Now the North American diet is about status; eating big burgers, big steaks and hot dog
contests wherein a person can eat as many Wieners in a setting as he can. This is the
trend for the past few years; supersize your fries, supersize your cola etc. The number
one source of fat in the American diet is meat, second is milk, third is cheese and fourth
is vegetable oil. Each percent of your total cholesterol that goes down, your risk of
coronary heart disease goes down by 2%. So in just 3 weeks on a proper food diet, you
can reduce your blood cholesterol by 25%. Does this mean you should monitor your
cholesterol every week? Of course not! If we reduce the fatty foods we ingest which
primarily comes from animal fats, our cholesterol will go down. Ideal cholesterol is “100”
plus your age and in no case over “150”. If it doesn’t go over “200” you are doing rather
well. I urge to check out some of the town studies that were done over many decades in
Framingham, Massachusetts. One particular study states that if your cholesterol is “200”
or less there is not much risk in developing these diseases, if it goes over “200”, your risk
goes up rapidly, “213” your risk goes up fivefold, “230” your risk goes up 6.7 times and
clocking in at “255”, your risk is 12 times as great! Twelve people die out of every “100”
that had cholesterol over “250”. Fifteen out of every “100” people die every year if their
cholesterol count was “300”! People with cholesterol level over “260” have 4 times the
risk of coronary heart disease than those who have “200”. Without medicine, you can
reduce your total cholesterol level by 25% in 3 weeks with proper diet and your risk
drops by 50% (check out their website at http://www.framinghamheartstudy.org for a wealth
of information). The key to prevention is proper food and not medicine, not money and
not your doctor.
Fiber is the hero! Both soluble and insoluble fibers are indigestible. They are therefore
not absorbed into the bloodstream. Instead of being used for energy, fiber is excreted
from our bodies. Soluble fiber forms a gel when mixed with liquid, while insoluble fiber
does not. Insoluble fiber passes through our intestines largely intact. It is good for the
stool and speeds up the flow through your bowel by cutting the time it transits the
bowel from about 90 hours to about 33 hours. It also allows you less time to absorb
things like fat and cholesterol, so it’s very helpful. Wheat has insoluble fibers as well as
vegetables such as green beans and dark green leafy vegetables, fruit skins and root
vegetable skins, whole-wheat products, wheat bran, corn bran, seeds and nuts. Soluble
fibers come from oat/oat bran, dried beans and peas, nuts, barley, flax seed, fruits such
as oranges and apples, vegetables such as carrots and psyllium husk. They mix with the