Your Heart is Probably Safe from Cholesterol and Eggs

Eat up, people. Another new analysis shows that diet high in cholesterol probably won’t give you a heart attack. Neither will a diet rich in eggs. Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland found eating a boatload of eggs and globs of cholesterol don’t raise risk of heart disease, even in individuals genetically predisposed.

Eggs are high in cholesterol, so people swore off them for years. A single medium-sized egg contains about 186 mg of cholesterol, which is about 62% of the recommended daily intake. A large egg contains around 213 mg of cholesterol.

For the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jyrki Virtanen and colleagues looked at the dietary habits of more than 1,000 men. At the time of the study, none of the participants had been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease. Over the course of the 21-year study, 230 of them had a heart attack.

The scientists examined what the men ate and found no link between high consumption of dietary cholesterol and an increased risk of coronary heart disease.

Additionally, the study showed eating eggs was not linked to a higher incidence of coronary heart disease, nor with the thickening of carotid artery walls. The men in the highest control group consumed an average of 520 mg of cholesterol and ate about 1 egg a day.

Even among participants who were carriers of the ApoE4 phenotype, which affects cholesterol metabolism, no increased risk of heart disease was observed. People with the ApoE4 phenotype are more prone to high cholesterol and Alzheimer’s disease. Of the participants, 32.5% were carriers.

These findings support the American Heart Association’s revised dietary recommendations, released in 2000, suggesting that eating an egg a day is perfectly safe.

There have been very few studies linking the intake of dietary cholesterol to an increased risk of heart disease. In fact most nutritionists no longer recommend limiting the amount of dietary cholesterol people should ingest. The cholesterol myth has been busted.

Heart disease and most heart attacks are caused not by cholesterol, but by the buildup of atherosclerotic plaque resulting from inflammation and calcium deposits which can build up and rupture or clog arteries. Sometimes cholesterol is found in this plaque, but cholesterol is waxy and pliable and may actually be there to provide healing.

Despite the many low-fat products on the market, heart disease has continued to rise, and many people with low cholesterol have died from heart attacks and cardiovascular disease.

Article published on http://naturalsociety.com/

Tomato Works as Well as Statins to Lower Cholesterol

Is it possible that the common tomato can do as good a job at lowering cholesterol as statin drugs, and do so for only a fraction of the cost and without horrid side effects? Recent research from Australia is showing the answer to this question is a resounding yes.

These researchers found that 25 mg of lycopene, a carotenoid found in tomatoes, is effective in reducing LDL cholesterol by about 10%. This is comparable to the effect of statin drugs at low doses in patients with modestly elevated cholesterol levels.

So how many tomatoes would have to be consumed to get 25 mg of lycopene? Surprisingly, drinking about six ounces of tomato juice on a daily basis would do it!

This study evaluated information from other studies done across the globe over a period of more than five decades. It assessed the relationship between lycopene, the phytochemical giving tomatoes their bright red coloration, and cholesterol levels to draw its conclusions.

The researchers credited lycopene for its antioxidant capacity that retards the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, characterized as ‘bad’ cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is supposedly behind atherosclerosis and lipid peroxidation, meaning the degradation of fats, oils and triglycerides by oxygen. Though this cholesterol myth has widely been disrupted, many individuals still feel good about lowering bad cholesterol through utilizing health-boosting, natural solutions.

The study concludes:

“Our meta-analysis suggests that lycopene taken in doses ≥25mg daily is effective in reducing LDL cholesterol by about 10% which is comparable to the effect of low doses of statins in patient with slightly elevated cholesterol levels. More research is needed to confirm suggested beneficial effects on total serum cholesterol and systolic blood pressure.”

Article published on naturalsociety.com/