The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Wont Prevent Heart Disease - And The Statin-Free Plan That Will

Incredible. I Thought I Knew All I Needed To Know. I Learned So Much.

The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease - And The Statin-Free Plan That Will by Jonny Bowden, PHD, CNS & Stephan Sinatra, MD, FACC

I consider myself rather knowledgeable when it comes to health & nutrition. I've been studying it for 2 decades. The thing is, while I knew the majority of what was said in this excellent book (nutrition/diet info. much more so then information on medications), having it laid out so clearly & by real medical doctors made some points so much more clear to me.

For example, I think by now everyone knows sugar is bad for them. This book shows us that it is so bad, we are better off if we never consume a single tiny crystal. The harm sugar is doing to our bodies almost immediately after consumption is frightening. I mean, gee, I know sugar is bad. But hey, all things in moderation right? Wrong. It seems with sugar there is no safe amount.

I have been loosely following a combination of a low FODMAPs/AIP diet to help manage my Endometriosis (I know this isn't about the heart, but it is about inflammation, so it's relevant). I found Sara Ballantyne PhD to be very helpful in this regard (she has several books if you want to look them up). Even she advises against sugar, but in general, I never felt the real danger from sugar. I thought, okay so maple sugar, black strap molasses, & honey. These are suggested because they have trace nutrients compared to table sugar. But hey now! I am sensitive to FODMAPs so what's the big deal with some certified organic sugar so I don't have GI issues? Not only that, but boy oh boy organic maple sugar crazy expensive.

Now I learn that it's the fructose in sugar that makes it so darn bad. In fact according to this book, there is only a 5% difference in fructose content between table sugar & high fructose corn syrup. We've all been warned of the dangers of HFCS, yet the authors of this book flat out say the difference between table sugar & HFCS is so slim, they are essentially the same, IE, they are both equally dangerous.

Now onto my middle aged husband. He has borderline high blood pressure. He is overweight, but not obese. I try very very very very hard to get him to eat healthy. Thanks to my AIP lifestyle, I tend to make a lot of lower carb meals. My breakfast is fish baked over lemons with a sprinkle of sea salt & a little organic butter flavored coconut oil (I can't digest the protein in dairy, another symptom of my autoimmune disease). My husband sometimes does okay with eggs & toast. Other times awful with sugary coffee & sugary kids cereal. When I do my Sunday bulk cooking for week long ready to eat meals they will consist of things like meatballs made using turmeric, no breads or starches, no crumbs, etc. & a big batch of spaghetti squash rather than pasta. Or stew with no white potatoes or noodles.

My job is running my Eco farm full time. I grow & raise at least half of everything we consume. We also hunt. You'd think we'd have super healthy diets. Sadly, it's not working out that way. My husband wants his carbs & his sugar. For example he will add a generous serving of pasta to what I make or dump a bunch of store bought spaghetti sauce, BBQ sauce, or ketchup onto a low carb meal I made. All these processed organic foods contain sugars.

I totally get the sugar love. I'm bad about it myself (for sweets only), but after this book, I'm determined to get off the sugar death trap. I do understand why he eats these things. It's why everyone eats them. They are deliciously addictive. I try to educate him. He thinks he eats healthy. I don't want to fight. I'm scared of him having a heart attack or stroke. I'm not even sure if surviving such an event would get him to change his diet. I hope I never have to find out.

My 'Husband Solution' is to work on the supplements listed in this book to give my husband something to counterbalance his destructive eating habits & hope for the best. I already found a multivitamin on amazon by Dr. Sinatra that I subscribe & saved to. I'm working on ordering other supplements as well.

My husband isn't lazy. Having a farm makes that impossible. It's the diet that is so bad. Everything is organic, but really, so what? It just has less chemical crap in it than the absolute trash that is called conventional food. It may seem like I've gone on a lot about sugar, but in the book, the authors do too. It is a very big deal.

The book does also discus medications, diet, lifestyle factors, mental health etc. I've never been a fan of medications so this was pretty easy for me & none of the information was the least bit surprising. Frustrating to be sure. But there is a real pigheadedness with conventional medicine.

Conventional Doctors are total pill pushers. It's their solution to everything, even when it doesn't work. It's why I stopped going to the doctor. I know a time will come when I need a conventional doctor. That will be when I break a bone or have a tumor. But for overall health & well being, I only trust conventional doctors to make me feel worse or even possibly create more health problems than what I arrived with.

This book is refreshing because it focuses on Integrative Medicine. When I was in my 20's this wasn't recognized like it is now. I had to battle with my health insurance to get coverage for nearly anything of this nature, yet Integrative Medicine doctors are what actually helped me get better. Conventional Medicine failed me every single time. Oh sorry, they didn't fail me once. I broke my arm when I was 5. I'll give them that & only that.

Even if you think you eat great & don't have high blood pressure or any sort of cardiovascular concerns, you want to read this book. I have low blood pressure. Aside from my autoimmune disease I appear to be very healthy. But this book shows me that I could do better, much better. In fact, if I don't I could have problems or could already have problems & not even know it, like diabetes.

This is real folks & it's scary. But the excellent part is that we can actually do something about it! It's not all doom & gloom. There is a solution & it doesn't take prescription pills, it takes you!