Category Archives: Healthy Eating

The Most Important Cholesterol Ratio to Watch

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 Dr. Stephen Sinatra

It's important to watch your triglyceride to HDL cholesterol ratio.

As many of you know, I’ve long said cholesterol isn’t the real culprit when it comes to heart health, inflammation is. That hasn’t changed. But there is one cholesterol ratio you want to watch—your ratio of triglycerides to HDL cholesterol levels. In fact, a study published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation found that those people with the highest triglyceride-to-HDL cholesterol ratios had a sixteen times greater risk of heart disease than those with the lowest ratios.

What should your triglycerides-to-HDL cholesterol ratio be? Ideally, you want no more than a 2:1 ratio of triglycerides to HDL cholesterol. So, if your triglycerides are 100 mg/dl, your HDL cholesterol should be 50 mg/dl. Anything under 3:5 is considered a good ratio, but I don’t like to see a blood lipids ratio that’s over 5:1. (Learn more about this ratio in my book, The Great Cholesterol Myth.)

If Your Ratio of Triglycerides to HDL Cholesterol is High, How Can You Lower It?

One of the most powerful solutions I’ve found for promoting a healthy triglyceride to HDL cholesterol ratio is an extract from the citrus bergamot orange grown in the Calabria area of Italy. Research has shown it helps to lower triglycerides and increase HDL cholesterol levels. Another important benefit is that it helps to reduce blood glucose levels.

How to Lower Triglycerides Naturally
  • Reduce your intake of sugar and processed carbohydrates which can raise your triglycerides.
  • Take omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) which help promote normal triglyceride levels. For triglyceride support, take 2–3 grams daily in divided doses.
To Raise Your HDL Cholesterol Levels
  • Take niacin (vitamin B3). Since it can cause flushing, my recommendation is that you start with 250 mg of niacin three times daily, and slowly work up to 1–2 grams in divided doses three times a day.
  • Get regular, physical exercise. Strive for 30–60 minutes of aerobic activity three to five days a week.
  • Drink red wine in moderation. Red wine helps to boost HDL cholesterol, plus it contains resveratrol, a phytonutrient with cardio-protective benefits.
  • Diet is crucial. Avoid processed foods, as well as those high in sugar and trans fats. Instead, opt for foods that are rich in heart-healthy fats and soluble fiber. Almonds also help to support healthy HDL cholesterol levels.

Stay Informed, Stay Healthy.

Your Doctor Says No to Supplements, Now What?

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by Dr. Stephen Sinatra

Your Doctor Says No to Supplements, Now What?

Over the years I’ve recommend certain nutritional supplements for heart health. Then, patients ask their other doctors about the supplements and often, receive negative or indifferent answers such as “they may cause harm,” or “there’s no science.”

Such responses are cop outs, to put it mildly. There’s an immense body of powerful research supporting the use and safety of supplements, and any smart doctor should certainly be up on the subject.

What Should You Do If Your Doctor Disapproves of Nutritional Supplements?
  • First off, don’t be intimidated by the messenger. Tell your doctor if you’ve had positive experience with certain supplements—convey your passion—and stick the evidence under his or her nose.
  • Keep in mind that medical doctors get little, if any, nutritional training in medical school and rarely attempt to fill their knowledge gap once in practice. Years ago when I was a hospital medical education director, I had a hard time trying to encourage my physician colleagues to accept nutritional medicine. Most were simply annoyed by my efforts. They demanded to see studies, which I didn’t mind providing, but I had to spoon-feed them to make any progress.
  • Remember a revealing statistic. The American Association of Poison Control Centers reports 11 deaths, supposedly, from supplement use during the last 27 years. I say “supposedly” because the circumstances linking the supplements to actual deaths are questionable. This is a tremendous safety record.
  • Also remember how supplements compare to prescription drugs. A 2011 study reveals that each year in this country, adverse effects cause about 4.5 million visits to doctors’ offices and hospitals. In fact, prescription drugs are our fourth leading cause of death, killing more than 27,000 people in 2007—more than heroin and cocaine combined.

Now it’s your turn: Have you had a doctor that said no to nutritional supplements?

Separating Fat from Fiction: 10 Fat Facts You Need to Know

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“Everyone seems to be talking about fat these days. That fat somehow is good now and can help with weight loss and disease prevention.  How can that be true when for decades we all were told that fat was the bad guy?” asks this week’s house call. “What are its benefits? Are there any downsides to eating more fat?”

This question comes at the perfect time.  I have just finished writing my new book Eat Fat, Get Thin, hitting the bookstores on February 23, 2016. I wrote this book because almost everyone I know – doctors and patients and eaters alike are all confused about fat and still hold on to myths and misinformation that prevents them from taking advantage of the latest science to lose weight and get healthy. 

You’re likely familiar with many of them: Fat makes us fat, contributes to heart disease, leads to diabesity; saturated fat is bad; vegetable oils are good…I could go on, but I think you know what I’m talking about.

None of these beliefs about fat are true.  In my latest book, I combined the latest research with my several decades of empirical evidence working with patients to prove what I’ve long discovered: The right fats can help you become lean, healthy, and vibrant.

Fat is one of the body’s most basic building blocks. The average person is made up of between 15 and 30 percent fat! Yet for decades, we’ve unfairly demonized dietary fat, diligently followed a low-fat diet that almost always equates into a high-sugar and high-refined carb diet that contributes to insulin resistance, obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and numerous other problems.

Simply put: Sugar, not fat, is the real villain that steals our health and sabotages our waistlines.

With Eat Fat, Get Thin, I’m determined to separate fat from fiction by giving you the skinny on fats – what to eat and how to use dietary fats to regain your health and ideal body weight. Eating lots of the right fat will make you thin. The right fats increase metabolism, stimulate fat burning, cut hunger, optimize your cholesterol profile, and can reverse type 2 diabetes and reduce your risk for heart disease.

For now, let’s look at 10 take-home fat facts.

  1. Sugar, not fat, makes you fat.  More sugar means your cells become numb to insulin’s “call.” Your body pumps out more and more insulin to pull your blood sugar levels back down. You can’t burn all the sugar you eat. Inevitably, your body stores it as fat, creating insulin resistance and overall metabolic havoc.
  2. Dietary fat is more complex than sugar. There are some 257 names for sugar, but despite very minor variations, they all create the same damage. In other words, sugar is sugar is sugar; it all wreaks havoc on your health. Fat is more complex. We have saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and even trans fats, not to mention subcategories within each group. Some fats are good; others neutral; and yes, a few are bad.
  3. Low-fat diets tend to be heart-unhealthy, high-sugar diets. When people eat less fat, they tend to eat more starch or sugar instead, and this actually increases their levels of the small, dense cholesterol that causes heart attacks. In fact, studies show 75 percent of people who end up in the emergency room with a heart attack have normal overall cholesterol levels. But what they do have is pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.
  4. Saturated fat is not your enemy. A review of all the research on saturated fat published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease. As with all fats, quality becomes key here. The fats in a fast-food bacon feedlot cheeseburger will have an entirely different effect than saturated fat in coconut oil. Let’s stop classifying it all as the same.
  5. Some fats are unhealthy. They include trans fat and inflammatory vegetable oils. Unfortunately, these fats have increased in our diet as they make us fatter and contribute to inflammation, which plays a role in nearly every chronic disease on the planet.
  6. Everyone benefits from more omega 3s. About 99 percent of people are deficient in these critical fats. Ideal ways to get them include eating wild or sustainably raised cold-water fish (at least two servings weekly), buying omega-3 rich eggs, and taking an omega-3 supplement twice a day with breakfast and dinner that contains 500 – 1,000 milligrams of omega-3 fats (a ratio of roughly 300 EPA to 200 DHA is ideal).
  7. Eating fat can make you lean. Healthy cell walls made from high-quality fats are better able to metabolize insulin, which keeps blood sugar better regulated. Without proper blood sugar control, the body socks away fat for a rainy day. The right fats also increase fat burning, cut your hunger, and reduce fat storage.  Eating the right fats makes you lose weight, while eating excess sugar and the WRONG types of fat make you fat.
  8. Good fats can heal. I have many diabetic patients whose health improves when I get them on diet that’s higher in fat. I had one patient with high cholesterol who could not lose weight, so I bumped up her healthy fat content to 70 percent. (I don’t recommend this for most patients; hers was an extreme case.) Her cholesterol plummeting from 300 to 190, her triglycerides dropped 200 points, and she lost 20 stubborn pounds that she couldn’t ever lose before!
  9. Your brain is about 60 percent fat. Of that percentage, the biggest portion comes from the omega-3 fat called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Your brain needs DHA to spark communication between cells. Easy access to high-quality fat boosts cognition, happiness, learning, and memory. In contrast, studies link a deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids to depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
  10. Your body gives you signs whether or not you are getting enough quality fat. The higher-quality the fat, the better your body will function. That’s because the body uses the fat you eat to build cell walls. You have more than 10 trillion cells in your body, and every single one of them needs high-quality fat. How do you know if your cells are getting the fats they need? Your body sends signals when it’s not getting enough good fats. Warning signs include:
  • Dry, itchy, scaling, or flaking skin
  • Soft, cracked, or brittle nails
  • Hard earwax
  • Tiny bumps on the backs of your arms or torso
  • Achy, stiff joints

I eat fat with every meal, and I’ve never felt better. The right fats can improve your mood, skin, hair, and nails, while protecting you against Type 2 diabetes, dementia, cancer, and much more.

Among my favorite sources of fat include:

  • Avocados
  • Nuts—walnuts, almonds, pecans, macadamia nuts, but not peanuts (one study showed a handful of nuts a day reduced death from all causes by 20 percent)
  • Seeds—pumpkin, sesame, chia, hemp
  • Fatty fish, including sardines, mackerel, herring, and wild salmon that are rich in omega-3 fats
  • Extra virgin olive oil (a large study showed that those who consumed 1 liter a week reduced heart attacks by 30 percent)
  • Grass-fed or sustainably raised animal products.
  • Extra virgin coconut butter, which is a great plant-based source of saturated fat that has many benefits.  It fuels your mitochondria, is anti-inflammatory, and  doesn’t cause problems with your cholesterol.  In fact, it may help resolve them.  

Be Informed, Be Healthy.

Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids can help reduce stress

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The most overlooked factor in stress reduction is that it is critical to nourish your body with healing essential fatty acids.

There is a reason why delicious foods like macaroni and cheese, a juicy rib eye steak, and ice cream are called comfort foods. They contain high levels of FAT.

Fat activates the pleasure centers in your brain and creates a surge of dopamine. You can get the same lift in your mood from essential fatty acids found in previously forbidden fats.

Ancient cultures knew fat healed, and science is just now beginning to understand the chemo-protective and cancer preventing effects of essential fatty acids. In fact, one of the last populations on earth had dietary habits that remained unchanged for centuries. The native islanders of Kitava in Papau New Guinea were studied extensively in the 80s and 90s in a study known as the Malinowski study.

Of the 23,000 people, there was not a single instance of cancer, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, dementia, or diabetes. In fact, their diet consisted of 30-60% fat.

Essential fatty acids boosted their immunity and they can do the same for you.

Since stress suppresses your immune system, a way to neutralize the surges of cortisol that are running out of control is to combat them with essential fatty acids.

The Job of Essential Fatty Acids

  • Produce healthy cell membranes and regulate genetic function
  • Normalize growth and development
  • Transport and break down cholesterol
  • Enable proper blood clotting
  • Regulate blood pressure as well as contraction and relaxation of arterial walls
  • Balance hormone activity, metabolic processes, and thyroid function
  • Ensure reproductive health
  • Maintain liver and kidney function
  • Control inflammation and the immune response
  • Support brain and central nervous system health
  • Promote hair and skin health
  • Assist in balancing mood and behavior disorders

The Western diet contains an excessively high amount of cancer causing omega-6 fatty acids and a low amount of cancer preventing omega-3 fatty acids.

Essential fatty acids are critical in the prevention of disease. The types of dietary fats you eat are vital for preventing heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes − which are responsible for 80% of all deaths in the United States.

UCLA School of Medicine in California found that anti-inflammatory effects of omega-3 fatty acids prevented the development and progression of prostate cancer.

In Western nations, we eat far too many damaged omega-6’s in the form of processed foods, fast foods, and refined oils that lead to free radical damage. Studies of populations that eat large amounts of fish or consume fish oil have reduced risk of colon, prostate, and breast cancer.

Studies have shown that the average American consumes between 14 to 25 times more omega-6 than omega-3 fatty acids!

You need both essential fatty acids in the proper ratios. Most non-industrial populations have an ideal range of omega-6 to omega-3 ratios of 4:1 or 1:4.

Best Natural Sources of Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids

  • Fatty fish such as sardines, herring, salmon, shrimp, cod, and tuna
  • Grass fed beef and bison
  • Grass fed butter
  • Krill oil
  • Flaxseeds
  • Walnuts
  • Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, bok choy, and winter squash
  • Lean beef
  • Spinach, kale, leafy greens, romaine lettuce, and fresh basilev

As Western society struggles under the epidemics of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and dementia, there are places in the world with small pockets of people that experience little to none of these health conditions. Look for ways to reduce your stress and improve your ratios of omega-3 to omega-6 fats in your diet to help prevent cancer and other disease.

Nutrient content of crops has declined

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According to a study published in 2004 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, the nutrient content of crops had declined by as much as 40 percent between 1950 and 2004 when the study was conducted. The declines were related to efforts to create crops that grew faster, yielded more and resisted pests.

“Emerging evidence suggests that when you select for yield, crops grow bigger and faster, but they don’t necessarily have the ability to make or uptake nutrients at the same, faster rate,” said lead researcher Dr. Donald Davis.

Another study published in “Nutrition and Health” found that magnesium levels declined by 24 percent in vegetables, by 17 percent in fruit, by 15 percent in meat and by 26 percent in cheeses over the period from 1940 to 1991.

Low magnesium levels contribute to heart disease and cardiac arrest, depression, kidneys stones, muscle cramps and twitching, nervous system problems, low kidney function, and a host of other problems. In all likelihood, your magnesium levels are dangerously low.

This is why, even if we eat ‘healthy’, even if we eat a varied and inclusive diet, we are unlikely to obtain all the nutrition we need, and judicious supplementation is a must.

Bob Livingston