The Young Living Health and Wellness Fair was a resounding success. Lots of folks at corporate took time out of their busy day to come and check in on their health; glucose screenings, bone density checks, body mass index checks, and of course cholesterol screenings. I had lots of questions about cholesterol that day and thought it might warrant a posting here, to cover all the bases.
The American Heart Association lists the following ranges for ranking your cholesterol health: 200mg/dl and below is healthy, 201-239mg/dl is borderline high risk, 240mg/dl and above is high risk meaning you are twice as likely as someone in the healthy range for a heart attack. In your overall cholesterol score you have two different numbers: your LDL, or bad cholesterol, and your HDL, or good cholesterol. I recommend that if your score was high when you were tested at the health fair, check with your doctor and have it retested so that he can evaluate BOTH of your scores. You may have your LDL levels in an acceptable range and just have high scoring HDL numbers, which can be good. That being said, your results could also be worse if your LDL levels are very elevated and your HDL numbers are low. There is a specific fat form called a triglyceride that comes into play here as well, and your doctor can help you understand your numbers best.
A number of Young Living employees approached me after the Fair, asking what they can do to lower their numbers. Your doctor can evaluate your particular needs best, but a few things we can all do for healthy levels include: modifying your diet, getting regular physical activity, and avoiding cigarette smoke.
As for eating better, here are a few suggestions. First, pay attention to your fiber intake. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends between 25-30 grams of fiber per day (note: one serving of Balance Complete has 11 grams of fiber!). Next, watch your sodium intake. The AHA recommends less than 2,300 mgs per day with high risk folks targeting more like 1,500 mgs per day. Again, if you are high risk it is worth consulting your health care professional. Also, keep your alcohol intake low, restrict/eliminate trans fats, and keep your saturated/animal fat intake low. Whole grains, lots of fruits and vegetables, and eliminating heavily processed foods are just good general guidelines for heart health whether you are high risk or not! Try to eat fish twice a week if you don't already as that helps to boost your HDL levels (Young Living Omega Blue is also critical here, loaded with heart-healthy omega 3 oils).
The AHA recommendation of exercise is at least 30 minutes a day 4 days a week, but we all benefit from more days if you can work that into your schedule. Find something that you genuinely love doing, whether it be walking, biking, dancing, yoga, rowing, martial arts or whatever works for you. Keep it in your schedule like an appointment that you just don't miss. After all, this is keeping your body healthy and happy and is critical to every aspect of your quality of life.
There are also several foods with strong correlations to cholesterol reduction, easily worked into your eating plan. The Mayo Clinic has five recommendations: oatmeal and oat bran, walnuts and almonds, fish and omega fatty 3 fatty acids (Omega Blue, Young Living's amazing blend of essential oils and fish oils, is perfect for this application), olive oil, and the foods fortified with plant sterols or stanols (these are naturally occurring compounds found in plants, and have been shown to have as much as a 10% reduction on cholesterol levels. You'll find them in some orange juices, for example). These are quick changes that can get your numbers moving in the right direction. Feel free to post questions!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Simple Step #5: Consider a Meatless Day
In the world of wellness, there are myriad opinions on the virtues and vices of animal protein and meat's role in a healthy diet. There are vegans and raw food advocates, the extreme all protein diets, those who abstain from meat for ethical and/or environmental reasons, and everything in between. Rather than getting into all those ideologies, I will simply acknowledge that the majority of us eat meat and could possibly do so with more awareness on how it impacts so many things.
For starters, our meat intake probably involves more red meat than it should (meaning lots of cholesterol and potentially artery-clogging saturated fats). We also tend to eat meat before other items in a meal, meaning we may get full on that rib eye while the broccoli on the plate remains uneaten and our vegetable intake remains low. And finally, the meat we do eat can be cooked in a variety of ways that can drastically alter its nutritional value; deep-fried anything becomes toxic to the body, batter coatings can take a sound choice and make it disaster, and sauces and marinades can be full of sugars and sodium.
So if you take meat out of your meals, what do you have left? Carbohydrates and fats. Are those in the form of processed grains and breads,refined sugars, and harmful fats? Or do you get the amount of fruits and vegetables that you need? When you take meat out of your meal, it easy to assess your carbs. That alone is worth doing on occasion, as so few of us eat enough fruits and veggies. Going to the other extreme and just eating carbs isn't the best option either (especially processed carbs).
As for the toll that meat takes on the environment, I found some sobering information. Americans eat an average of half a pound of meat a day. It takes about 4.8 pounds of grain, fed to cattle, to produce a single pound of beef. In the underdeveloped countries of the world, most people consume grain directly and certainly don't have enough to eat. It's a simple logic leap to see that eating great amounts of beef can contribute, indirectly, to world hunger. In his book, Diet for a Small Planet, author Francis Moore Lappe states, "Imagine a room filled with 45-60 people with empty bowls in front of them. For the 'feed cost' (meaning grain used to raise the beef) of your steak, each of their bowls could be filled with a full cup of cooked grain cereals." Meat production also generates more than 1.4 billion tons of animal waste, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency, polluting American waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. Also, more than one third of all raw materials and fossil fuel consumption in the U.S. are used in animal production. Chicken and fish take a much lower toll on the planet and are lower in saturated fats, but eating beef sparingly is a personal choice.
I have had a high animal-protein diet for a long time and didn't give it much thought until I made a close friend who is a vegetarian. I started to read up on it and found there are tons of different reasons why people choose to go meatless. As I looked into recipes, I decided to eat vegetarian whenever I went anywhere with my friend. It was a respect thing at first, then I got thinking there are some other sound reasons to take a break from meat periodically. Give it some thought. Imaging the profound impact it would have on our health AND the environment if we all took one day a week and abstained from eating meat. Consider it!
For starters, our meat intake probably involves more red meat than it should (meaning lots of cholesterol and potentially artery-clogging saturated fats). We also tend to eat meat before other items in a meal, meaning we may get full on that rib eye while the broccoli on the plate remains uneaten and our vegetable intake remains low. And finally, the meat we do eat can be cooked in a variety of ways that can drastically alter its nutritional value; deep-fried anything becomes toxic to the body, batter coatings can take a sound choice and make it disaster, and sauces and marinades can be full of sugars and sodium.
So if you take meat out of your meals, what do you have left? Carbohydrates and fats. Are those in the form of processed grains and breads,refined sugars, and harmful fats? Or do you get the amount of fruits and vegetables that you need? When you take meat out of your meal, it easy to assess your carbs. That alone is worth doing on occasion, as so few of us eat enough fruits and veggies. Going to the other extreme and just eating carbs isn't the best option either (especially processed carbs).
As for the toll that meat takes on the environment, I found some sobering information. Americans eat an average of half a pound of meat a day. It takes about 4.8 pounds of grain, fed to cattle, to produce a single pound of beef. In the underdeveloped countries of the world, most people consume grain directly and certainly don't have enough to eat. It's a simple logic leap to see that eating great amounts of beef can contribute, indirectly, to world hunger. In his book, Diet for a Small Planet, author Francis Moore Lappe states, "Imagine a room filled with 45-60 people with empty bowls in front of them. For the 'feed cost' (meaning grain used to raise the beef) of your steak, each of their bowls could be filled with a full cup of cooked grain cereals." Meat production also generates more than 1.4 billion tons of animal waste, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency, polluting American waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. Also, more than one third of all raw materials and fossil fuel consumption in the U.S. are used in animal production. Chicken and fish take a much lower toll on the planet and are lower in saturated fats, but eating beef sparingly is a personal choice.
I have had a high animal-protein diet for a long time and didn't give it much thought until I made a close friend who is a vegetarian. I started to read up on it and found there are tons of different reasons why people choose to go meatless. As I looked into recipes, I decided to eat vegetarian whenever I went anywhere with my friend. It was a respect thing at first, then I got thinking there are some other sound reasons to take a break from meat periodically. Give it some thought. Imaging the profound impact it would have on our health AND the environment if we all took one day a week and abstained from eating meat. Consider it!
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