Avoiding
eggs, to supposedly keep the blood cholestrol in control, is not
recommendable: eggs are the richest source of the full complex of
amino-acids (components of proteins) that Nature delivers. Not only
this, but they are also fantastic concentrates of minerals and vitamins:
egg yolks are rich in calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6,
folate, pantothenic acid and B12.
The yolk also contains vitamins A, D and E, as well as omega-3 fatty acids. Egg yolks are also a rich source of choline (essential for brain function and CV function), and the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin that protect the eyes and lower the risk of macular degeneration. These elements make the egg the perfect complete food.
Several research publications now state that eating one or two eggs a day does not impact your Cho levels, in normal conditions (this does not apply for example to people with diabetes or people on a high carbohydrate diet or people with history of a heart attack).
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For more information on cholesterol levels, how to control them and, especially, why and ..is this necessary? check the history on 'Cholesterol, fats and cardiovascular health' on this website: http://leelawadee-silviap.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/cholesterol-control-right-fats-in-your.html
or buy it for 5 $ (4 euors) each chapter (total of 6 chapters) to receive it in your email.
....What is finally the right food to enjoy a long healthy life, i.e. to protect you from atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke, thrombosis, infarction, heart failure and others?
The increasing rate of cardiovascular diseases of the past few decades has given a strong incentive to research in biomedicine, biochemistry, epidemiology to try to find the culprit of such a devastating raise of coronary heart diseases, strokes, heart attacks… However what is the ‘right food’ to avoid such medical conditions has been and is still a maze of different and often opposing recommendations.
Association of saturated fats to increase of serum cholesterol and this one, in turn, to cardiovascular disease has been the accepted picture, that led to dietary recommendations supporting “safe” consumption of unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and carbohydrates, at the expenses of cholesterol-rich food and saturated fats which would be avoided like the pest!
However, now we can state that saturated fat can actually improve – and not damage - our health: saturated fats are now saved from the trash because needed by the brain and to protect us from dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Likewise we now know better about PUFAs: of the once acclaimed health-protecting unsaturated fatty acids, the omega 6 are now feared because known to promote inflammation (including the one responsible for atherosclerosis and heart diseases) and increase many illnesses, while the omega 3 appear to be the winners, countering negative effects of other fats.
Now most (although not all) of the molecular mechanisms are better understood and the adverse effects of refined carbohydrates and PUFAs clarified. We now understand why, after saturated fats were declared demons to be avoided, in the 60s and 70s, and were replaced with PUFAs and carbohydrates in diets, we now observe an increased level of global obesity and other health complications like inflammatory diseases, and at the same time a lack of the expected decrease of cardiovascular diseases.
These confusing recommendations drove and drive many attentive eaters mad while trying to convince them every other decade that what they eat is wrong and that the new fad diet of the moment is the ‘real’ health-promoting and long-life assuring diet.
In this whole history of dietary inconsistencies and wars between good fats, bad fats, high carbohydrates versus high protein diets, the present focus on cholesterol control is another giant system of contradictory statements and misunderstood explanations.
I’ve been bathing for the past few years in studies of anatomy, physiology, physiopathology and researches or reviews of researches designed to explain the importance (necessity?) of lowering cholesterol (Cho) levels in the blood for preventing cardiovascular diseases (CVD). I’ve found many things being illogic, unexplained and harmful. I’ve seen a lot of discrepancies, contradictory research and inconclusive analysis on the matter Cho-heart.
At the same time I’ve watched people being prescribed drugs without a real knowledge of the cause of their condition, if there even is one. I’ve been following healthy people being prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs almost automatically with appearance of menopause or at later age, often without need.
Thus I’ve been feeling more and more compelled to share with people what I learned by the reading of research and reviews on the connection between Cho and CVDs and on the real need and effects (expected and collateral) of the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, as well as on the real need to avoid saturated fats.
I will try to trace what is known by biochemistry at the present day and what seems to be the logical application of such understanding to our feeding behavior, in order to help avoid the most serious and common – old and new - diseases of the 21st century society and the need to use expensive and heavily-impacting drugs.
I am a strong believer of the need of educating ourselves to understand what health is and to accept our individual responsibility to our own health, to avoid to unconsciously fall into acceptance of drugs prescriptions without understanding what they are for and how they function and what secondary effects they might cause. I hope that this story on fats will help in this process of understanding of the human body.
This reading will be presented in chapters, delivered to your e-mailbox when ordered through the web site in What we do/Lectures.
Thank you.
I would never have thought that my coconut cookies had such beneficial effects for so many ailments and were preventative for disastrous diseases! I recently dove into research on the properties of coconut oil and discovered some very interesting results.
Coconut oil ameliorates the cholesterol1 profile: it reduces total cholesterol1, triglycerides, phospholipids, LDL, and VLDL and increases HDL cholesterol.
Coconut oil is strongly antioxidant2 due to the presence of lauric acid and phenolic compounds, as was measured in the liver, heart and kidneys. It has antimicrobial effects, antibacterial, antiviral and anti-mycotic (treats infections from Candida): some of the viruses that have been destroyed by a derivative of lauric acid contained in coconut oil include HIV, measles, herpes simplex virus-1, vesicular stomatitis virus, influenza and cytomegalovirus. For its antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects it is used in treating acne.
There is also evidence that the coconut oil prevents osteoporosis, stimulates the thyroid functions, is thermogenic, helps reduce body weight and abdominal fat, is hepatoprotective, protects the heart by protecting heart mitochondria (producers of energy on all cells), alleviates arthritis, and has shown to improve Alzheimer’s disease condition and cognitive functions and to attenuate progression of weakness and spinal cord motor neuron loss in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
Most of the properties of coconut oil derive from it being a saturated fat3 (yes a SATURATED fat, you read well!). Moreover, it contains medium chain fatty acids (and not long chain as in most vegetable oils). Beside their beneficial chemical properties, MCfas are burned for energy and do not accumulate as body fat!
So…my cookies. I am never a good deliverer of recipes because I never measure ingredients but mix them by eye and feel. So let’s say I will approximate a recipe which changes at every time, but which always gives good results!
Hearty Coconut Cookies
3/4 cup of wholewheat flour (you can replace with spelt or any other liked flour)
1/2 cup of buckwheat flour
1/2 cup of coconut flour
3 spoonfuls of coconut oil
2 eggs
1/3 cup of raw sugar
¼ cup of raisins
1/4 cup of dark (80%) chocolate chips
1 teaspoonful of cardamom
2 teaspoonfuls of cinnamon
(if the dough is too brittle, you can add 1/2 cup of oatmeal milk or soya milk)
Work the dough with your hands until smooth, flatten with roller, cut cookies at a 3 mm height, place in over at 180 degree Celsius and cook for 15-20 minutes. Taste after cooling!
1 Soon to appear on this blog, a summary of latest research on cholesterol and why, according to many doctors and researchers, it is not always a good idea to lower it.
2 In a future post I will be talking about oxidation and the deeds caused by such a devastating chemical event
3 In an imminent post I will discuss about saturated fats, the not so bad (the best?) fats to better include in the healthy diet.
News have been flowing through the papers, tv and the web that fats are not our worst enemies. Nutritional research has been claiming this for the past 20+ years. But as usual, the information to the normal public through media (mainstream and alternative) arrives - even if with interpretational errors - with a little delay compared to science.
CHOLESTEROL is not all bad, and not even the splitting between LDL (bad?) and HDL (good!) tells the whole metabolic tale of cardiovascular disesases risks. So, should we lower it or not? Check this research done in Australia project that disclosed that at higher serum LDL and TOTAL cholesterol corresponded better memory in women bewteen 52 and 63 years old.
There is also information that in people over 60, the rates of death and dementia go UP if cholesterol is lowered beyond 250. (btw. why did it used to be 350?). Simple to understand, the brain NEEDS fats and it is high in cholesterol, which acts as precursor of neurotransmitters. Take away those fats and the brain does not function that well.
But here come the so ever popular statins, which DO reduce cholesterol, but also cause neuropathies and myopathies, by lowering the level of CoQ10, highly demanded by the heart (!). Statins lower CoQ10 by up to 40%. So, we lower the fats that are needed for good functioning of the brain and the same time lower a substance that is essential for optimum health and longevity of all cells, and especially those of the heart (Wait a minute, don't we take statins to prevent CARDIO vascular problems??).
Anyway, coming back to the fats and how their reputaion has incredibly improved so that they are considered our passport to a good health.... Let's consider the fact that in the past 40 years we have been told to stop eating butter and move to margarine, to stop eating lard and cook with vegetable oils, and yet, the rates of obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, cardiac disease, hypertension and cancer have been skyrocketing. Now the culprit is understood to be grains, or charbohydrates or complex sugars, which have been replacing the free slot left by low fat diets.
So, the 'new' diet recommendation tells us to move to high proteins, low or no carbs, and high fat (including SATURATED animal fats!) diets: the Paleolothic diet. This regime, with its compelling logic, is taking the place of the low fat diets of the 80s and 90s.
PALEOLITHIC: in the past 10,000 years, our DNA hasn't YET had the time to adapt to the grain and milk farming of the pastoral civilizations, therefore we should still be eating grass-fed meat, nuts, roots and berries. Right. Without going to extremes and excesses and depriving ourselves of self indulging and short-term rewarding carbs-rich foods, we should keep in mind that QUALITY is more important than QUANTITY. We do not have to sacrifice our cooking pleasures to measure and weight grams of proteins and avoid all grains as the devil. However, we should be aware of choosing the good foods. The GOOD FATS, to undo the mistakes of the low-fats preaching, should be NATURAL, not man-made, not saturated and industrially-manipulated- such transformations are mostly introduced by the food companies for getting longer-lasting packages that can sit on shelves for months and NOT to provide the healthiest foods.
Still in terms of quality, the rate between OMEGA 3 (craved by the brain) to omega 6 fatty acids has been decreasing in western diets from 4:1 during the processed food revolution, to 8:1 in WWII times, to 20:1 as today, while this same ratio should be 1:1!!! Now, the problem with omega 6, is that they are favoring inflammatory states, which are implicated in issues like atherosclerosis, asthma, arthritis, thrombosis, cancer, autoimmune diseases and dementia! Where do we get such omega 6? Seeds oils! Soybean, sunflower, cottonseeds, peanut, grapeseed, corn oils etc. The under-represented omega 3 are found in linseeds (flax), canola, cold water fish and nuts such as walnuts and few others.
So, coming down to few simple recommendations: avoid processed food (which always contain processed omega 6 rich oils), cook with coconut butter (or, if you are not lactose intolerant, a little butter, organic and from grass-fed cows) and use extravirgin olive oil for crude condiment. Eat tons of antioxidants in the shape of vegetables. Eat few grains and focus on others than wheat (which has been loosing its protein content with farming processes and gives gluten intolerance or low tolerance to many) such as buckwheat (not a grain), whole oats and barley, quinoa, amaranth.
This article is not to be taken as a suggestion to stop using statins. Please keep to your doctor's recommendations, while you are always free to ask clarifications.
Which fats are necessary, which harmful?
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