Advanced Eating Plan for Lowering High Triglycerides

Advanced Eating Plan for Lowering High Blood Triglycerides

The purpose of this website is to present, to all who want the knowledge, a safe and dependable method through which individuals can lower their elevated blood triglyceride levels. However, it is heartening to realize you can achieve astonishing results - if you put your mind to it.

"This is the most succinct description of how to lower blood triglycerides I've heard or read. Now I'm confident I can lower my triglyceride level." -- Saul A. Hoffman

AVOID (as much as possible):

Sugar in ALL forms (added and natural) - once again, limiting sugars is CRITICAL to lipid health
Trans fatty acids (all fried foods and margarine, and many other "trans-fat" foods)
Artificial sweeteners, also called sugar substitutes, such as aspartame * (NutraSweet or Equal) and sucralose ** (Splenda) - stimulate the appetite and lead to sugar cravings or addictions
MSG - artificial chemical (it may not be listed in ingredients) - for general health
All artificial preservatives and chemicals, if possible - for general health

* Aspartame - the technical name for the brand names, NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure - is the common food additive found in thousands of products such as diet soda, yogurt, and over-the-counter medicines. However, this sugar substitute – in fact, a chemical poison (neurotoxin) - should never been approved for consumption as it poses a public health threat. Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the US FDA. A few of the 90 (!) different documented symptoms caused by the components of aspartame include: headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain (it actually increases appetite!), rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.

** Sucralose - a relatively new artificial sweetener sold under the name Splenda™. It is a high-intensity sugar substitute which is 50 percent sweeter but less toxic than aspartame. It is non-caloric and about 600 times sweeter than sucrose (white table sugar), already used in a variety of products (in the United States, approved for the use in 15 food and beverage categories). However, sucralose is NOT proven safe; it does NOT provide any benefit to the public (only for the corporations making and using sucralose); it does NOT help with weight loss (on the contrary: it my stimulate appetite); it has NOT been shown to be safe for the environment, and, finally, there are NO long-term (12-24 months) human studies on sucralose (similar to several years ago for aspartame). Its regular use may contribute to serious chronic immunological or neurological disorders.

Despite these concerns, Splenda is now used in over 4,000 products worldwide, from carbonated drinks and nutrition bars to desserts, confectionery and dairy products, according to its U.K. manufacturer Tate & Lyle. And this year (2005), the number one global soft drinks player launches a new version of Diet Coke, complete with Splenda sucralose logo on the packaging.

Favor Low-Sugar Fruit:

Low-sugar fresh fruit (highest to lowest total sugar content):

tomato - fruit vegetable (2.8 grams of sugar per 100 grams),

lemon (2.5),

avocados (0.9) - half an avocado counts as one of the five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables we should aim to eat each day,

lime (0.4).

Eat Less Moderate-Sugar Fruit:

Moderate-sugar fresh fruit (highest to lowest total sugar content):

blackberries (8.1 grams of sugar per 100 grams),

tangerine (7.7),

blueberries (7.3),

grapefruits (7.2),

starfruit (7.1),

mamey apple (6.5),

guava (6.0),

papaya (5.9),

strawberries (5.8),

casaba melon (4.7).

AVOID:

High-sugar fresh fruit (highest to lowest total sugar content):

grapes (18.1 grams of sugar per 100 grams),
banana (15.6),
mango (14.8),
apples (13.3),
purple passion fruit (11.2),
kiwifruit (10.5),
pears (10.5),
pomegranate (10.1),
raspberries (9.5),
apricots (9.3),
orange (9.2),
watermelon (9.0),
peach (8.7),
nectarine (8.5),
jackfruit (8.4),
honeydew melon (8.2),

High-sugar dried fruit (highest to lowest total sugar content):

mango (73 grams of sugar per 100 grams),
golden raisins (70.6),
zante currants (70.6),
raisins (65.0),
dates (64.2),
papaya (53.5),
pears (49.0),
peaches (44.6),
prunes (44.0),
apricots (38.9)

ALL fruit juices - fresh and bottled, store-bought and homemade.

Eat More Vegetables:

Kale, kohlrabi, Swiss chard, spinach

Dandelion greens, mustard greens, collard greens, green and red cabbage, broccoli

Red and green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, endive

Chinese cabbage, bok choy, fennel (anise), celery, cucumbers

Cauliflower, escarole, zucchini, brussel sprouts

Onions, tomatoes (fruit vegetables), peppers, parsley.

Summary: The greener vegetables, the better they are.

AVOID:

Iceberg and head lettuce: low nutritional value

Carrots and underground vegetables, especially beet roots - high in sugar

White or red potatoes, beets - high in sugar

Corn: popcorn, chips (it is a grain, not a vegetable; any food that has corn in top five ingredients)

Most grains - especially wheat (including durham flour and semolina), rye, barley

Lower other grains intake: rice (brown, short grain, and white), millet, spelt, kamut, oats, quinoa, teff, amaranth

Chewing gum (wastes digestive enzymes; source of sugar or artificial sweetener)

PLEASE NOTE: Contrary to popular opinion, a healthy diet to help lower triglycerides should reduce or, preferably, eliminate grains as they are rapidly broken down into... sugar in your body.

Healthy Fats:

Have More Omega-3 Fatty Acids, DHA and EPA:

Cod liver oil - especially during the winter, early spring and late fall months

High quality fish oil - preferably in capsules (standard size 90/180 mg of EPA and 60/120 mg of DHA)

Organic flax seeds (not flax oil) - preferably freshly ground up, mixed with salads or vegetables

AVOID:

ALL vegetable seed oils (high in omega-6 fatty acids!) with the exception of cold pressed extra virgin olive oil for salads only (for cooking or stir-frying use virgin coconut oil)

Beverages:

Drink Plain Pure Water Only:

Spring water or filtered - both are good option; however, the spring (not “drinking”) water should be bottled in clear polyethylene or glass containers, not the one-gallon plastic (PVC) containers that transfer far too many chemicals into the water; filtered water can be obtained through low-cost filters

Well water is generally OK

Drink water at room temperature if possible, not chilled or iced (ice-cold water can harm the delicate lining of your stomach; it also shuts down the digestive system!)

Lemon and lime juice can be added intermittently for flavor change

Amount of water needed daily: ideally, 1 quart for every 50 pounds of body weight, or 1 litre for every 23 kilograms of your body weight *.

* According to the FDA Consumer Magazine (January-February 2005 Issue) in 2002 in the United States the average weight for men ages 20-74 was 191 pounds (86.8 kilograms); for women the same ages it was 164 pounds (74.5 kilograms). Ideally then, on average men should consume about 3.8 quarts (about 1 gallon or 3.7 liters) and women - about 3.3 quarts (3.2 liters) pure water daily.

Drink Vegetable Juices

Freshly processed vegetable juice (ALL fruit juices should be avoided!)

Green tea - very limited amounts due to high fluoride content; accumulated by tea leaves from pollution of soil and air, fluoride can also adversely affect the beneficial action of individual antioxidants found in green tea.

AVOID:

Tap water - for general health - as it contains chlorine and may contain fluoride, toxic substances that, with ongoing consumption, can have dire consequences for the body

Softened or distilled water - for general health - as it has the wrong ionization, pH, polarization and oxidation potentials, and can drain the body of necessary minerals; it has been tied to hair loss, which is often associated with certain mineral deficiencies

Coffee, tea - consuming on average 560 mg of caffeine per day; however, the amount of caffeine in coffee or tea is variable: one 5 oz. cup of coffee contains approximately 40-170 mg caffeine (average 80 mg), one 12. oz. can of Cola contains 30-60 mg caffeine (average: 45 mg), one 8 oz. cup of black tea (one tea bag) contains 25-110 mg caffeine (average: 40 mg)

Soft drinks, colas, diet drinks - even moderate consumption of soft drinks causes “a rapid and prolonged elevation of plasma (blood) triglycerides,” also having a profound impact on hormonal balance, hunger, calorie intake, obesity and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2004:Vol. 89, No. 6); eliminating soft drinks from your diet is one of the simplest and most profound health improvements you can make (!)

Carbonated beverages, especially non-cola drinks and canned ice tea, harm – weaken and permanently destroy enamel, the protective shell around teeth (General Dentistry: July/August 2004)

Milk, especially skim (get vitamin D from supplements or sun exposure; get calcium from green vegetables or supplements)

Eat Protein

Meats, preferably grass fed ( Next link will open in a new window: Commercially Raised Beef: The Dangers Posed to Our Health

not commercially raised grain fed beef) REAL beef, game meats (venison, buffalo, lamb), free range poultry (chicken, turkey, ostrich)

Fish - with caution due to possible mercury contamination, preferably summer flounder, wild Pacific, especially Alaskan salmon ( Next link will open in a new window: Risks of Eating Farmed Salmon

Next link will open in a new window: Risks of Eating Farmed Salmon

not farm-raised salmon), Arctic char, croaker, sardines, haddock, tilapia

Eggs - preferably, free range and Next link will open in a new window

organic; if soft boiled or sunny-side up (never scrambled!) - 3 to 6 per week, every other day; if raw (Rocky-style) - 6 to 12 per week, every other day

Seeds - raw only, unsalted, whole or ground up: sunflower, pumpkin, sesame (or Next link will open in a new window

tahini), flax (or flax meal)

Nuts - raw only, unsalted, whole or ground up (nut butter): cashews, Brazil nuts, Next link will open in a new window

almonds, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts (but in limited quantities - up to 7 nuts at a time)

PLEASE NOTE: Almonds and walnuts contain beta-glucan - a fiber-type, cholesterol-lowering and immune-enhancing complex sugar (polysaccharide).

AVOID:

Pork: ham, most commercial bacon, sausages (bologna, kielbasa), pork roast and chops - pigs are land scavengers

Shellfish (marine scavengers): shrimp, lobster, crabs, clams

Peanuts - and any food that has peanuts

Eat Beans and Legumes

In limited quantities - not complete protein source, high in carbohydrates

Soak beans (not lentils) for 48-72 hours, rinsing every 12 hours

Cook them for 8-12 hours in a crock-pot

If canned - on occasion only (less nutritional value), preferably from a health food store

AVOID:

All soy, unless fermented or sprouted

Tofu, soy nuts, isolated soy protein (ISP) - soy milk, soy protein powder, soy flour

Only miso and tempeh (fermented soy), and soy sprouts are acceptable - available in a health food store.

Although the dietary restrictions advised to help lower triglycerides may seem hard, it is heartening to realize you can achieve significant reductions without medication - if you put your mind to it.

PLEASE NOTE: This eating plan by all means is NOT dangerous; however, ALL diet regimens that do work for life require both eating in moderation and exercise.

If You Don't Want or Need to Lose Weight

The above diet outline will generally cause you to lose weight. However, if you do not want or need to lose weight you can increase your intake of the following foods:

Add More:

squash

low sweet fruits

seeds

long grain brown rice (if fried, with NO oil - as the rice structure changes, the rice sugar is released more slowly)

quinoa

millet

yams, and

shredded unsweetened coconut (added to some of your meals to increase calories).

If You Are Smoking - Do NOT Stop Now!

It is far more important to stop your sugar before you stop smoking. If you try to do both at once you will most likely fail to do either. Eventually, everyone should stop smoking, but it should be done in an optimal sequence.

All you need to do is to start implementing gradually the recommended dietary changes - and you will begin seeing miracles occur. Simply, do your best!

And remember, only YOU can change the food you put in your body to release the wonderful healing power within you.

"He's Been on This Diet Six Weeks" - Testimony

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

My husband was told that he had high cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL levels approx. 6 weeks ago. (He fasted for 12 hours in preparation for the blood test).

His triglyceride was 674, cholesterol was 364, LDL was unmeasurable -- the doctor told him it was extremely high and that they were not able to measure it.

He was instructed to take Crestor. And modify his diet (without really telling him what he can and cannot eat!). He took it for about 2 weeks when he started getting muscle weakness. He stopped the medication.

I found your web site and asked my husband to read it. He did and he's been on this diet ever since.

Well, 6 weeks later, he is down from 220 to 195 pounds.

His triglyceride is now 74 (yes, 74), cholesterol is 230 (still needs some work), LDL was 160 (also needs some more work). And this is all without medication.

Thank you for your informative site.

P.S.
Please feel free to use our testimony on your website.

What's Wrong With Soy?!

In recent years soy has emerged as a “near-perfect’” food, with supporters claiming it can provide an ideal source of protein, lower cholesterol, protect against cancer and heart disease, reduce menopause symptoms, and prevent osteoporosis, among other things.

However, not everyone sings soy's praises. Numerous studies have found that soy products may:

Drinking even two glasses of soy milk daily for one month has enough of the chemical to alter a woman’s menstrual cycle.

Increase the risk of breast cancer in women, brain damage in both men and women, and abnormalities in infants

Contribute to thyroid disorders, especially in women not consuming adequate iodine

Promote kidney stones

Weaken the immune system

Cause severe, potentially fatal food allergies.

With soy portrayed as both the hero and the villain, the debate will likely rage on between the pro-soy and anti-soy camps.

Bad Soy Vs. Good Soy

"Good soy" is only fermented soy and in this form it should be consumed as a healthy food. The best examples of fermented soy products are

miso

tempeh, and

natto.

Unfortunately, "bad soy," or unfermented soy, is predominantly offered and marketed as a "healthy food." One of the most disturbing "bad soy's" effects to our health is its phytoestrogenic effect.

It is a well-known fact that phytoestrogens present in the products made from unfermented soy can mimic the effects of the female hormone estrogen. These phytoestrogens have been found to have adverse effects on various human tissues.

However, it is not that easy to stop eating soy! Unfortunately, unfermented "bad soy" is present in more than 70 percent of all supermarket products and is widely used in most fast food chains. Foods containing soy include a wide range of processed products, from hamburgers to breakfast cereals and mayonnaise.

But there's even more to this! Many foods do not list soy as an ingredient on their labels. For example, lecithin - an important ingredient of baking - is extracted from soybeans. Food labels on chocolate bars and cakes, however, will list "lecithin" as an ingredient instead of soy. Similarly, food labels on salad dressing and cooking oils extracted from soy simply list "vegetable oil" rather than soy oil.

Further, unfermented soy is used to feed animals. Whether you consume beef, lamb, bacon or processed chicken, chances are that animal was fed a soy diet, making it virtually impossible not to consume soy when eating any type of meat.

Although avoiding foods containing "bad soy" is a problem for most, do your best to pass up the processed

soy "milks"
soy "burgers"
soy "ice cream"
soy "cheese" and
the myriad of other soy junk foods that have little to do with health foods.

As one doctor put it, eating unfermented "bad soy" products is like playing roulette: "You just don't know."

Soybean Allergy

So far, about 16 allergens - water soluble proteins - have been identified in soybeans. For this reason, soybeans and its products should always be declared on the labels of prepackaged foods.

Although the prevalence of soybean allergy in the general population is probably below 0.5 percent, allergy to soybean formulas is common in food allergic children younger than 3 years of age.

Symptoms range from skin, gastrointestinal, and respiratory reactions to severe systemic reactions including anaphylaxis.

Unfortunately, soybean products are used in the manufacture of foods with almost no limits, e.g. as a texturizer, emulsifier, or protein filler. Therefore, it is a particularly hazardous hidden allergen in

pastries
bakery products
infant foods
sausages
processed meats, and
hamburgers.

Fermented soybean products such as miso, tempeh, shoyu, and natto are potentially less allergenic than raw soybeans. However, even acid and mold-hydrolyzed soy sauce retain significant allergenic potencies.

While soybean lecithins can induce allergic reactions, highly refined soybean oils are generally safe (Internet Symposium on Food Allergens 2(Suppl.3): 1-35: 2000).

What About Wheat Bread?

Wheat, and nearly all other grains, rapidly convert to sugar and rapidly accelerate aging and chronic illness in most, although certainly not all of us.

Wheat bread should not be considered a healthy or necessary part of the diet. Wheat is often contaminated with mycotoxins (literally "fungus poisons") and no matter what the form – wheat, whole wheat, cracked wheat, sprouted wheat, etc., they will all be capable of causing the same problems including:

celiac disease
rheumatoid arthritis
miscarriages
headaches
infertility
developmental delay in children
irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Intolerance to wheat is far more common than doctors typically recognize. Unless you are seriously underweight, most of us would best be served by limiting or avoiding wheat altogether.

Rest assured that if you indulge in grains to excess you are heading for elevated blood triglycerides. With no doubt, avoiding wheat will likely mean an increased level of health for you.

What About Commercial (Pasteurized) Dairy?

Despite the widespread notion that milk is healthy, drinking commercial, pasteurized milk is frequently associated with... a worsening of health.

By taking from raw milk its most vital qualities, pasteurization turns it into something that is definitely not what the milk sets out to be.

This is particularly sad because milk is one of the healthiest foods available prior to its being commercialized, namely, pasteurized.

As opposed to the pasteurized dairy that is sold in most grocery stores, raw dairy is something nearly everyone should regularly consume.

However, cultured products (kefir, yogurt) and enzymatically altered products (cheese, etc.) are acceptable - but only in moderation.

Milk pasteurization kills off harmless and useful germs - such as the lactic acid bacilli - in raw milk, preventing its souring. As the pasteurized milk cannot become sour, it quickly decomposes encouraging the growth of undesirable germs - harmful bacteria.

Subjecting the raw milk to high temperatures also destroys some of its nutritious constituents, such as part of the vitamin C. Pasteurization also turns the sugar of milk, known as lactose, into beta-lactose, far more soluble and more rapidly absorbed in the system than lactose.

Probably pasteurization's worst offence is that it makes insoluble the major part of the calcium contained in raw milk. (In children, this frequently leads to rickets, bad teeth and nervous troubles).

Pasteurization also destroys 20 percent of the iodine present in raw milk and contributes to constipation.

Unfortunately, raw milk is not commercially available, and you will need to seek out a local dairy farmer as a supplier of the "illegal goods."

Only California and Georgia still allow the sale of raw dairy products in stores.

Why illegal? Because except California and Georgia, you can only purchase these products directly from local dairy farmers. And while grocery stores have nearly everything, you won't find raw dairy products there.

The milk industry has turned raw-milk consumers into... criminals. Over the years, representatives of the industry convinced the public and federal regulators that unpasteurized, unhomogenized raw dairy products pose a serious health risk.

But What About the Industry's "Strong Bones" Claims?

A 12-year Harvard study of 80,000 nurses showed that a high intake of commercial milk appeared to actually... increase the risk of bone fractures.

Other studies have shown mounting evidence that milk may play a role in a variety of health problems, including:

prostate cancer
rheumatoid arthritis
atherosclerosis
anemia
multiple sclerosis (MS)
leukemia, and
ovarian cancer.

For more detailed information about the highs and lows of milk, read Dr. William Campbell Douglass' book Eat Your Cholesterol!

In this somewhat controversial book, previously titled "The Milk Book," Dr. Douglass - in his typical lively writing style - explains the many nutritional differences between pasteurized milk and raw milk.

Don't Steer Clear of Eggs!

Regular egg consumption is NOT harmful to the cardiovascular health of healthy adults.

For over 25 years eggs have been the icon for the fat, cholesterol and caloric excesses in the American diet, and the message to limit eggs to lower heart disease risk has been widely circulated.

No wonder many people steer clear of eating eggs altogether.

However, it is now known that eggs do not increase your risk of heart disease! (The Journal of the American College of Nutrition October, 2000: Supplement).

Egg yolks do contain cholesterol (approximately 213 milligrams of cholesterol each), leading to the traditional advice about limiting cholesterol consumption to 300 milligrams per day. However, people who reported eating four eggs a week had a significantly lower mean serum cholesterol concentration than those who reported eating one egg a week (193 mg/dL vs. 197 mg/dL). Why?

Because cholesterol found in eggs is not the primary dietary cause of high blood cholesterol levels. So why isn't regular egg consumption harmful to the cardiovascular health of healthy adults?

Next link will open in a new window Organic eggs are one of the most nutritious foods you can eat.

The researchers point out that despite their high cholesterol content, eggs contain substantial amounts of healthy nutrients. For example, they are one of the best food sources of betaine which has been shown to substantially decrease blood levels of homocysteine - an important risk factor for heart disease.

So rest assured that having your eggs isn’t going to hurt you, for they are one of the healthiest foods in the world.

Getting the Best Quality Eggs

The first step to take when selecting eggs is knowing what to look for and where to find healthy eggs.

Here are some important guidelines to follow to ensure you are getting the best quality eggs:

Check the box to make sure the eggs are free range and organic, even if they have omega-3 added.
However, it is important that you eat organic eggs. This is not necessarily cage-free or "free range" eggs.

An egg is considered organic if the chicken was only fed organic food and will not have bioaccumulated high levels of pesticides from the grains (mostly bioengineered corn) fed to typical chickens.

If they feed chickens flaxseed to increase the omega-3 fats they won't be as beneficial as if they feed the chickens seaweed or kelp, which have the far more beneficial DHA and EPA.
If you can, contact the company providing your healthy eggs and find out what they are feeding their chickens.
Purchase eggs from the farmer directly if at all possible.

In this way, you can be certain of the quality. If you cannot find a farmer to sell you eggs directly, then organic eggs from the store would be your next best option.

Organic eggs are an excellent source of high-quality nutrients in which many of us are deficient, especially high-quality protein and fat.

Although they may be a bit pricier than typical commercial eggs, the extra price is well worth it for the benefits they will bring to your health.

Consuming Fresh High-Quality Eggs

Just as important as where you buy your eggs is how you prepare them for consumption. Here are some guidelines - contributed by Dr. Joseph Mercola, a nutritionally oriented physician from Optimal Wellness Center in Illinois - to ensure that you are eating fresh high-quality eggs:

Right before you consume the yolk, always check the freshness of the egg. If you are uncertain, don't eat it. This is one of the best safeguards against salmonella infection.

Don’t eat the egg, if there is a crack in the shell. You can easily check for this by immersing the egg in a pan of cool, salted water. The egg emits a tiny stream of bubbles, if the shell is porous and contains a hole.

If you are getting your eggs fresh from a farmer it is best to not refrigerate them. This is the way most of the world stores their eggs - without refrigerating them.

First, check all the eggs by rolling them across a flat surface; fresh eggs should roll wobbly.

If you want to properly judge the freshness of an egg, check its contents at room temperature. Eggs that are stored in the fridge and opened immediately after taking them out will seem fresher than they actually are. Therefore, keep the eggs of which you want to check the freshness outside the fridge for at least an hour prior to opening them.

Don’t consume the opened egg, if
- the egg yolk easily bursts.

How to Start Eating Raw Eggs

If you are not used to eating fresh raw egg yolks, you should start by eating just a tiny bit of it on a daily basis, and then gradually increase the portions.

For example, start by consuming only a few drops of raw egg yolk a day for the first three days.

Gradually increase the amount that you consume in three-day increments. Try half a teaspoon for three days, then one teaspoon, then two teaspoons.

When you are accustomed to that amount, increase it to one raw egg yolk per day and subsequently to two raw egg yolks per day.

Fresh raw egg yolk tastes like vanilla. It can be combined with avocado. Please stir it gently with a fork, because egg protein easily gets damaged on a molecular level, even by mixing/blending.

PLEASE NOTE:
You must be cautious and not eat eggs every day as they have high potential for developing an allergy. This is presumably due to the fact that eggs are being cooked. If you consume the eggs in their raw state the incidence of egg allergy virtually disappears.

Heating the egg protein actually changes its chemical shape, and the distortion can easily lead to allergies. So, if you have not been able to tolerate eggs before you may consider eating them uncooked.

What About Cholesterol?!

The less of total cholesterol you consume, the more your body produces it.

Cholesterol is so vital to our body that it cannot rely on food sources alone for it. Therefore, less than 20 percent of total cholesterol comes from diet; the balance is being manufactured by the body.

Thus, trying to reduce our consumption of traditional cholesterol-laden foods, including butter, cream, cheese, eggs, and meat, may be an exercise in futility.

It has been known for many years that very large doses of cholesterol lead to... a decreased percentage of its absorption. However, considerable variation is seen in absorption from person to person, and the ranges vary five-fold.

Unfortunately, there are no lab tests to predict if you absorb a lot or very little cholesterol. The fact is that the average absorption is clearly decreased at usual cholesterol intake. This could explain why studies with feeding eggs every day to volunteers have shown almost no effect on serum (blood) cholesterol levels (Journal of Lipid Research, August 1999).

For full health benefits, it is best not to cook the eggs.

With respect to preparing the eggs, raw eggs may not be the problem you think they are.

This helps preserve many of the highly perishable nutrients such as lutein and zeaxanthin, which are powerful prevention elements of the most common cause of blindness, age related macular degeneration.

But whatever method you use, the less exposure to oxygen and heat, the better the egg will serve as source of good nutrition for you.

When you heat the egg yolk, changes occur in the fragile elements that serve to support the vital life force within the egg.

The yolk, in many ways, is not very different from your own cells. As put by Dr. Joseph Mercola, once your temperature goes above 105 degrees Celcius 68 (221 degrees Fahrenheit) you will start to suffer serious health problems.

Similarly, heating the yolk above 105°C, or 221°F will also start to cause structural changes in many of the highly perishable components present in the yolk. The most obvious one is cholesterol.

The higher the egg yolk is heated, the more likely oxidation of cholesterol will occur.

This is especially true when it is combined with egg white as in scrambled eggs.

As a matter of fact, eating scrambled eggs is one of the worst ways to eat eggs. High temperature, increased air (oxygen) and light exposure, along with the typical use of chemically unstable vegetable oils and the presence of iron in the egg white, actually oxidize the cholesterol in the egg yolk.

In other words, scrambling eggs may lead to high levels of LDL-“bad” cholesterol known for its markedly damaging effects on the cardiovascular system. (Our blood vessels do not have receptors for cholesterol, only for oxidized LDL cholesterol).

So, you can eat as many eggs as you like, without worrying about cholesterol, as long as you don't cook the yolks.

A healthy person can have 3 - 6 eggs per week, preferably raw or soft-boiled, or sunny-side-up (never scrambled!).

If you are concerned about the risk of salmonella from raw eggs, you may rest assured that most people have a better chance of winning the lottery than contracting salmonella from eggs from healthy chickens.

Regular consumption of raw eggs -- for a healthy person, 6 to 12 eggs per week, Rocky-style, every other day -- can dramatically improve your health.

PLEASE NOTE:
The key to healthy eating of raw eggs is to make sure you cook the whites. If you fail to do so you will eventually develop a biotin deficiency that can result in neurologic consequences.

What About Vegetable Oils?

Polyunsaturated oils, which include vegetable oils like corn, soy, safflower and canola, are the worst oils you can eat, as generally Americans’ intake of omega-6 fat from these vegetable oils is far too high.

Experts looking at the dietary ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, which are the healthy fats found in fish oil and cod liver oil, suggest that in early human history the ratio was about 1:1.

Currently most Americans eat a dietary ratio that falls between 20:1 and 50:1. The optimal ratio is most likely closer to the original ratio of 1:1. For most of us this means greatly reducing the omega-6 fatty acids we consume and increasing the amount of omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, nuts and seeds.

By all means, vegetable oils should NOT be regarded as healthy oils. The truly healthy oil is coconut oil.

What About Trans Fat?

Polyunsaturated vegetable oils are the worst oils to cook with because they tend to become easily oxidized or rancid when exposed to heat from cooking. This results in the formation of trans-fat and damaging free radicals.

Trans fat - formed when vegetable oils are hardened into margarine and shortening - is known to increase blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), known as "good" cholesterol.

It is found to increase the risk of heart disease.

The FDA has recently taken the position that “intake of trans fats should be as low as possible.” This is the only legal food ingredient that merits such strong concern by this agency.

One problem with the use of trans fat is that food companies are not required to list it on nutrition labels so we, consumers, have no way of knowing how much trans fat is in the food we are eating.

Here's the list of the top 10 commercial "trans-fat" foods:

spreads (margarine, shortening)
packaged foods (cake mixes)
soups (Ramen noodles)
fast food (french fries, fried chicken)
frozen food (pies, pot pies, waffles, pizzas, even breaded fish sticks)
baked goods (doughnuts, cookies)
chips and crackers (potato chips, corn chips, buttery crackers)
breakfast food (breakfast cereal, energy bars)
candies (chocolate bars)
toppings and dips (nondairy creamers, flavored coffees, whipped toppings, bean dips, gravy mixes, salad dressings).

Unfortunately, many people often eat these "foods" they know are bad. For them trans-fat "foods" are just comfort food - dangerous, but tasty!

However, for some people comfort foods are also foods that remind them of good things, like sweet childhood memories, for example, having pasta and meatballs on Sundays at Grandma's house...

What About Orange Juice?

Fruit juice has about eight full teaspoons of sugar per eight-ounce glass. This sugar is typically a fruit sugar called fructose, which is every bit as dangerous as regular table sugar since it will also cause a major increase in insulin levels.

Further, many commercial orange juices are contaminated with mold from damaged fruit that are processed. So if you drink commercial orange juice regularly you will be exposed to these mold toxins.

If you have high triglycerides you should avoid fruit juices and most fruits.

This does not mean that you should avoid fruit, just fruit juice. When the fruit is intact and whole, its fiber will moderate the release of fructose into the bloodstream, as well as somewhat moderate insulin release.

However, if you are overweight, with high blood pressure, high blood triglycerides, or high blood sugar, it would probably be wise to avoid most fruits until you have these problems under control.

Artificial Sweeteners Cause Overindulgence

Despite the sweetener industry stating that “sweeteners play an active part in weight loss” and are a “valuable tool for weight control,” a recent study in the International Journal of Obesity revealed that:

eating artificially sweetened foods and drinking artificially sweetened beverages might hinder your body's ability to count calories.

Artificial sweeteners thus, for the most part usually used in nutritionally worthless products, boost our inclination to overindulge (IJO 2004 28, 933-935).

Over the past 25 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the consumption of artificially sweetened beverages and foods. Obesity has also skyrocketed during this period.

According to a survey by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), low-calorie, sugar-free products such as artificially sweetened sodas and desserts are regularly consumed by 144 million American adults.

What About Xylitol?

Xylitol is extracted from birch cellulose and is considered to be a carbohydrate alcohol ("sugar alcohol").

Sugar alcohols are derived from monosaccharides by reduction of a carbonyl group (CO), so that each carbon atom of the sugar has an alcohol group (OH). That would lead most of us to believe that it is still a sugar, and should be disclosed as sugar on our labels.

As to the glycemic index, when compared with other sugars, Xylitol's effect on blood sugar levels is extremely low as it metabolizes in a dissimilar manner and may be used safely for diabetics and hypoglycemics.

However, the FDA, in its wisdom, decided that only sugars that are classified as monosaccharides and disaccharides would be disclosed as sugar on labels.

Since a sugar alcohol is neither of these, then, according to the prevailing food labeling laws, the Xylitol mints gums are considered "sugar free" by the FDA.

"Sugar-Free" chewing gum contains xylitol because it does not produce the bacterial support for increase of cavity causing acids). Bacterial salivary organisms do not feed, grow or ferment on xylitol as they do on other simple sugars.

The following glycemic index numbers - averaged from several sources - make this clear:

Sucrose: 68

Honey: 55

Fructose: 20
Xylitol: 8

Safety of Xylitol

The scientific conclusions from 1996 indicate that the use of xylitol in humans is safe. Therefore, it has been accepted as an approved food additive for use in foods for special dietary uses.

Also an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of "not specified" has been allocated for xylitol. An ADI - the amount of food additive that can be taken daily in the diet over a lifetime without risk - of "not specified" is the safest category in which a food additive can be placed. Also in Europe, xylitol has been determined "acceptable" for dietary uses.

What About Fish?

Fish, especially fatty fish, are the main predominant source of omega-3 oils - the essential fatty acids, so named because without them we die.

More recent research has established that the most beneficial and active of omega-3 fatty acids found in fish are:

EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and
DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).

Unfortunately, it is estimated that over 85 percent of people in the Western world are... deficient in beneficial omega-3 oils.