Feel Your Oats - The #1 Way To Lower Cholesterol

Any list of cholesterol-reducing foods begins with oats.  Rolled, steel-cut, in Cheerios and other oatsy cereals, oats are nature's most efficient arterial scrub-brushes.  I'm dedicated to eating a portion every morning and can just feel my cholesterol's gummy works flushing away with each bite. I usually don't have hot oatmeal in the mornings; I enjoy my husband's great homemade granola.  He's gluten-free (as well as Vegan), and so we use Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats in our recipe.  You'll get oats and protein and all sorts of other goodies.  Here's the recipe:

Jeff's Gluten-Free Marvelous Morning Granola

9 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats (one 32 oz. bag)

2 cups partially pulverized nuts (some ground, some barely chopped)

1 cup no-salt shelled pumpkin seeds (which means without the shell!)

1 cup no-salt shelled sunflower seeds

3 tbs flax or chia seeds

1/2 cup sesame seeds (can be omitted)

1 cup chopped dried fruit (optional)

2 cups Agave Nectar

1 cup olive oil

Mix everything together in a big roasting pan.  Roast in 350 degree oven for an hour, stirring every 10 minutes, or until golden brown.  Let cool and store in dry containers.  Enjoy!

Jeff's Marvelous Morning Granola
See Recipe Above

While the portion looks small, this scoop of granola is chocked with healthy stuff and is very filling;

My Morning Portion of Jeff's Marvelous Morning Granola

My day, however, cannot begin without this large cup of Fairway Organic coffee.  Reviews of coffee vis a vis health is mixed. Research reveals that while unfiltered coffee - French Press, Espresso - might increase cholesterol, filtered, drip coffee has no effect on it. I choose to cherry-pick the "antioxidant" cancer-fighting reports and studies of my favorite caffeine delivery system.

My Daily Cuppa Joe

A Newly Minted Vague-An

My Facebook friend (I have to make that distinction, because we've never met in person), Joe Yonan, Washington Post editor and author of the upcoming "Eat Your Vegetables," coined a new term that fits someone like me perfectly. Vague-An. A vague-an eats a mostly plant-based diet, but must splash real milk in his/her morning coffee, and will accept the occasional white-egg omelet or piece of sushi.

It was in this spirit that I girded myself for our JCC's generous volunteer-recognition Holiday Cocktail Party, catered by it's in-house Cafe owners, Genadeen Caterers. "Holiday," in this case, of course, is that paean to oil and all it can fry - Hanukkah. Eating out, for any newly committed heart-healthy vague-an - whether for Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, weddings, birthdays, press-events -   is an exercise in choices. Sometimes difficult ones.

I passed up the potato latkes;

And my favorite pass-around, the "Kosher Pig In Blanket;"

And made quite a few trips up to the mini-salads bar....

added a couple of stuffed grape-leaves....

and in true Vague-An fashion, I was first to tear into the sushi platter;

And chanced tryptophan grogginess at the turkey-carving station (no skin, thanks);

Tell me about your holiday party eating decisions and I'll include them in a future post......

Ten Best Foods to Lower Cholesterol; I don't See Pizza on The List....

Here we go.....

Photo from HeartHealthyOnline

Straight from Harvard Medical School Health Publication Website;

Drumroll, please. Here are the Top Ten Foods That Will Help Lower Your Cholesterol;

Oats. An easy first step to improving your cholesterol is having a bowl of oatmeal or cold oat-based cereal like Cheerios for breakfast. It gives you 1 to 2 grams of soluble fiber. Add a banana or some strawberries for another half-gram. Current nutrition guidelines recommend getting 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day, with at least 5 to 10 grams coming from soluble fiber. (The average American gets about half that amount.)

Barley and other whole grains. Like oats and oat bran, barley and other whole grains can help lower the risk of heart disease, mainly via the soluble fiber they deliver.

Beans. Beans are especially rich in soluble fiber. They also take awhile for the body to digest, meaning you feel full for longer after a meal. That's one reason beans are a useful food for folks trying to lose weight. With so many choices — from navy and kidney beans to lentils, garbanzos, black-eyed peas, and beyond — and so many ways to prepare them, beans are a very versatile food.

Eggplant and okra. These two low-calorie vegetables are good sources of soluble fiber.

Nuts. A bushel of studies shows that eating almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and other nuts is good for the heart. Eating 2 ounces of nuts a day can slightly lower LDL, on the order of 5%. Nuts have additional nutrients that protect the heart in other ways.

Vegetable oils. Using liquid vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower, safflower, and others in place of butter, lard, or shortening when cooking or at the table helps lower LDL.

Apples, grapes, strawberries, citrus fruits. These fruits are rich in pectin, a type of soluble fiber that lowers LDL.

Foods fortified with sterols and stanols. Sterols and stanols extracted from plants gum up the body's ability to absorb cholesterol from food. Companies are adding them to foods ranging from margarine and granola bars to orange juice and chocolate. They're also available as supplements. Getting 2 grams of plant sterols or stanols a day can lower LDL cholesterol by about 10%.

Soy. Eating soybeans and foods made from them, like tofu and soy milk, was once touted as a powerful way to lower cholesterol. Analyses show that the effect is more modest — consuming 25 grams of soy protein a day (10 ounces of tofu or 2 1/2 cups of soy milk) can lower LDL by 5% to 6%.

Fatty fish. Eating fish two or three times a week can lower LDL in two ways: by replacing meat, which has LDL-boosting saturated fats, and by delivering LDL-lowering omega-3 fats. Omega-3s reduce triglycerides in the bloodstream and also protect the heart by helping prevent the onset of abnormal heart rhythms.

Yesterday, I passed up pizza - a major surge of willpower to be sure. Today will bring its own set of challenges as I gird myself for yet another Hanukkah Party.  Stay Tuned.

Heir to High Cholesterol

If you are like me, you have a cast of characters in your family with varying opinions and a range of body types.  Last Sunday, after being confronted with my alarming blood numbers, I had the opportunity to poll many of these family members all in one place.

Yolen Family at Summertime Reunion

We were hovering around my sister-in-law's aforementioned incredible crispy fried latkes (potato pancakes) at my brother's annual Hanukkah party.

My mom, 79, who never met a Buffalo Chicken Wing she didn't like, and who makes a beeline for the nearly blackened, many-hours-roasted turkey skin on Thanksgiving, submitted to statins two years ago. Her excuse?  She didn't want to completely avoid all the bad food she loves.

Typical Travel-Writer Breakfast

My first cousin and his wife, a doctor and former nurse (now teacher) in their late 50's, have been on statins for the last couple of years.  "We did the low-fat diet route and it didn't work," they said.  Upon learning my cholesterol numbers, my gastroenterologist cousin said, "that's not high - when it gets over 300 or 400, then we're talking dangerous."

Second cousins in their early 60's, but who look like they're in their 30's have been on statins for years.

It was beginning to look like my cholesterol numbers had a major genetic component.

No-one I polled had adverse effects from the drugs, but still, it is my intention to avoid taking statins unless nothing else works.  Can it be done?  One success story came from a surprising souce; my brother.

My little bro' - David, 54 - had packed on the pounds over the years.  He didn't take his rising cholesterol numbers seriously until they climbed over 300, at which point his thin and fit wife was terrified.  She didn't want to be a young widow.

When I saw David on Sunday, he had lost most of his bulk, so far 25 pounds of it.  He had slimmed down considerably.  AND, his total cholesterol numbers had gone from "over 300" to 150; without taking drugs.

How did he do it?  Over the course of three months, he cut down on carbs. He doesn't eat bread or desserts at restaurants.  And he practices portion control.  It sounds so easy.

Gluten-Free Vegan Husband With Approved Snack
on Walkway Across the Hudson, Poughkeepsie, NY

I'll be a bit more extreme in my diet changes for now.  I live with a Gluten-Free Vegan (GFV), and so I know a thing or two about plant-based diets.  In the coming days, I will itemize my meals.

No More General Tsao's

I'm the picture of health, though I could lose a few pounds.  And, yes, there are those pesky cholesterol numbers; 246 total.  177 of the bad stuff (LDL) and 49 of the good (HDL).

The report didn't come as a huge surprise; as a magazine, newspaper and website travel writer, my job involves eating.  And most of what is placed before me to "try" isn't exactly "plant based."

Let's see.  In the past month, I've downed the best, creamiest New England Clam Chowder at a roadside shack in Westbrook, CT (Edd's Place).  I was invited to the pre-opening VIP party at Dinosaur BBQ in Stamford, CT (ribs, brisket, mac and cheese, and the mouthwatering honey-butter-dripping cornbread). I ate toothsome meatloaf at Simon's Market in Chester, CT, and Russian delicacies at a community event. Of course, for Hanukkah, I had to devour my sister-in-law's irresistible potato pancakes, crisped golden brown to perfection.  And that's just a sampling.

If you are grabbing your left arm as you read this, imagine how I must feel.

Yes, I've known my cholesterol numbers are up there, but the danger didn't register until last week, when two doctors (overseeing my two annual physicals; one general, one GYN) gave me "that look". It was a gaze that meant to impart, under no uncertain terms, that I might croak then and there if I didn't do something.

For my Internist, that meant drugs, Statins. For my "alternative doc" GYN, a more in-depth lipid panel test and a non-drug-based life-style change.

For now, I chose not to jump on the Lipitor train, and will attempt cholesterol reduction through diet and exercise.

Which is the long way of explaining this blog.  How can I maintain healthy eating habits on the road? What menu items can I eat in my favorite restaurants or in those I'm covering for stories?  What do I eat now? What are the best natural cholesterol-lowering foods and can I stomach them day in and day out? What are my favorite recipes?

Follow along and find out.  And in March 2013, we'll find out if sacrificing pizza and General Tsao's Chicken is worth it.....