I keep thinking the tide is turning. I read several blogs written by MDs or biochemists who explain why it’s refined carbohydrates that are killing us, not saturated fat or cholesterol. I listen to top-notch doctors and researchers cover the same topics in Jimmy Moore’s podcasts. I watch the number of visitors to this blog tick up steadily every month (and bless you all for that). We’re winning, I say to myself. The word is finally getting around.
And then I do something stupid like check out the health articles on MSN. (That hissing sound you hear is my optimism deflating.) I don’t know what MSN’s audience size is, but I’m pretty sure if you added up the combined audiences for every blog in my blogroll plus every blog in their blogrolls, we’d be barely be the Hong Kong to MSN’s China. No wonder when I tell people saturated fat doesn’t cause heart disease, they look at me like I just said, “I actually have three heads, but two of them are only visible when the moon is full.”
This evening after dinner (meatloaf from farm-raised goat and beef, plus cauliflower whipped with butter, feta cheese, sour cream and garlic) I read an MSN health article, followed a link, followed another link, followed another link, then decided I should quit while my blood pressure was still at its usual below-average level. The MSN article, provided by Health.com, was on how to alter your diet to reduce your cholesterol. Here are some quotes with my comments:
Want to cut cholesterol without cutting taste? Most people are afraid that “good for my cholesterol” means meals that are joyless (and tasteless).
That’s because most people have functional tastebuds. The rest are survivors of chemical warfare or vegetarians.
Here are some simple substitutions that you can make to the food you already eat to help fight cholesterol painlessly.
Sprinkle walnuts, skip croutons
Carbohydrates can cause high levels of a type of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), also known as bad cholesterol. For a healthier salad, replace your carbo-laden croutons with walnuts, which are high in polyunsaturated fat-a good fat that can lower LDL while boosting HDL (aka good cholesterol).
Uh, wait a second … you’re admitting that carbohydrates raise a “type” of LDL? I’m stunned. The type that carbohydrates raise, by the way, is type B … otherwise known as the small, dense LDL that can actually perforate the walls of your arteries. Hey, maybe I was pessimistic for no reason! This health writer might actually get it right.
Sip red wine, not cocktails
Research suggests that moderate alcohol intake can produce a slight rise in HDL cholesterol (a so-called good cholesterol). But that won’t do you much good if you’re tossing back margaritas or mixed drinks with fruit juice, which contain carbohydrates. Switch to red wine; it has about a 10th of the carbohydrates of a margarita, and you’ll also get antioxidants such as flavonoids that are believed to lower LDL and boost HDL.
I’ll be dipped; she is going after the carbohydrates! Man, I feel like such a dolt … as soon as I saw the Health.com logo, I was preparing myself to yell AAAAAARGGHHH a lot. I can relax now.
Yes to edamame and nuts, no to cheese and crackers
For a pre-dinner snack, skip the crackers and cheese, which are sky-high in saturated fat – one of the prime culprits behind high cholesterol.
AAAAAARGGHHH!!! Do these goofy reporters ever check the latest research? When Christopher Gardner of Stanford conducted a controlled study of three different diets, he reported (reluctantly, by his own admission) that people on the Atkins diet showed the greatest improvement in lipid profiles. Pretty impressive, considering that another diet in the study was the Ornish low-fat plan.
Of course, I wasn’t surprised by Gardner’s results because while I was researching Fat Head, Dr. Mike Eades challenged me to eat all the natural saturated fat I could stand for a month while cutting out sugar and starch. If you’ve seen the film, you know what happened — my total cholesterol and LDL plummeted, while my HDL shot up.
Edamame is low in saturated fat and one cup contains about 25 grams of soy protein, which is thought to actively lower LDL (although the evidence is conflicting). Buy them frozen, dump them into boiling water, and drain after 5 minutes-that’s all there is to it.
The dust-bunnies under my bed are also low in saturated fat, but I wouldn’t eat them, boiled or otherwise. If you think soy is good for you, do yourself a favor and read Lierre Keith’s amazing, beautifully-written book, The Vegetarian Myth. If that’s too much of an undertaking, check out this page or this page from the Weston A. Price website.
Vinegar and lemon juice beats salad dressing
As everyone knows by now, drenching a salad in high-fat salad dressing is like smoking cigarettes while jogging: It totally defeats the purpose. A low-fat alternative is a step in the right direction, but the best option for lower cholesterol is drizzling your salad with balsamic vinegar or lemon juice.
I can hear my favorite journalism professor from college yelling across 30 years of time: “Never, ever, use phrases like ‘everyone knows’ to make a point, because there’s nothing that ‘everyone’ knows!”
If you’d prefer to avoid absorbing most of the nutrients when eating a salad or vegetables, then yes, using a high-fat salad dressing will totally defeat that. Most important nutrients are fat-soluble, so without fat in a meal, they’ll just pass through your body and eventually fortify the health of whatever critters live in your local sewage system.
If the purpose of eating a salad is to amuse your friends with your wacky pucker-face, definitely go for the lemon juice and vinegar.
Ditch the butter for margarine spread
One tablespoon of butter contains more than 7 grams of saturated fat-that’s more than a third of the recommended daily value. It also contains 10 percent of your daily value for dietary cholesterol, which, though it isn’t as harmful as was once thought, is one of the main sources of high cholesterol (and atherosclerosis).
Hmmm, that would explain the sky-high rate of heart disease in 1900, when Americans consumed four times much butter per capita as we do today. The French still consume four times as much butter as we do, but have a far lower rate of heart disease — even though they have a higher rate of smoking. If only we could import that paradox thing …
Switch the butter with a vegetable-oil-based spread such as Smart Balance or Olivio (which also contains olive oil); you’ll be replacing a bad fat with a good fat.
Yes, because Mother Nature has no idea how to produce good nutrition for humans; all the best health-enhancing foods were created in a lab. Here’s a little gem from the Smart Balance web site:
Smart Balance uses natural saturates (palm fruit oil) and balances it with polyunsaturates from soy and canola oils. This comprises the patented, heart-healthy Smart Balance blend that we believe to be superior to other methods of avoiding trans fatty acids.
That little balancing-and-blending act would involve extracting the oils with hexane, mixing them with sodium hydroxide and passing them through a centrifuge, mixing them again with hydrated aluminum silicate to bind to and remove the unwanted speckles, passing them through a steam distillation chamber to deodorize them, then adding artificial color and flavor. My advice: never eat food that has a patent number attached to it.
And instead of using butter to grease the pan while cooking, try olive oil or white wine vinegar.
“Honey, I can’t get the low-fat cookies unstuck from the pan!”
“Who cares? They taste like vinegar anyway.”
Use ground turkey, not ground beef
Red meat is a source of both saturated fat and dietary cholesterol-two of the main sources of blood cholesterol. Ground turkey contains half the saturated fat of 85 percent lean ground beef, and it can be substituted easily for beef in most recipes.
Ground beef: 40% of the fat is monosaturated (like olive oil), and most of what’s left raises HDL. It also raises LDL, but only the harmless, fluffy kind — i.e., not the same type raised by carbohydrates. And even “Dr. Lipid Hypothesis” Ancel Keys eventually concluded that dietary cholesterol has no effect on the amount of cholesterol in your blood, as have several clinical studies. Yes, I can certainly see why we’d want to avoid ground beef.
Skip the fatty sour cream, choose fat-free Greek yogurt
Whether it’s used as a garnish or in a sauce, sour cream adds a shot of saturated fat to otherwise heart-healthy meals. To cut out that excess fat without sacrificing taste or texture, swap the sour cream with no-fat Greek yogurt-one of the world’s healthiest foods.
Since you’re a professional health writer and all, did you happen to notice either of the studies published this year that concluded there’s no association whatsoever between saturated fat intake and heart disease? Have you seen the many other studies published over the years that reached exactly the same conclusion … like this one, from the European Heart Journal:
The commonly-held belief that the best diet for the prevention of coronary heart disease is a low saturated fat, low cholesterol diet is not supported by the available evidence from clinical trials.
And if you believe swapping sour cream for fat-free yogurt doesn’t sacrifice taste … well, then I’m sorry about the chemical-warfare attack and I sincerely hope my government wasn’t involved in any way.
Now I’d better go listen to one of Jimmy Moore’s podcasts to preserve my sanity.
If you enjoy my posts, please consider a small donation to the Fat Head Kids GoFundMe campaign.
I would like to add my vote to you producing an educational package to go along with Fat Head. If nothing else, teachers in English or journalism class (whoever it is that is supposed to teach critical thinking and listening to both sides of the story) could use it. I don’t think they teach critical thinking in nutritional classes, though.
The more “stuff” you give the teachers, the more likely they will be to use it, especially since the film is already clean and kid-friendly – well, except for the funniest part, where you ask your wife to discuss your sex life. 🙂 They could show the uncut film in sex ed, maybe. “Maintain your fertility, boys and girls, by eating low carb!”
Even in that scene, the most shocking word is “moron.” An educational package does strike me as a good idea. I’ll think on that … right now, I’m still working on a big ol’ software project.
Just a few thoughts…
Anthony Bourdain mentions on some of his shows he’s on Lipitor, usually right after showing some gorgeous cut of fatty meat in some exotic location he’s about to eat. He, along with most others, hasn’t made the connection that his public spurning of most veggies, along with eating copious amounts of meat (including piles of organ meat) are actually likely to “blame” for him being perpetually thin and healthy.
Okinawans eat a lot of pork. Something glossed over in the Okinawan Diet book that was the rage a few years ago. They eat some soy and fermented soy, some fish, and a lot of pork. Been that way for a long time. Again, no one seems to have made the connection that it’s because of more fat, not despite of it, that they had some surprising longevity numbers, at least in years past. They also substitute out some of the rice for sweet potatoes, which are slightly better as a carb.
That WAPF story about the woman whose health was ruined by soy and she ended up with mouth problems and cancerous nodules in her neck sounds strikingly similar to a dogmatic vegan I know who’s looking like he is on a slow slide into the grave. 🙁 Won’t give up his “morals” for his health, and is hesitating over my offer of a free copy of The Vegetarian Myth, as he knows from talking to me it will strongly challenge the beliefs he doesn’t want to give up. He wants to believe so badly. Nothing but another religion, and a damaging one at that.
Sorry to hear about your friend. Someone on Jimmy Moore’s show described vegans as the Hezbollah of the nutrition world. Seems to fit.
I’ll skip the croutons and high sugar margaritas, but the rest is B. S. Back in my low fat days, I’d choke down salad with low fat or fat free dressing. YUK Soy is bad news. These new fangled spreads contain plant sterols because they lower cholesterol. However, they may also cause aortic stenosis — try to solve a non-existant problem and creating a bigger one. Ground turkey may be good for some things, but beef is good too. I like whole milk greek yogurt and sour cream — the best of both worlds.
Though I’m all for personal choice, sometimes I wish they didn’t have the low fat or fat free yogurt on the shelves. I really have to watch it to make sure I’m getting the full fat stuff.
I wouldn’t take the lowfat stuff off the market either, but it does crowd the good stuff off the shelves.
Tom,
Did you see this? http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/US-Obama-Walking/2010/03/01/id/351254
Heaven help us if the pres starts taking a statin!
Mike
Nothing against the walking — exercise does seem to improve lipid profiles — but if the goal is to prevent heart disease, I’d say the Prez should focus on giving up cigarettes first.
I would like to add my vote to you producing an educational package to go along with Fat Head. If nothing else, teachers in English or journalism class (whoever it is that is supposed to teach critical thinking and listening to both sides of the story) could use it. I don’t think they teach critical thinking in nutritional classes, though.
The more “stuff” you give the teachers, the more likely they will be to use it, especially since the film is already clean and kid-friendly – well, except for the funniest part, where you ask your wife to discuss your sex life. 🙂 They could show the uncut film in sex ed, maybe. “Maintain your fertility, boys and girls, by eating low carb!”
Even in that scene, the most shocking word is “moron.” An educational package does strike me as a good idea. I’ll think on that … right now, I’m still working on a big ol’ software project.
I’ll skip the croutons and high sugar margaritas, but the rest is B. S. Back in my low fat days, I’d choke down salad with low fat or fat free dressing. YUK Soy is bad news. These new fangled spreads contain plant sterols because they lower cholesterol. However, they may also cause aortic stenosis — try to solve a non-existant problem and creating a bigger one. Ground turkey may be good for some things, but beef is good too. I like whole milk greek yogurt and sour cream — the best of both worlds.
Though I’m all for personal choice, sometimes I wish they didn’t have the low fat or fat free yogurt on the shelves. I really have to watch it to make sure I’m getting the full fat stuff.
I wouldn’t take the lowfat stuff off the market either, but it does crowd the good stuff off the shelves.
If it’s any consolation, there was this article on MSN:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35058896/
I read that article elsewhere awhile back. Yes, it’s a bit of consolation to see it on MSN.
Tom,
Did you see this? http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/US-Obama-Walking/2010/03/01/id/351254
Heaven help us if the pres starts taking a statin!
Mike
Nothing against the walking — exercise does seem to improve lipid profiles — but if the goal is to prevent heart disease, I’d say the Prez should focus on giving up cigarettes first.
Anthony Bourdain’s on Lipitor? Too bad he’s not informed enough to be kicking and screaming about that little turn of events.
Actually, it was he who got off the great quote about vegans — “Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.”
Great quote. Glad to know the origin.
If it’s any consolation, there was this article on MSN:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35058896/
I read that article elsewhere awhile back. Yes, it’s a bit of consolation to see it on MSN.
Anthony Bourdain’s on Lipitor? Too bad he’s not informed enough to be kicking and screaming about that little turn of events.
Actually, it was he who got off the great quote about vegans — “Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.”
Great quote. Glad to know the origin.
“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.
To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.
Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It’s healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I’ve worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.
Oh, I’ll accomodate them, I’ll rummage around for something to feed them, for a ‘vegetarian plate’, if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine.”
— Anthony Bourdain (from his book Kitchen Confidential)
Anthony Bourdain has mentioned on several shows over the years that he’s on Lipitor, though with his sense of humor and style of delivery, it’s not entirely clear whether he’s joking or not. But, knowing the common wisdom regarding cholesterol, as evidenced by even the President’s doctors in the article on Obama’s health check in the link a few comments above, it’s likely that even with a slightly elevated cholesterol count that Bourdain would have been prescribed a statin.
I don’t doubt it. A doctor in California told me to go on a lowfat diet and come back for a checkup later because my cholesterol was “elevated” at 203.
“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.
To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.
Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It’s healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I’ve worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.
Oh, I’ll accomodate them, I’ll rummage around for something to feed them, for a ‘vegetarian plate’, if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine.”
— Anthony Bourdain (from his book Kitchen Confidential)
Anthony Bourdain has mentioned on several shows over the years that he’s on Lipitor, though with his sense of humor and style of delivery, it’s not entirely clear whether he’s joking or not. But, knowing the common wisdom regarding cholesterol, as evidenced by even the President’s doctors in the article on Obama’s health check in the link a few comments above, it’s likely that even with a slightly elevated cholesterol count that Bourdain would have been prescribed a statin.
I don’t doubt it. A doctor in California told me to go on a lowfat diet and come back for a checkup later because my cholesterol was “elevated” at 203.
It looks like the link you provided to the second WAP foundation article is broken. Here’s the correct link: http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/one-womans-story/
It looks like the link you provided to the second WAP foundation article is broken. Here’s the correct link: http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/one-womans-story/
Just a few thoughts…
Anthony Bourdain mentions on some of his shows he’s on Lipitor, usually right after showing some gorgeous cut of fatty meat in some exotic location he’s about to eat. He, along with most others, hasn’t made the connection that his public spurning of most veggies, along with eating copious amounts of meat (including piles of organ meat) are actually likely to “blame” for him being perpetually thin and healthy.
Okinawans eat a lot of pork. Something glossed over in the Okinawan Diet book that was the rage a few years ago. They eat some soy and fermented soy, some fish, and a lot of pork. Been that way for a long time. Again, no one seems to have made the connection that it’s because of more fat, not despite of it, that they had some surprising longevity numbers, at least in years past. They also substitute out some of the rice for sweet potatoes, which are slightly better as a carb.
That WAPF story about the woman whose health was ruined by soy and she ended up with mouth problems and cancerous nodules in her neck sounds strikingly similar to a dogmatic vegan I know who’s looking like he is on a slow slide into the grave. 🙁 Won’t give up his “morals” for his health, and is hesitating over my offer of a free copy of The Vegetarian Myth, as he knows from talking to me it will strongly challenge the beliefs he doesn’t want to give up. He wants to believe so badly. Nothing but another religion, and a damaging one at that.
Sorry to hear about your friend. Someone on Jimmy Moore’s show described vegans as the Hezbollah of the nutrition world. Seems to fit.