Do You Have High Cholesterol?

This is an article from Natural News, titled "High cholesterol levels easily managed with these five nutritious foods". If you have high cholesterol, you have inflammation in your arteries and very likely inflammation in the rest of your body that often manifests itself in joint pain. That's why many people feel they incur a surprising benefit for aching joints when they go take a quality Omega 3 supplement to help combat high cholesterol levels. My cholesterol level was 210 nine years ago before starting taking quality supplements including a Omega 3 product. Today, at 55 years old, my cholesterol level is always around the 150 to 160.......I would undoubtedly benefit from moderating my diet of milk products, but I certainly like my biscuits with a lot of butter and the I don't go more than a few days with a large chocolate milkshake!

Almost 15 percent of American adults have high levels of cholesterol, putting them at risk for stroke, heart disease and other serious health issues that can significantly increase the risk of mortality. For many, cholesterol-controlling drugs called statins have become a mainstay, yet despite the widespread use of statins, recent studies have shown that using them long-term may also pose serious risks.

Turning to medication for every ailment is a deeply entrenched habit associated with Western culture, but the fact is, there are alternatives for controlling cholesterol that don't include medicine. These approaches rely on a few simple dietary changes that can help reduce cholesterol significantly.

What is cholesterol anyway?

Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is derived from different types of foods -- both meats and vegetables. Some cholesterol is good for the body, playing an essential role in metabolizing some vitamins and minerals. But too much of the wrong kind of cholesterol can build up along the sides of blood vessels, impeding blood flow and often causing clots.

There are two types of cholesterol -- so-called "bad" and "good" cholesterols. Low-density lipoproteins, or LDLs, are considered "bad," because they can turn into artery-clogging plaque, a substance that sticks to vessel walls, blocking blood flow and making vessels less flexible. "Good" cholesterol is found in high-density lipoproteins, also called HDL. HDL actually acts as a scavenger, helping remove LDL from the bloodstream, so less plaque builds up.

For many people, high cholesterol levels are easily managed by just a few changes to their diet. Here are a few of the most common foods that can help you manage cholesterol:

Beans

"Beans, beans, the magical fruit...." Turns out, they actually are pretty magical when it comes to helping lower levels of LDL cholesterol. A recent study from Canada showed that just one 3/4-cup serving of beans, chickpeas or lentils per day could cut LDL levels by as much as 5 percent. Beans are full of soluble fiber which helps remove LDL from the blood. All that fiber can also help promote healthy digestion and even reduce the risk of colon cancer. Not crazy about the, ahem, side effect of eating beans? Turns out, incorporating beans more often into your diet helps your body adjust to the increase in fiber, so the gassy effects can also be reduced over time.

Oatmeal

Like beans, oats contain that LDL-lowering soluble fiber too. The fiber in oatmeal helps reduce the amount of "bad" cholesterol that can absorbed into the bloodstream. Many grocery stores carry products that are made with oat bran, but you can skip the middle man by simply eating more oatmeal. All it takes is about a cup and a half to get 6 grams of fiber. Experts recommend 5 to 10 grams per day to reduce LDL. Pump up the fiber by chopping up an apple or a banana for an additional 4 to 5 grams.

MyAchingKnees comment: I prefer Steel Cut Oats - pretty yummy!

Tea

Prefer to drink to your health? Then tea is the way to go. Just three cups of green or black tea each day are all that's need to get the maximum LDL-lowering benefits of tea, and tea also provides a significant source of antioxidants called polyphenols that can help ward off certain cancers. Tea also boosts levels of "good" HDL. Like to drink your tea iced? It makes no difference -- the benefits are the same.

Olive oil

It's true that many of the fats we eat contain high levels of LDL cholesterol, but one fat that can actually help battle "bad" cholesterol is olive oil. Olive oil is one of the mainstays of the "Mediterranean" diet that's been touted in the news recently for its substantial health benefits. You only need to add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil to your diet each day in order to reap the benefits. Mix it with herbs to make a flavorful dip for bread or use it in a dressing for fresh vegetables. Choose extra-virgin olive oil to get the most benefits.

Fish

Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines and even tuna contain heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, proven to reduce blood pressure. The American Heart Association recommends at least two servings of fatty fish each week to keep your heart healthy. If you can't stand the taste of fish, you can find fish oil tablets to supplement your diet, but you'll miss out on many of the other minerals and nutrients found in fish. Another source of omega-3s: flaxseed. Grind it up first to release the healthful benefits and sprinkle the ground seed on foods before eating.

In addition to making a few dietary changes, don't neglect those other heart-healthy steps you can take that also help lower cholesterol, like regular aerobic exercise. Like dietary changes, exercise doesn't have to be complicated or extreme: Simply taking regular walks can yield amazing benefits.



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Inflammation From Our Diet Is Killing Us Slowly

This is the summary of an article written by David Seaman and produced on a pod cast via Peak Prosperity - thanks to Rick for sending to me. I believe that inflammation from oxidative stress is what is driving the epidemic of degenerative disease or at least the early onslaught of these debilitating conditions.

Science continues to shed new light on how nutrition has a huge effect on the status of our health. In particular, medicine is zeroing in inflammation as key factor in the aging process - that, over time, diet-caused inflammation wears down our internal systems, resulting in impaired performance (e.g., leaky gut, weight gain) and disease (e.g., Diabetes, heart disease).

This week, Chris speaks with Dr. David Seaman, Professor of Clinical Sciences at the National University of Health Sciences, one of the leading experts on clinical nutrition for pain and inflammation. They discuss inflammation, what causes it, the damage it does to our bodies, and the dietary changes we can make to reduce our exposure to it. This exploration is heavy on the science, but still very accessible to the interested layman:

Inflammation related to diet is a very, very subtle process. So for example, just waking up in the morning, going over to the coffee shop, and having a donut that actually leads to low-grade inflammation after you eat, but you just do not feel it. It is a very distinct process.

The problem with dietary inflammation is it basically builds up on us over time. And then out of the blue, we can be diagnosed with any number of possible diseases and you can think, I wonder what caused this. And it was the last 10 – 30 years, depending upon how aggressive one was in their pursuit of the disease. I call it 'pursuing disease' with dietary inflammation.

Depending upon how aggressive one is, it can appear that the cause/effect relationship is lost because compared to a sprained ankle or a bee sting you do not do a 'drive-by self-shooting', as I call it. It is not like you eat fast food at a restaurant and all of a sudden feel aches and pains everywhere. It takes time to progress. So you have the acute inflammation with an injury that is very obvious. Then you have the more subtle low-grade inflammation that you cannot even feel initially. But they are generally the same. It is just that with an acute scenario, there is actual tissue injury and it is much more robust, more overt versus subtle.

So for the chronic inflammation example, you go and do a 'drive-by self-shooting' or you stop at a coffee shop and have whatever you are going to have: a bagel, a cup of coffee or tea, or you'll even have a donut. But that will cause, after you eat it, a postprandial, (postprandial means "after we eat it"); you will get a surge of blood sugar because you just consumed a refined carbohydrate. That surge of blood sugar is going to get dumped into a muscle. And that will take place as a consequence of insulin being released. That surge of blood sugar it is typically not normal for us to experience, based upon our genetic disposition in terms of food sources. So you will have rapid movement of the blood sugar into immune cells, for example. And when the immune cells get hit with this high blood sugar surge, they generate free radicals. And these free radicals lead to the production by the immune cell by inflammatory chemistry. So there is an immediate, a postprandial, post-eating inflammatory response to hyperglycemia. It is subtle dietary trauma versus overt physical trauma.

Of great value in this interview is the identification of the worst dietary offenders (refined sugars, flours, Omega-6 and trans fats) and the strategies we can use in our eating to keep inflammation at bay. Go to the link and pisten to the podcast, it'll be a good expense of your time.

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What Causes Heart Disease?

This article is by a world renowned Heart Surgeon who is speaking out on what he thinks really causes heart disease. This was published on MyScienceAcademy.org by Dr. Dwight Lundell. Dr Lundell is the past Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital, Mesa, AZ. His private practice, Cardiac Care Center was in Mesa, AZ. Recently Dr. Lundell left surgery to focus on the nutritional treatment of heart disease. He is the founder of Healthy Humans Foundation that promotes human health with a focus on helping large corporations promote wellness. He is also the author of The Cure for Heart Disease and The Great Cholesterol Lie.

What Causes Heart Disease? We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong.. As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact.

World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease

I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labeled “opinion makers.” Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.

The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.

It Is Not Working!

These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.

The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.

Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.

Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people in greater numbers every year.

Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.

Inflammation is not complicated — it is quite simply your body’s natural defense to a foreign invader such as a bacteria, toxin or virus. The cycle of inflammation is perfect in how it protects your body from these bacterial and viral invaders. However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods the human body was never designed to process, a condition occurs called chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute inflammation is beneficial.

What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or other substances that are known to cause injury to the body? Well,smokers perhaps, but at least they made that choice willfully.

The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream diet that is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. This repeated injury creates chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity.

Let me repeat that: The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine.

What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.

Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. you kept this up several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body right now.

Regardless of where the inflammatory process occurs, externally or internally, it is the same. I have peered inside thousands upon thousands of arteries. A diseased artery looks as if someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall. Several times a day, every day, the foods we eat create small injuries compounding into more injuries, causing the body to respond continuously and appropriately with inflammation.

While we savor the tantalizing taste of a sweet roll, our bodies respond alarmingly as if a foreign invader arrived declaring war. Foods loaded with sugars and simple carbohydrates, or processed with omega-6 oils for long shelf life have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades. These foods have been slowly poisoning everyone.

How does eating a simple sweet roll create a cascade of inflammation to make you sick?

Imagine spilling syrup on your keyboard and you have a visual of what occurs inside the cell. When we consume simple carbohydrates such as sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell where it is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works.

When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat.

What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.

While you may not be able to see it, rest assured it is there. I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who all shared one common denominator — inflammation in their arteries.

Let’s get back to the sweet roll. That innocent looking goody not only contains sugars, it is baked in one of many omega-6 oils such as soybean. Chips and fries are soaked in soybean oil; processed foods are manufactured with omega-6 oils for longer shelf life. While omega-6’s are essential -they are part of every cell membrane controlling what goes in and out of the cell – they must be in the correct balance with omega-3’s.

If the balance shifts by consuming excessive omega-6, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that directly cause inflammation.

Today’s mainstream American diet has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats. The ratio of imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of omega-6. That’s a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation. In today’s food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy.

To make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from eating these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar. The process that began with a sweet roll turns into a vicious cycle over time that creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and finally, Alzheimer’s disease, as the inflammatory process continues unabated.

There is no escaping the fact that the more we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.

There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural state. To build muscle, eat more protein. Choose carbohydrates that are very complex such as colorful fruits and vegetables. Cut down on or eliminate inflammation- causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil and the processed foods that are made from them.

One tablespoon of corn oil contains 7,280 mg of omega-6; soybean contains 6,940 mg. Instead, use olive oil or butter.

Animal fats contain less than 20% omega-6 and are much less likely to cause inflammation than the supposedly healthy oils labeled polyunsaturated. Forget the “science” that has been drummed into your head for decades. The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is non-existent. The science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is also very weak. Since we now know that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, the concern about saturated fat is even more absurd today.

The cholesterol theory led to the no-fat, low-fat recommendations that in turn created the very foods now causing an epidemic of inflammation. Mainstream medicine made a terrible mistake when it advised people to avoid saturated fat in favor of foods high in omega-6 fats. We now have an epidemic of arterial inflammation leading to heart disease and other silent killers.

What you can do is choose whole foods your grandmother served and not those your mom turned to as grocery store aisles filled with manufactured foods. By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage in your arteries and throughout your body from consuming the typical American diet.





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Harold's Knee Pain

I received another e-mail from Harold, a 50 year carpenter-home repair specialist who I have been talking to about his bad knees and his health in general. Harold said ”I wanted to tell you that after two months of adding the Omega 3’s I feel better than ever. No doubt the Glucosamine helped greatly as my pain going downstairs is gone, but somehow I think the Omega 3’s is helping my knees too. I haven't got my cholesterol level yet, but will let you know. Thanks”

When I first started talking to Harold I suggested trying pharmaceutical grade Glucosamine that is optimized with Vitamin C and a highly bioavailable complex from Curcumin, before he gave in and tried a prescription drug or pain killer. He tried it for two months and found significant pain relief. 

Back and forth with Harold uncovered that he was an unabashed red meat eater,...almost every day.  I told Harold that he may want to add a Omega 3 supplement and try to reduce the large amount of Omega 6's he was getting in his diet, which he told me also consisted of alot of eggs and nuts.  He did not try an Omega 3 supplement at first until I mentioned that a quality Omega 3 supplement shows promise in clinical trials in reducing cholesterol levels and Harold had a cholesterol level of 240.     

Red meat, walnuts, cashews, eggs, vegetable oil and almonds are high in Omega 6 Fatty Acids which combined with our low intake of Omega 3 foods (normal in the Western diet) will increase our Omega 6 to 3 ratios well past the recommended 2:1 ratio to sometimes as high as 40:1.

This imbalance of Omega 6 to 3 Fatty Acids is thought to increase oxidative stress and therefore free radical damage and resulting in inflammation which of course can affect the body anywhere and can as joint pain and a host of other symptoms.  

So even though Harold tried the Omega 3 supplement primarily for his cholesterol, he found out that it seems to also be helping with his knee pain which was his primary concern. 

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Best Foods for the Winter

This is from an article titled "The 6 Best Foods for Winter" by David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding on Yahoo! Health

It’s the first snow of the season, and it’s so heavy and wet that it clogs your snowblower. You have two choices. Option 1: Shove your arm between the augers and remove the blockage. The downside: You’ll lose your arm in the process, and having it reattached will probably bankrupt you. Option 2: Turn off the machine, grab a broom stick, and chip at the blockage until it crumbles.

You might be thinking, “What kind of lunatic would choose option 1?” Well, lunatics like the American people. The U.S. spends more than $2 trillion on health care each year, with much of that cash going toward the treatment of obesity-related complications like heart disease and diabetes. We’re fixing our health problems retroactively, with medication and surgery, even though we could prevent most of them by making smarter choices about what we eat.

There’s no better time to put this notion to the test than the winter months. Winter is not necessarily conducive to good health; the season conjures up images of calorie-loaded comfort foods, fireside naps, and runny noses. Read on for six everyday foods that will keep you healthy and strong from December to March and beyond, compliments of the all-new Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide, which includes thousands of smart swaps that can help you shave 20 pounds or more in just 6 weeks.

Best Winter Food #1: Oatmeal

What it does: Helps you avoid the winter blues

Why it works: Sunlight signals your body to produce the feel-good hormone serotonin, so winter’s short, dark days may leave you in a less-than-cheery mood. If the doldrums persist, you may even find yourself suffering a serious form of depression known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). But don’t let Jack Frost get you down: Whole grain carbs like oatmeal can give your winter mood a much-needed boost. In a MIT study, researchers found that eating plenty of carbohydrates keeps serotonin levels up and can even prevent cravings for sweets. Refined carbs like doughnuts and white bread can be tempting winter comforts, but these foods will cause your blood sugar to quickly spike then plummet, leaving you in worse spirits than you were before. To stay happy and healthy, opt for whole grains instead.

Best Winter Food #2: Walnuts

What it does: Keeps your skin from drying out

Why it works: The winter months bring drier air (blame frigid winds and indoor heating), which can suck the moisture out of your skin, leaving it dull, tight, and itchy. Applying moisturizer can help, but the omega-3 fatty acids found in foods like walnuts will combat your dry-skin problem from the inside. Omega-3s help maintain healthy cell membranes, including those found in your skin. When your skin cells are strong they are better able to retain moisture, helping your skin avoid a reptilian fate.

MyAchingKnees tip: Try Walnuts in Steel Cut Oats. You can sweeten with lite Brown Sugar or Honey.

Best Winter Food #3: Garlic

What it does: Wards off cold and flu viruses (and vampires)

Why it works: British researchers recently discovered that garlic may prevent you from getting sick. In the 12-week study of 164 healthy adults, the group of participants that received a garlic supplement reported only 24 colds, while the group that received a placebo reported 64 colds. One explanation is a chemical in garlic called allicin, which may stimulate the production of infection-fighting white blood cells. Whatever the reason, adding garlic to your meals may help you stay above the weather. Just don’t eat too much—you want to keep disease at bay, not your friends and family.

MyAchingKnees tip: Garlic is a natural fly and mosquito repellent as well.

Best Winter Food #4: Winter squash

What it does: Prevents weight gain

Why it works: A 2006 Bastyr University study found that participants who routinely ate more fiber than the national average of about 14 grams per day were less likely to be overweight than those who consumed less than 14 grams. Fiber-rich foods, like squash, contain relatively low calories, and they’re digested more slowly, keeping you full long after you eat them—an important defense against the season of overindulgence otherwise known as winter. With about 9 grams of fiber per one-cup serving, eating winter squash (like acorn and butternut varieties) is a great way to load up on fiber and prevent post-holiday eaters remorse. Winter squash is also loaded with carotenes, which have been shown to reduce the risk of a variety of diseases from cancer to heart disease. Most winter squash is available year-round, but its peak season is early fall through late winter.

MyAchingKnees tip: A great way to cook squash is to slice it up, lightly coat in virgin olive oil, toss with your favorite seasoning mix, then cook on the grill in a deep dish pan.

Best Winter Food #5: Chicken Sandwich

What it does: Keeps your energy up

Why it works: Darkness signals your body to produce melatonin, the hormone responsible for making you sleepy, so the shorter days that come along with winter can cause you to feel like hitting the sack instead of the gym. But eating complex carbohydrates—most abundant in whole grains, starchy vegetables, and legumes—along with some protein can help you stay awake and energized. This combination, found in foods like a chicken sandwich on wheat bread, boosts energy in two ways: Your body digests the complex carbs slowly, keeping your blood sugar stable, and the protein helps you stay fuller, longer.

MyAchingKnees tip: Not a big Chicken fan, but I recently found thing chicken breasts at my grocery store. Easy and quick to grill and make a sandwich of. A Chipotle glaze adds a great deal of flavor. You can cut up the chicken and use in a salad as well.

Best Winter Food #6: Chicken Soup

What it does: Helps you breathe easy

Why it works: Chicken soup has long been touted at the best home remedy for cold and flu season, and it really can help. Hot liquids temporarily clear your sinuses, and a University of Nebraska study found that chicken soup may even reduce inflammation in your nose and throat. Plus, most chicken soups are low in calories and saturated fat, and high in fiber. For the healthiest version, try making the soup yourself with plenty of veggies and whole wheat noodles. If homemade isn’t an option, try Campbell ’s Healthy request Condensed Chicken Noodle soup, which has only 60 calories per cup. And remember, chicken soup may keep the doctor away, but some chicken-based meals could send you straight into the waiting room.

MyAchingKnees comment: I really like this article since it starts off warning us about that "The U.S. spends more than $2 trillion on health care each year, with much of that cash going toward the treatment of obesity-related complications like heart disease and diabetes". Obesity and heart related problems are symptoms of poor nutrition. Other indicators that the resulting inflammation is causing other problems for you too, are joint pain, lethargy, high cholesterol, back pain and a host of other problems.

Eat Better and Change your Life.


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Top Cholesterol Fighting Foods

From the article “Top 10 Foods for Lowering Cholesterol” from RealAge

If you have unhealthy cholesterol levels (or want to prevent them), one of the first things you should examine is your diet. Are you eating foods that help reduce cholesterol? Or avoiding the ones that cause unhealthy cholesterol levels to creep higher? If not, we've got 10 cholesterol-lowering foods you should grab next time you're at the grocery store. Lowering your bad (LDL) cholesterol can make your 3.3 years younger if you're a man, 0.6 years younger if you're a woman!

Almonds
Almonds are pretty hardworking nuts when it comes to lowering your cholesterol. First, they're rich in unsaturated fats that help raise healthy HDL cholesterol while lowering unhealthy LDL. Second, these fats also help make LDL cholesterol less likely to oxidize. Which is a fabulous thing, because when LDL oxidizes, it's more likely to gunk up your arteries and cut blood flow to the heart. Snack away. But do keep an eye on portion size. Almonds are high in calories, and all you need are a couple of ounces a day to reap benefits.

Orange Juice
OJ manufacturers are doing everything they can to make their health food more appealing -- including fortifying their juice with plant-derived cholesterol-busting compounds known as phytosterols. A review of 84 scientific studies revealed that getting 2 grams of phytosterols a day - the amount in a couple 8-ounce glasses of sterol-fortified OJ -- could help lower harmful LDL levels by more than 8 percent. Check with your doctor first regarding whether citrus will interact with any of your medications. If it does, look for sterol-fortified margarine, milk, soymilk, cheese, or breads instead.

MyAchingKnees comment: I'd lay off the orange juice, unless I drank organic, not from concentrate or freshly squeezed OJ.

Olive Oil
This oil is a nutritional superstar -- rich in antioxidants and heart-healthy monounsaturated fats that help lower "bad" LDL cholesterol and increase "good" HDL. In fact, in a study of people with high cholesterol, blood samples showed less potential for harmful clotting just two hours after the study subjects ate a meal with olive oil. That's because olive oil is rich in phenolics, plant substances that makes blood less likely to clot. All you need is about 2 tablespoons a day for benefit (use it in place of other fats).

Steamed Asparagus
There's nothing wrong with a platter of crudités or a salad if you want to improve your diet, but steaming may help improve the cholesterol-lowering capabilities of some produce, including asparagus. Other veggies that get better after a short bout in the steam: beets, okra, carrots, eggplant, green beans, and cauliflower. Researchers think steaming these veggies may help them do a better job of binding bile acids, which means your liver needs to use up more LDL cholesterol into order to make bile. That translates into less circulating LDL in your bloodstream.

Oatmeal
Your mama was right. Starting the day with a bowl of warm, toasty oatmeal is a smart move. Of all the whole grains, oats are the best source of soluble fiber -- the kind that forms a gel to prevent cholesterol from being absorbed into your bloodstream. Shoot for five to 10 grams of soluble fiber per day. If you have 1¼ cups of cooked oatmeal for breakfast, you'll start your day with 5 grams of the stuff. Top your oatmeal with a chopped-up apple for an extra 3 grams of fiber, and you're set.

MyAchingKnees comment: Make sure this is not the packaged oatmeal – get the oats, even better steel cut oats, and take the time to cook. These store well in the fridge for a weeks worth of easy breakfasts or snack meals. Add organic honey to sweeten.

Pinto Beans
Next time you make chili, add pinto beans to the pot. They're packed with soluble fiber to help drive down cholesterol. And in a study, people who ate a half-cup of pinto beans a day lowered their total cholesterol by 8 percent in just 12 weeks. Ole! (Tip: If you use canned beans, rinse them to wash away excess sodium.)

MyAchingKnees comment: This is a staple to the Hispanic diet, but many times they are made with lard and other fats or cheese is added. I like to cook pinto beans by themselves and flavor with a little sea salt…..and maybe a little olive oil.

Blueberries
You've heard by now that blueberries are a nutritious superfood. One reason why they're so great? They help keep your arteries clear by reducing blood levels of artery-clogging LDL. Researchers suspect it's because the berries support liver function so well. The end result: cholesterol gets swept out of your system much more easily. Enjoy blueberries fresh, frozen, or freeze-dried. They still have the same benefits.

MyAchingKnees comment: Add to your oatmeal as well. You can also make a fruit salad of blueberries, blackberries and strawberries to replace after support deserts or just to snack on.

Tomatoes
Include lycopene-rich tomato products in your diet every day for a few weeks, and you may knock your bad LDL cholesterol levels down by as much as 10 percent, according to a recent study. Researchers think the lycopene in tomatoes inhibits LDL production while at the same time helping break down this artery-clogging fat. You'll need to consume at least 25 milligrams of lycopene a day for cholesterol benefits. That's about a half cup of tomato sauce. Bring on the marinara!

MyAchingKnees comment: Lycopene are a essential nutrient for prostrate health as well. Maybe you ladies can get the men in your lives to eat more tomatoes because of this.

Avocado
We always keep ripe avocados in the RealAge kitchen. Why? They're chock-full of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats that help knock down bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides while boosting healthy HDL cholesterol. Even better, we love the fruit's (yep, it's a fruit) mild flavor and creamy texture. Mash avocado into guacamole, add slices to a sandwich, chop it up in a salad, or -- for a tasty snack -- simply spread a little on whole-grain crackers with a tiny pinch of coarse sea salt.

MyAchingKnees comment:Here’s a tip,….add chopped tomatoes and onions to your guacamole…maybe a squeeze of lime. Fresh guacamole doesn’t do well in the fridge, so eat it up all at once.

Dark Chocolate
If you're a chocoholic, here's some good news. Study after study confirms dark chocolate is pretty amazing, healthy stuff. It's full of flavonoids, which are antioxidants that help lower cholesterol. It also has oleic acid, the same type of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat found in olive oil. To improve your cholesterol, just have a little nibble -- up to 1 ounce of dark chocolate a day. And check the label to make sure your chocolate is at least 70 percent cocoa. Cocoa is the stuff with all the heart-healthy ingredients.

MyAchingKnees comment:Obviously, the Real Age article was written for women. Dark Chocolate indeed! For the boys – Milkshakes don’t count.

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