HOW TO INCREASE YOUR CHOLESTEROL WITH SALADS!

Have you been told that your cholesterol is too high and you immediately go on a crash course of consuming salads only to discover that your numbers went UP? It happens fairly often and I have often wondered why. Patients will swear they have changed their diets, no red meat or shrimp. No butter or fried foods and yet there it is, their cholesterol is worse than it was before they changed their eating habits. You can only imagine how frustrating that must be, "doing everything right" including exercising and yet your numbers are getting worse! So let's look at possible causes: First there are the complicated scientific theories. For example: All your hormones are made from cholesterol, it is possible that your body perceives that you need more cholesterol to correct some hormonal imbalances. So it makes more, obviously in this case the underlying problem needs to be resolved. But it maybe as simple as checking your food labels. If you are like me, maybe you like cheese in your salad and you forget that cheese anywhere is a problem. The more you eat the higher your cholesterol gets! Obviously you would avoid boiled eggs and other high cholesterol items like that in your salad but don't forget about nuts and shellfish. If you use yogurt make sure it is low fat and then there is the dressing. Ironically, most salad dressings are laden with cholesterol but they give the calorie and cholesterol count in terms of '2 tablespoons' but do you limit yourself to 2 tablespoons each time? A mistake that I made was eating "healthy" pre-prepared foods at a local supermarket. Excited by the wide array of vegetarian foods in the hot meal section I went crazy on the Spinach Flan, Egg Plant Flan and other concoctions like the huge mushrooms with fancy melted cheese on top. When I later reviewed the cholesterol content I was shocked! The point here is simple, one has to be vigilant and pay attention to the small print even when you think you are eating healthy. One last tip: Add high fiber grains, bran and oats to your salad and your cholesterol might go down. Last but not least: despite the strong push from the pharmaceutical and cardiology community there are no studies that definitively show that taking cholesterol medicine actually decreases a person's risk of a heart attack, there are however many studies showing the complications and side effects that they cause. If you can get away with eating salads it is definitely a better option :)

New Year! New You! Detoxify!!! Out with the old :)

Happy New Year! Its been a long time since we chatted! Well 2012 was very eventful and 2013 promises to be even more so. The only New Year's Resolution I made was to write my blog more often. Resolutions are great to make but even greater when they are kept. One resolution I think we all should make is to detoxify regularly. This doesn't have to be a major command performance in fact you can start with baby steps but I believe that in today's toxic world it is crucial. For those of you who attended my last (fantastic) seminar in November, you would have heard my talk on detoxification and why it is necessary. For those who did not, let me summarize: Everything we do, eat, apply and breathe is contaminated and the health consequences of this are dire. For example, when I finished my residency the incidence of breast cancer in the US was 1 in 12: now it is reported as 1 in 8! 2100 chemicals including pesticides, medications and recreational drugs have been found in city water supplies. 80,000 metric tons of cancer causing chemicals are released into the air annually in North America ( Reference courtesy of Douglas Labs). The EPA estimates that the average US citizen has residues from over 400 toxic compounds in their body. The advantages of detoxing in January include it being easy to keep track of. Ideally do it twice a year. Start the year fresh and don't let all those other resolutions like weight loss and exercise go to waste! We currently have two detox programs available in the office and the Omnicleanse one is 20% thru the end of January (so hurry if you want the discount). Whichever one you choose you will still need to adjust your diet so here are the food guidelines: AVOID: Caffeine Sodas Alcohol Processed foods Red meat trans fats Sugar Starch Chemicals in home and work, Dry cleaning, Nail Polish INCLUDE: Plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables 8 to 10 servings a day Organic produce Almond or Rice milk Fish Whole unprocessed foods Water We will give you more specifics when you are starting the detox. Usually you will lose 3 to 5 pounds while detoxing but this is not supposed to be a weight loss method. Look at it as a system of renewal. I will blog at a later date about controlling and maintaining weight loss. We have no choice, we cannot not Detox in the year 2013! So get it over with :) Cheers!