A cholesterol Myth buster
Today in my Nutrition class my professor was talking about a new dietary guideline for cholesterol which states that "cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for over consumption.”.
I was overjoyed to hear this because as a believer of holistic healing and a person of strong bio chemical background I always thought cholesterol is our best friend.
Recently when I was having a conversation with my friend I came to know that her teen age daughter who is thin and small and barely having any fat stores was suffering from high blood cholesterol. Her doctor has asked her to go on a low fat diet and be extremely cautious about her fat intake. She was also given a prescription to reduce cholesterol. I also came to know that her diet is usually not fatty. I was a little worried not because her cholesterol levels are high but its only with the interpretation of her clinical problem.
Why would a teen-ager's cholesterol go high when there is a physical need for all hormones to be synthesized at its peak and also when she is actually underweight? For having a better understanding I would like to start from the basics
.
Cholesterol is a basic building block for hormones. They can be synthesized in our system from saturated fats. Taking these information usually we conclude that the saturated fat has to be reduced in our diet if we have too much of cholesterol in our blood. But this is only looking at the problem in only one dimension. As a matter of fact since cholesterol is the basic building block for all hormones, the estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and adrenaline all share the same building block. When the condition of the person is normal everything is in normal amounts. But when her/his stress levels are high the adrenals uses up the cholesterol for the secretion of cortisol to combat inflammation in the body. So the body demands more cholesterol than normal to give an extra share for the adrenals. In short the body makes the cholesterol on demand.
As a matter of fact my friend's daughter was highly stressed at that point as she was in the midst of applying for colleges and was little upset that she didn't make up to the best university.
Consider the scenario that the girl is going on low fat diet , a cholesterol reduction medicine and highly stressed. This would obviously lead to low fat stores. If her cholesterol stores gets low the body gets deprived of its building blocks and start using them for primary needs, which in this case is to combat stress. Her reproductive hormones estrogen and progesterone might get affected ,affecting her ovulation cycle. Progesterone is considered a happy hormone. When its levels go low she might go into depression. Moreover when her adrenal activity is high it also affects the thyroid function causing a major disturbance in the endocrine system. Well the cholesterol medicine can potentially solve high cholesterol problem but can wreck the levels of other hormones.
Looking at the root cause to solve the problem , In my opinion ,she has to work on reducing her stress and adapt an anti-inflammatory diet to reduce the production of cortisol and in turn ease the cholesterol demand. She should increase her water intake as its highly anti-inflammatory. Moreover when Adrenals are stressed they use all the water and minerals from our body. In fact even in the dehydrated state the body behaves exactly like the way its stressed. We also need to eat mineral rich organic food. Exercise is a major de-stressor as they activate the production of endorphins. Deep breathing exercises always pump more oxygen to the tissues relaxing the muscles from any tension. She should also cut down her white crystal sugar intake and red meat as well as they are on top of the list for activating inflammation.
As we all know inflammation is the cause of may diseases including Cancer, the anti-inflammatory diet is appropriate for diabetes, cholesterol, Hypertension and Cancer as well.
Check these Anti-inflammatory recipe for instance.
Sweet and Tart salad
1 Avacado
6 straw berries
1 carrot
1 cup spinach
2 spoons Almonds
1 spoon oregano infused vinegar
1 spoon blood orange infused olive oil
celtic sea salt to taste
1/4 tsp Black pepper
Lets fight Inflammation!!!
Shri
Today in my Nutrition class my professor was talking about a new dietary guideline for cholesterol which states that "cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for over consumption.”.
I was overjoyed to hear this because as a believer of holistic healing and a person of strong bio chemical background I always thought cholesterol is our best friend.
Recently when I was having a conversation with my friend I came to know that her teen age daughter who is thin and small and barely having any fat stores was suffering from high blood cholesterol. Her doctor has asked her to go on a low fat diet and be extremely cautious about her fat intake. She was also given a prescription to reduce cholesterol. I also came to know that her diet is usually not fatty. I was a little worried not because her cholesterol levels are high but its only with the interpretation of her clinical problem.
Why would a teen-ager's cholesterol go high when there is a physical need for all hormones to be synthesized at its peak and also when she is actually underweight? For having a better understanding I would like to start from the basics
.
Cholesterol is a basic building block for hormones. They can be synthesized in our system from saturated fats. Taking these information usually we conclude that the saturated fat has to be reduced in our diet if we have too much of cholesterol in our blood. But this is only looking at the problem in only one dimension. As a matter of fact since cholesterol is the basic building block for all hormones, the estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and adrenaline all share the same building block. When the condition of the person is normal everything is in normal amounts. But when her/his stress levels are high the adrenals uses up the cholesterol for the secretion of cortisol to combat inflammation in the body. So the body demands more cholesterol than normal to give an extra share for the adrenals. In short the body makes the cholesterol on demand.
As a matter of fact my friend's daughter was highly stressed at that point as she was in the midst of applying for colleges and was little upset that she didn't make up to the best university.
Consider the scenario that the girl is going on low fat diet , a cholesterol reduction medicine and highly stressed. This would obviously lead to low fat stores. If her cholesterol stores gets low the body gets deprived of its building blocks and start using them for primary needs, which in this case is to combat stress. Her reproductive hormones estrogen and progesterone might get affected ,affecting her ovulation cycle. Progesterone is considered a happy hormone. When its levels go low she might go into depression. Moreover when her adrenal activity is high it also affects the thyroid function causing a major disturbance in the endocrine system. Well the cholesterol medicine can potentially solve high cholesterol problem but can wreck the levels of other hormones.
Looking at the root cause to solve the problem , In my opinion ,she has to work on reducing her stress and adapt an anti-inflammatory diet to reduce the production of cortisol and in turn ease the cholesterol demand. She should increase her water intake as its highly anti-inflammatory. Moreover when Adrenals are stressed they use all the water and minerals from our body. In fact even in the dehydrated state the body behaves exactly like the way its stressed. We also need to eat mineral rich organic food. Exercise is a major de-stressor as they activate the production of endorphins. Deep breathing exercises always pump more oxygen to the tissues relaxing the muscles from any tension. She should also cut down her white crystal sugar intake and red meat as well as they are on top of the list for activating inflammation.
As we all know inflammation is the cause of may diseases including Cancer, the anti-inflammatory diet is appropriate for diabetes, cholesterol, Hypertension and Cancer as well.
Check these Anti-inflammatory recipe for instance.Sweet and Tart salad
1 Avacado
6 straw berries
1 carrot
1 cup spinach
2 spoons Almonds
1 spoon oregano infused vinegar
1 spoon blood orange infused olive oil
celtic sea salt to taste
1/4 tsp Black pepper
Dice and toss them all to gether to make a delightful sweet and tart anti-inflammatroy salad.This salad is rich in anti-oxidant pigments and omega 3 fats that reduce the free radicals and cholesterol from our blood.
Lets fight Inflammation!!!
Shri
