square inches of space to stand, which is approximately ¾ of single sheet of A4 paper.
  • Cage free:  Here the chickens live in enclosures, they have more room to stand up, turn, stretch and walk around.
  • Pastured: The chickens in this case are raised in small farms, so they have all the space they want to run and feed with natural grass.

The more confined an animal is the more of the hormone cortisol is released in their blood, that is the stress hormone. Caged chickens live under significant stress their whole lives so they have consistently high levels of cortisol in their bodies. When cortisol remains at these levels for such long periods of time, it weakens the immune system, prevents the body from properly absorbing nutrients and eventually can cause disease. In addition to that, caged hens are customarily fed cheap processed grain and / or forage byproducts, which make up a totally inferior diet, lacking true nutritional value. Therefore conventional eggs, reflecting a very unhealthy and stressful lifestyle, have very low amount of quality nutrients and protein. In general it has been found that cage-free, pastured eggs give you:

  • 2/3 more vitamin A
  • 3-4 times more omega-3 fatty acids
  • 3 times more vitamin E
  • 7 times more beta carotene
  • 4-6 times the vitamin D

The following table summarizes the differences in nutritional value found between confined and cage – free chicken.

All values are per 100 grams of egg. Vitamin E (mg) Vitamin A (IU) Beta Carotene (mcg) Omega-3s (g) Cholesterol (mg) Saturated Fat (g)
Eggs from Confined Birds (per USDA Nutrient Database) 0.97 487 10 0.22 423 3.1
Eggs from Non-Confined Birds(Mother Earth News, 2007) 3.73 791.86 79.03 0.66 277 2.4

http://www.motherearthnews.com/uploadedFiles/Eggs%20chart.pdf

So when it comes to conventional eggs you know what to expect really… between cage free and pastured eggs though you can find several subcategories, indicating differences in the diet and lifestyle provided. The following groups can be usually found:

  • Free Range: Chickens that have access to the outside, not necessarily pastured though.
  • Omega -3: These cage- free birds are fed more flax and canola seeds so that the content of omega 3 in the egg is higher.
  • Organic: Cage free chickens fed organic, vegetarian food, not subjected to antibiotics, hormones or pesticides.

As chickens, like most birds really, are omnivores, their natural diet is not just plants or grains. That’s why the best ever quality of eggs you can get is from a farmer with a proper farm. A chicken strolling around will eat a bit of a grass, a few worms and bugs and maybe some seeds that will be available nearby. It literally eats a bit of everything really and this is its natural diet. Therefore, you can expect to get eggs with the highest quality and quantity of nutrients from farms and farmers markets. Look out for local farmers and support them, it’s a win – win for us all to try and buy locally farmed products; we get the best possible quality and the farmers thrive and expand their beautiful farms so that more and more people can have access to their magnificent products :)

 

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Raw Milk: A Story you need to know

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff lately about raw milk and I thought that it’s time to write a blog post about this issue. It is definitely a topic that goes against common sense at first glance but when you look into it a bit more careful and in depth, unexpected facts become obvious which change the whole picture instantly. In my ebook, The DNA Diet book, I dedicated a whole section on raw milk, healthy fats and free range products; this is a massive issue with far too many areas of interest, you must trust me on this. So, at first it sounds completely insane the suggestion to drink unpasteurized and non–homogenized milk. It could be really dangerous, right? But what do these treatments offer exactly to milk? Experts say that safety is the main thing here. Pasteurization kills harmful bacteria that reside in the milk, thus preventing diseases. Homogenization is another story as it basically makes the fat evenly distributed in the milk so that it is more appealing to potential customers (that’s us).

If you think about it, this doesn’t sound too bad. But these techniques have been used for treating milk just for a few decades now. Humans have been using milk for about 4-5  thousands years (if not for longer) without any problems. Why did it become necessary to treat milk in the first place? Well, this is a key feature here. As long as cows were happily feeding themselves in fields of grass, the farmers never had a doubt that the milk they produced was healthy and safe. Mass production dictated a completely different lifestyle for cattle though. Packed in tiny little spaces, obliged to live among dirt and fed with more or less unnatural food, the new milk was not safe anymore. Also, by making pasteurization and homogenization compulsory, the farmers had now to sell their milk to big companies or allow middle men to arrange the delivery of milk to factories for the necessary treatments to take place. The farmers had no power over their own product anymore but big companies had managed to get full control of it and do whatever they wanted.

Another very interesting aspect of this story is the skimmed milk. Apparently, before the mass production and industrialization era came forward, people were drinking whole raw milk. They also used it to isolate the fat, which is basically the traditional butter we all know. After extracting the fat out of the milk, the leftover was what we now know as skimmed milk. Back in those days, nobody was using this milk for himself or his children as a healthier option due to its low fat percentage. Instead it was used as food for pigs really. The fascinating part of this story is that pig food came to be considered a healthy food for humans and many people made some serious money out of this insanely creative but we have to admit excellent idea; at least from a marketing point of view. A literally useless product is promoted to be a necessary component of healthy diet.  And here we are forced to face the power of media. If it wasn’t for proper marketing this would have never happened. So maybe, we have to admit here that this whole milk story has lots of weird bits in it, don’t you think?

The last bit of my research on this issue is about the actual qualities of raw milk vs treated milk. Well, it seems that raw milk is literally loaded with an amazing amount of vitamins, minerals and very healthy fats that in fact promote weight loss rather than obesity. CLA is a type of fat widely recognized now as a fat loss substance; you can even buy over the counter supplements for it. Raw milk is packed with CLA. The fact that is full fat makes allows for all the range of lipid – soluble vitamins to be absorbed in the gut and these are super important vitamins indeed (D, E, and K). If there is no dietary fat taken in, no vitamins can be absorbed, it is simple chemistry. The pasteurization process also destroys most of the vitamins and minerals that naturally exist in raw milk. Taste and texture change massively, to the point that it almost feels like a completely different type of food when you first drink raw milk. Finally current research has started to reveal that conventional milk may not be that healthy after all; many many studies correlate milk consumption with many digestive issues, obesity and diabetes. It is no surprise really if you think that the treatments applied to this natural product, take away all its goodness and leave a completely unbalanced proportion of elements in it.

I had my first raw milk bottle bought back in February. I didn’t know what to expect to be honest; I was partially afraid (all the conditioning I was subjected to all my life was warning me) and partially excited about it. I never looked back to conventional milk again. The moment you drink this heavenly milk, you know you did the right thing; at least this is my story. The only thing that you must be cautious is that you must purchase your whole milk from a farmer that keeps his animals happy in a proper grass field, not enslaved in a less that sufficient space. You should go for free range, organic milk directly from the farmer; it’s by far your healthiest option.

An article describing the interest in raw milk in the farmers markets in London is this one HERE

At the moment, there are serious efforts from governments and/or companies to ban raw milk completely. You will find many intimidating stories about it and how dangerous, satanic and evil it is. The people writing these articles conveniently forget though the numerous times commercial milk has been found to contain toxic substances or was infected with bacteria. These are products that sell thousands of items per day but the news about their safety may take a couple of weeks for the consumers to know about or for a certain unsafe batch to be withdrawn from the market. And my last objection here is about yoghurt, especially flavoured and kids yoghurt. Have you ever considered if this is the real thing? Do this experiment at home: boil a cup of milk and let it cool down a bit until it’s lukewarm. Dilute a tea spoon of the yoghurt of your choice in it, cover with a couple of kitchen towels to keep it warm and safe. Leave it like that, undisturbed, warm and quiet for at least 12 hours. The yoghurt you put in the milk should act as an initiator for the fermentation process and if it is real yoghurt you used, after 12 hours you will see your cup of milk transformed into your own home made yoghurt! If not, think again: do you actually buy  real yoghurt from the super market or yoghurt – like products? You will be unpleasantly surprised to discover the second. But these are the “safe” products we are being sold…

For the people intrigued to look into the trying / buying raw milk I have the following recommendations to make:

Since it’s getting more and more difficult to get hold of raw milk and relevant products I found this site with guidelines about  THIS . Depending on the country, the laws governing the distribution and selling of raw milk differ so in any case you need to do your own research to make sure you purchase high quality, free range raw milk straight from the farmer. In my opinion it is ethical and very important to support local farmers wherever possible so that free range and healthy products are available for everyone.

An excellent book on raw milk:
The Untold Story of Milk: Green Pastures, Contented Cows and Raw Dairy Products by Ron Schmid.

 

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Coconut Oil

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Coconut oil is a saturated type of fat. Below 76 F it is solid and above this temperature it is liquid. The family of saturated fats also includes traditional old fashioned butter, lard and palm oil. Unfortunately, saturated fats are falsely considered to be responsible for heart disease thus most people avoid them as if they were devil himself. My posts on cholesterol and atherosclerosis will provide plenty of material for people interested in clarifying this misunderstanding. This unfair confusion started when misleading information came out a and amplified by the medi beyond control. At the same time, aggressive marketing campaigns promoting artificial refined vegetable oils and margarines as  healthy alternatives to the satanic and unhealthy saturated fats. The fact is that when butter and lard were used,that is until 1930, heart attacks were responsible for less than 3,000 deaths per year in USA. Then suddenly in 1950 when margarine and vegetable oils had already taken over the world, myocardial infarction was already claiming 500,000 lives every year. Apparently there is something very wrong with this picture…

Consider that native populations in Asia follow a diet heavily based on coconut products, overall extremely high in saturated fats but are free from cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Coconut oil is very healthy, biochemical and physiological scientific data prove this every day now. The fact that it is saturated makes it an excellent choice for cooking. All saturated fats are very stable at high temperatures; their chemical structure is not altered by high temperatures at all.

Except for this, coconut oil has also been found to have significant antimicrobial and antiviral properties. This makes a big difference during digestion, when the contents of our stomach proceed to the gut. Basically the gut and the digestive tract in general is physically a barrier between the internal part of the body and the external environment. The food we consume is full of bacteria, dust and many other potentially problematic things. It is critical for our body to prevent all these dangerous stuff from being absorbed by the gut along with the valuable nutrients. So, if the very oil we cook our food into is antimicrobial, imagine how much this cleanses the food from harmful bacteria and what a great relief this is for our body’s defense systems! Coconut oil naturally consists at least 40% of a fatty acid called Lauric acid. This  fat was found in breast milk and intensive research since the 60s has shown that this specific substance is mainly responsible for the antiviral and antimicrobial protection breastfed babies receive from their mums. Further research shows that the human body uses lauric acid to produce a substance, which attacks and literally dissolves the membrane many viruses are covered with in order to be able to attack and infect healthy cells. Hence Lauric acid protects us from viral infections in a very dynamic and proactive way.

Finally ladies, you will be happy to know that coconut oil has anti-aging and incredible weight loss properties!The following funny experiments summarizes it all :)  In the 40s, determined farmers used coconut oil to fatten their animals. To their surprise they instead became lean and slim! Coconut oil has the ability to stimulate thyroid function; this means elevated metabolic rates and more efficient fat loss even while you sleep! In the presence of adequate thyroid hormone, cholesterol is converted in extremely important hormones (anti-aging steroids, progesterone, pregnenolone etc) that fight off heart disease, obesity, cancer and other degenerative diseases. The poor farmers of the story were obviously very disappointed to see their animals lean and fit so when it became known that coconut oil stimulates the thyroid function (leading to weight loss), they tried to feed the animals anti – thyroid drugs to shut the thyroid gland down and make them fat. While that happened, they also developed cancer in higher rates, messing up with the farmers’ ambitions once again. Then, they realized that they could have the fattening result without the immediate cancer problems if they just fed their livestock with soy bean and corn! Probably no company selling vegetable oils would ever promote these facts…

It is true that there is a great deal of contradicting information out there about proper nutrition and health so it is imperative to look at the scientific facts when it comes to making a decision in the supermarket. Unfortunately most commercials and marketing campaigns serve an entirely different purpose than that of public health so it is our responsibility to learn what is healthy and apply that knowledge to our everyday lives.

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10 things you should know about the unhealthiest of fats

Thursday, May 13th, 2010
  1. Vegetable oils and margarine are two of the most processed and chemically refined products existing today; yet they are promoted as healthy alternatives of natural fats that have been baptized as unhealthy or causing heart disease. Have you ever considered how vegetable oils and margarine are made? What is it exactly that makes them so healthy?
  2. Vegetable oils are originally coming from natural vegetable oils but the final product has absolutely nothing to with healthy oils
  3. Vegetable oils are subjected to high pressure, high temperatures and loads of chemicals in order for the raw materials to blend together and the oil to be “gifted” with the desired texture and qualities. . From the chemical agents used in this process, a small percentage remains in the product as they cannot be entirely removed.
  4. This process utterly changes the chemical structure and properties of the these oils making them unstable, toxic and dangerous for humans
  5. Margarine is another example of an artificial unhealthy fat. Although the raw materials are again quite innocent or even healthy (e.g. olive oil) they are subjected to a very aggressive chemical procedure called artificial hydrogenation so that the liquid oils are converted to solid spreads.
  6. Margarine is highly toxic and super dangerous for health. It deregulates metabolism, causes obesity and diabetes.
  7. 1900 -20 (right before the advent of artificial fats): about 3,000 deaths due to heart attacks were recorded in USA per year. Popular fats consumed at that period: lard and traditional butter.
  8. 1950s & 60s (right after the artificial fats invaded the market): 500,000 deaths due to heart attacks per year. Popular fats consumed: margarine, vegetable oils.
  9. When it comes to fats the rule of thumb is this: if it’s natural eat it. The more processed a product is, the less healthy it is. There is a reason why nature made olive oil liquid and not a spread!
  10. Bottom line: avoid margarine, fake butter and vegetable oil products. Stick with raw nuts and seeds, avocados, wild fish, organic butter, coconut oil, free range meat and eggs, organic dairy (made from raw milk preferably) and extra virgin olive oil.

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10 Facts on Healthy Fats

Sunday, May 9th, 2010
  1. Starting point fact: cholesterol and healthy fats Do Not cause heart disease; so don’t get freaked out by the list below. Research shows that certain amounts of healthy fats are absolutely crucial for our health. The Cholesterol Myth has started to dissolve and proves itself wrong in almost every single bit of it; don’t get left behind with yesterday’s news… (check out posts on cholesterol and atherosclerosis!!)
  2. Healthy fats for cooking: only natural saturated fats like organic old fashioned butter, coconut oil (its solid at room temperature), and lard.  It’s because they are saturated, their chemical structure is very stable and they are not affected by high temperatures at all.
  3. Animal fat found only in free range, organic meat is healthy and necessary for your health. Research shows that factory cattle can store up to 500% more saturated fat than healthy animals do – it is the amount and quality of these fats (due to the unnatural diet the animals are forced to follow) that make factory meat very unhealthy. This applies for water (fish) and land (cattle etc) animals alike; the wildest the healthiest.
  4. Second fact: Raw milk (untreated= non pasteurized or homogenized) is a lot healthier than its treated alternative which is stripped off of all its nutrients and vitamins during processing. Humanity would not have survived up to this point in time if it hadn’t been for pure raw milk. Also the laws imposing the collection of milk from farmers and mass processing it, benefit a lot more the big companies (which control the trade better this way) than everyday people who actually drink the milk… (Check future post on raw milk!!)
  5. Did you know that skimmed milk was food for pigs 50 years ago? Excellent business model: sell your garbage for gold!
  6. Dairy fat in products made of raw milk (as well as raw milk itself) have a healthy content of very beneficial fatty acids like CLA, which promote fat loss, among other benefits.
  7. Eggs coming from chicken and birds enjoying a life in a real farm provide high quality protein along with a super combo of nutrients and minerals, healthy fats included.
  8. Avocados contain super healthy cardioprotective fats.
  9. Nuts and some seeds provide us with valuable unsaturated fats in their natural form that promote brain & heart health, elastic skin and shinny hair.
  10. If you want to lose fat you must eat healthy fat but in controlled quantities; fats are very calorie dense.

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13 things you should know about Cholesterol and Fats

Saturday, May 1st, 2010
  1. Cholesterol is one of the most important biological molecules in the human body; we would die without it. A first year undergraduate student in Cell Biology knows that.
  2. Every single cell of our body has massive amounts of cholesterol in its membranes and especially the brain and neural cells are literally packed and covered all over with cholesterol and fatty molecules. Cholesterol ensures structural integrity of membranes, promotes biochemical signal transmission between cells and also insulates the axons of neural cells to allow for efficient electrical communication between brain parts and the rest of the body.
  3. Cholesterol doesn’t cause heart disease! Yep yep, you read right, it doesn’t cause atherosclerosis or any other cardiovascular related disease. Current research is proving beyond doubt now that it is homocysteine that causes atheromatic plaques to develop in the arteries; cholesterol is a healing molecule recruited to help with the extensive injuries caused by homocysteine.
  4. More than 20 independent studies prove that the development of atherosclerosis is the same in people following a fat free diet and people eating fatty stuff; atherosclerosis is not related with the dietary fat.
  5. Medical doctors have started to admit that isolated HDL and LDL levels are not reliable as indicators for heart disease risk, but only the ratio HDL/LDL has true diagnostic value in predicting risk for cardiovascular conditions.
  6. There are healthy fats that must be incorporated in every person’s diet
  7. Natural saturated fats (meat, organic butter, coconut oil and lard) are healthy and necessary in small quantities on a daily basis. They are also your safest option for cooking as high temperatures do not alter their chemical structure at all!
  8. Natural monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in nuts, fish, seeds, avocados etc also must be included in controlled quantities in your daily plan, they are very important!
  9. Artificial and refined vegetable oils as well as margarine & fake butter stuff are very dangerous, highly toxic, deregulate metabolism and research shows that cause heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
  10. The latest research proves that people who eat butter are healthier and live longer than people depriving themselves of fat. Eliminating healthy fats from your diet can have a detrimental effect on your mental abilities, athletic performance and even everyday tasks; the body needs cholesterol to survive.
  11. People on cholesterol lowering drugs (statins) suffer dangerous side effects (muscles dissolve, liver & kidneys fail, amnesia, inefficient cognitive abilities) and pain, all indicating how important cholesterol is and how wrong it is to try to lower it.
  12. There is a minimal cardioprotective effect shown by statins which has nothing to do with the lowering of cholesterol; it is a different biochemical path that is accidentally affected.
  13. There are healthy and safe alternatives to protect yourself from heart disease that are not promoted due to the fact that they are cheap and easy to buy. The real cause of heart disease can be efficiently targeted with no side effects. Health can be a pretty easy thing really!

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