So many of us lead busy lives and eating healthy is a challenge when you're in the run. I hear from patients so often that time is a limiting factor, particularly when it comes to breakfast. The temptation to grab something quickly and get on with the day is usually stronger than the desire to find something good for you. However, there are options available that are markedly more heartsmart than the sausage and egg coronary killer. WebMD has done the work for us in sorting out the bad from the not as bad and we've posted their slideshow below. Take a look and get your day started in a better way:
http://on.webmd.com/T6w67Y
Showing posts with label cholesterol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cholesterol. Show all posts
Monday, November 19, 2012
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Happy Holidays: Generic Lipitor Hits Pharmacies This Month
In time for the Holiday Season, all those using the lipid-lowering blockbuster will be able to get their prescriptions filled for $30-$50/month shortly after Thanksgiving, as opposed to the nearly $200/month that they had payed on Halloween.
Despite several other statins already available in generic form (e.g. simvastatin, lovatstatin, etc), generic Lipitor, atorvastatin, will be the most potent to join the crew.
You can watch Dr. Howard Weintraub from NYU discuss it here.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Cholesterol-Lowering Foods: They Do Exist
So, we've talked about the No-brainer bad foods, and the High-cholesterol surprises, but there are rumors out there that all foods are not created equal and that you can actually improve your LDL by eating more of certain food items. It's true! Some of them decrease your LDL (should be <100 mg/dL), some increase your HDL (should be >35 mg/dL), and some do both.
"These foods may not be magic, but they're close to it," says Ruth Frechman, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.
1. Nuts - Let's not get crazy here, only some nuts and in their healthiest form are good for you. Summarily discount anything that is honey-roasted, salted, or candied. The raw versions, and to a lesser extent, the dry roasted are your best bets. Believe it or not, the esteemed cardiac journal Circulation published a study
demonstrating that people who had two handfuls of almonds, lowered their LDL by more than 9%!
Along with almonds and walnuts, the FDA gave its qualified health claim to peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans, some pine nuts, and pistachios. Another study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, examined a standard low fat/low cholesterol diet with a diet that replaced one-fifth of the calories with pecans. When compared to the standard diet, the pecan diet lowered bad LDL cholesterol by 10.4% and decreased triglycerides by 11.1%. It also raised the levels of good HDL cholesterol by 5.6%.
2. Oatmeal - Yes, those annoying breakfast commercials are partially true. Oatmeal actually decreases the bad cholesterol (LDL) without affecting HDL. It is also a recipient of the illustrious FDA's "health claim" status, granted in 1997. Most adults should get at least 25 grams of fiber a day.There are 3 grams of soluble fiber in 1.5 cups of oatmeal -- enough to lower your cholesterol, according to the American Dietetic Association. It may be a bit much for breakfast, so just add in oatmeal or bran to dishes at other times of the day.
3. Plant sterols - "Eating sterol and stanol-containing foods is an easy way to lower your LDL cholesterol, which helps reduce the risk of heart disease," says Ruth Frechman, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). A more recent study from the University of California Davis Medical Center looked at the effects of sterol-fortified orange juice. Of 72 adults, half received regular orange juice and half the fortified OJ. After just two weeks, the people who drank the stanol-fortified juice had a 12.4% drop in their LDL levels. The results were published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. Ok, that's easy enough, but what are they? And where do I find them? Many of the butter, or better even, margarines that you smear on bread have sterols added - check the labels! Sterols and stanols are also found in some cooking oils, salad dressings, milk, yogurt, and juices.
4. Fish - Because of the high levels of the oft praised Omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke while helping to reduce symptoms of hypertension, the American Heart Association recommends eating a variety of types of fatty fish (such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel) at least twice a week. You should be grilling or baking that fish though and not eating out of a can, covered in oil, or frying it!
5. Olive Oil - The cholesterol-lowering effects of this Mediterranean Diet staple is most effective when it is the extra virgin variety, meaning the oil is less processed, thereby leaving many of the beneficial nutrients. Careful though, the caloric content is high so only use the recommended amount.
"These foods may not be magic, but they're close to it," says Ruth Frechman, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.
1. Nuts - Let's not get crazy here, only some nuts and in their healthiest form are good for you. Summarily discount anything that is honey-roasted, salted, or candied. The raw versions, and to a lesser extent, the dry roasted are your best bets. Believe it or not, the esteemed cardiac journal Circulation published a study
demonstrating that people who had two handfuls of almonds, lowered their LDL by more than 9%!
Along with almonds and walnuts, the FDA gave its qualified health claim to peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans, some pine nuts, and pistachios. Another study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, examined a standard low fat/low cholesterol diet with a diet that replaced one-fifth of the calories with pecans. When compared to the standard diet, the pecan diet lowered bad LDL cholesterol by 10.4% and decreased triglycerides by 11.1%. It also raised the levels of good HDL cholesterol by 5.6%.
2. Oatmeal - Yes, those annoying breakfast commercials are partially true. Oatmeal actually decreases the bad cholesterol (LDL) without affecting HDL. It is also a recipient of the illustrious FDA's "health claim" status, granted in 1997. Most adults should get at least 25 grams of fiber a day.There are 3 grams of soluble fiber in 1.5 cups of oatmeal -- enough to lower your cholesterol, according to the American Dietetic Association. It may be a bit much for breakfast, so just add in oatmeal or bran to dishes at other times of the day.
3. Plant sterols - "Eating sterol and stanol-containing foods is an easy way to lower your LDL cholesterol, which helps reduce the risk of heart disease," says Ruth Frechman, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). A more recent study from the University of California Davis Medical Center looked at the effects of sterol-fortified orange juice. Of 72 adults, half received regular orange juice and half the fortified OJ. After just two weeks, the people who drank the stanol-fortified juice had a 12.4% drop in their LDL levels. The results were published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. Ok, that's easy enough, but what are they? And where do I find them? Many of the butter, or better even, margarines that you smear on bread have sterols added - check the labels! Sterols and stanols are also found in some cooking oils, salad dressings, milk, yogurt, and juices.
4. Fish - Because of the high levels of the oft praised Omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke while helping to reduce symptoms of hypertension, the American Heart Association recommends eating a variety of types of fatty fish (such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel) at least twice a week. You should be grilling or baking that fish though and not eating out of a can, covered in oil, or frying it!
5. Olive Oil - The cholesterol-lowering effects of this Mediterranean Diet staple is most effective when it is the extra virgin variety, meaning the oil is less processed, thereby leaving many of the beneficial nutrients. Careful though, the caloric content is high so only use the recommended amount.
Friday, March 11, 2011
High Cholsterol Surprises
Not all of the high cholesterol foods are as obvious as milk, ice cream and egg yolks. Staying heart healthy is all about being aware of the not-so-obvious things that put you at elevated risk for coronary artery disease. So here's a few more clandestine cholesterol-containing food items:
1. Lobster - If you listen to most of my patients, they will tell you that anything that tastes good, is probably not good for you. And sure enough, this most prized crustacean packs a walloping 61 mg of cholesterol in every 3 oz bite! Add the melted butter and you might as well schedule your stress test for the following week. If you're going to splurge, avoid the butter (or most any "dipping" sauce for that matter), steam that sucker and watch your portions! By the way, processed shrimp, crab cakes and anything fried also have super high levels of cholesterol as well.
2. Chicken - But you were told it's so healthy, right? Well, it all depends on how it's prepared. With the skin on, a drumstick has more cholesterol than a cup of ice cream or a burger. Also, the dark meat, which tends to contain more fat, is higher on cholesterol. When the chicken is breaded, egg-dipped, fried, sauteed in butter/oil it becomes no more healthy than any of the other offenders above. Bake or broil it, stick to the white, skinless meat and surround it with vegetables - not batter.
3. Liver - While most of the younger readers will cringe at the thought of eating liver there are still many out there who gladly smother it in onions, spread it on a cracker or choose it in a fine dining establishment where it gains the much prettier title of foie gras. But no matter what name it is give, this organ meat is like the motherload of cholesterol, amassing more than a single day's daily allowance in one 3 oz chunk. Yikes! If you need further discouragement, just picture it when it's raw and that should do the trick.
4. Mashed potatoes - Surprise! They're not really much healthier than fries. The majority of recipes for this classic American side dish involve whole milk, lots of butter, and sour cream - the perfect storm. Throw some liver on top and you might break some kind of record.
5. Movie theatre popcorn - There seems to be a popular myth that popcorn is a healthy snack. This is very untrue unless you're popping those kernels in a pan by yourself, without oil. WebMD reports that Regal Cinema's medium-sized popcorn has a whopping 60 grams of saturated fat and 1,200 calories. Not healthy! Definitely do not add any of the liquid coronary-clogging butter and go for the small - we want you to have some enjoyment!
Stay tuned for the next installment where we discuss foods that may actually improve your cholesterol profile.
1. Lobster - If you listen to most of my patients, they will tell you that anything that tastes good, is probably not good for you. And sure enough, this most prized crustacean packs a walloping 61 mg of cholesterol in every 3 oz bite! Add the melted butter and you might as well schedule your stress test for the following week. If you're going to splurge, avoid the butter (or most any "dipping" sauce for that matter), steam that sucker and watch your portions! By the way, processed shrimp, crab cakes and anything fried also have super high levels of cholesterol as well.
2. Chicken - But you were told it's so healthy, right? Well, it all depends on how it's prepared. With the skin on, a drumstick has more cholesterol than a cup of ice cream or a burger. Also, the dark meat, which tends to contain more fat, is higher on cholesterol. When the chicken is breaded, egg-dipped, fried, sauteed in butter/oil it becomes no more healthy than any of the other offenders above. Bake or broil it, stick to the white, skinless meat and surround it with vegetables - not batter.
3. Liver - While most of the younger readers will cringe at the thought of eating liver there are still many out there who gladly smother it in onions, spread it on a cracker or choose it in a fine dining establishment where it gains the much prettier title of foie gras. But no matter what name it is give, this organ meat is like the motherload of cholesterol, amassing more than a single day's daily allowance in one 3 oz chunk. Yikes! If you need further discouragement, just picture it when it's raw and that should do the trick.
4. Mashed potatoes - Surprise! They're not really much healthier than fries. The majority of recipes for this classic American side dish involve whole milk, lots of butter, and sour cream - the perfect storm. Throw some liver on top and you might break some kind of record.
5. Movie theatre popcorn - There seems to be a popular myth that popcorn is a healthy snack. This is very untrue unless you're popping those kernels in a pan by yourself, without oil. WebMD reports that Regal Cinema's medium-sized popcorn has a whopping 60 grams of saturated fat and 1,200 calories. Not healthy! Definitely do not add any of the liquid coronary-clogging butter and go for the small - we want you to have some enjoyment!
Stay tuned for the next installment where we discuss foods that may actually improve your cholesterol profile.
Friday, March 4, 2011
The Cholsterol Offenders - The No Brainers
Many of you out there already take a medicine for high cholesterol or have been instructed to eat a healthier diet in order to avoid medication in the future, aka the "borderliners". Both the frankly dyslipidemic and the borderliners will see heart docs like us in the office and tell us 'my doctor told me to avoid foods high in cholesterol - but I'm not sure what those foods are.' So, for your reading pleasure, we present The Cholesterol Offenders:
THE NO-BRAINERS
1. Eggs - The yolk's on you if you didn't know this one. (Sorry, but I couldn't resist). Turns out that an egg yolk has an offensive 1234 mg per 100 gram serving of cholesterol, or 411% of the recommneded daily allowance (RDA) of cholesterol. That means that just one little yolk will give you 70% of the day's RDA and if you're lucky enough to get the double yolk - well, you can do the math. By the way, the rest of the egg only provides an addition 1% of the RDA so no need to avoid the egg whites.
2. Butter - On bread, in a pan, or used in cookies, cakes and muffins, butter is a huge offender. 1 stick has 243 mg and 1 TBS contains 30 mg, 10% of the RDA. Switch to something healthier like olive oil.
3. Fast food - There's no denying that some fast food, at the right time tastes good; and its cheap. But it is flat out unhealthy. Everdayhealth.com reports that a a McDonald's Big Mac has 85 mg of cholesterol, 33 grams of fat and 600 calories. Throw in a large fries and you add 525 more calories, 24 grams of fat and 21 mg of cholesterol for a grand total of 1125 calories, 57 grams of fat and 106 mg of cholesterol. Can you feel your arteries clogging? But the true cholesterol killers in the fast food family are the breakfast sandwiches. The classic Egg McMuffin which most adult males can take down in 5 bites has a whopping.... wait for it.....235 mg of cholesterol in one small sandwich. That is almost the entire day's tolerated cholesterol before 9 am. Ouch, my chest. Other chains are just as bad, and some are even worse so don't think that it's better at BK or Wendy's no matter what the ad campaigns tell you. Check out
4. Cheese - When you say Wisconsin, I think of 2 things: cheese and offensive linemen. Both come in large quantities and high quality in The Badger State and there's a reason for it. While cheese can be a great source of protein, it is also a hefty cholesterol load. Cheddar, gouda and of course, cream cheese, and any whole milk-based cheese are ones to avoid if possible. And by the way, this also includes Mac and Cheese, which combines whole milk and butter with cheese to make a cholesterol nightmare.
5. Ice Cream - We are taking down all the good Ol' American comfort foods. While it may seem refreshing and delicious on a hot day, it's a cold-blooded coronary assasin. One cup of the smooth dessert has more fat than a hamburger and more cholesterol than 10 glazed doughnuts. Egads, pass on the ice cream and go with yogurt or fruit.
Stay tuned for our next post when we point out 5 high cholesterol foods that will surprise you...
THE NO-BRAINERS
1. Eggs - The yolk's on you if you didn't know this one. (Sorry, but I couldn't resist). Turns out that an egg yolk has an offensive 1234 mg per 100 gram serving of cholesterol, or 411% of the recommneded daily allowance (RDA) of cholesterol. That means that just one little yolk will give you 70% of the day's RDA and if you're lucky enough to get the double yolk - well, you can do the math. By the way, the rest of the egg only provides an addition 1% of the RDA so no need to avoid the egg whites.
2. Butter - On bread, in a pan, or used in cookies, cakes and muffins, butter is a huge offender. 1 stick has 243 mg and 1 TBS contains 30 mg, 10% of the RDA. Switch to something healthier like olive oil.
3. Fast food - There's no denying that some fast food, at the right time tastes good; and its cheap. But it is flat out unhealthy. Everdayhealth.com reports that a a McDonald's Big Mac has 85 mg of cholesterol, 33 grams of fat and 600 calories. Throw in a large fries and you add 525 more calories, 24 grams of fat and 21 mg of cholesterol for a grand total of 1125 calories, 57 grams of fat and 106 mg of cholesterol. Can you feel your arteries clogging? But the true cholesterol killers in the fast food family are the breakfast sandwiches. The classic Egg McMuffin which most adult males can take down in 5 bites has a whopping.... wait for it.....235 mg of cholesterol in one small sandwich. That is almost the entire day's tolerated cholesterol before 9 am. Ouch, my chest. Other chains are just as bad, and some are even worse so don't think that it's better at BK or Wendy's no matter what the ad campaigns tell you. Check out
4. Cheese - When you say Wisconsin, I think of 2 things: cheese and offensive linemen. Both come in large quantities and high quality in The Badger State and there's a reason for it. While cheese can be a great source of protein, it is also a hefty cholesterol load. Cheddar, gouda and of course, cream cheese, and any whole milk-based cheese are ones to avoid if possible. And by the way, this also includes Mac and Cheese, which combines whole milk and butter with cheese to make a cholesterol nightmare.
5. Ice Cream - We are taking down all the good Ol' American comfort foods. While it may seem refreshing and delicious on a hot day, it's a cold-blooded coronary assasin. One cup of the smooth dessert has more fat than a hamburger and more cholesterol than 10 glazed doughnuts. Egads, pass on the ice cream and go with yogurt or fruit.
Stay tuned for our next post when we point out 5 high cholesterol foods that will surprise you...
Monday, November 1, 2010
Heart Healthy Diet
Patients are often asking us how to eat right and improve their diet. Well, the government (the National Institute of Health, really) actually provides some great answers. The NIH website offers a lot of great information about how to keep you and your family healthy and this is juts one part of it.
Here are some highlights:
For the whole article, go here:
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/cgi-bin/chd1/step1intro.cgi
And pass this blog along to your friends....
Here are some highlights:
Heart Healthy Diet Guidelines -- you should eat:
- 8-10% of the day's total calories from saturated fat.
- 30 percent or less of the day’s total calories from fat.
- Less than 300 milligrams of dietary cholesterol a day.
- Limit sodium intake to 2400 milligrams a day.
- Just enough calories to achieve or maintain a healthy weight and reduce your blood cholesterol level. (Ask your doctor or registered dietitian what is a reasonable calorie level for you.)
For the whole article, go here:
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/cgi-bin/chd1/step1intro.cgi
And pass this blog along to your friends....
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