your risk in so many areas of your health. Even better, you’ll have the potential to see dramatic reductions in risk factors. YOU-reka! When overweight people (with an average weight of 225 pounds) lose about 7.5 percent of their body weight (about 17 pounds or four inches of waist size), they improve their HDL and LDL cholesterol levels, BP, and blood sugar numbers by—get this—20 percent. That’s nearly three times the benefit compared with percentage weight loss. Take the following steps to help you get there in terms of both inches and risk factors.
YOU TIPS!
Know Your Fats. Fat in foods, like bosses, comes in two broad categories: those that are good for your well-being and those that want you to suffer. The strongest influence you can have on your levels of cholesterol (not to mention your waist size) is by watching what fats you’re eating and what fats you’re banishing from your life and your gut. Above all, you want to avoid saturated and trans fats; a serving size should have no more than 4 grams of those two villains combined. They’re the foods most associated with long-term weight gain and clogging your arteries. Essentially, bad fats are ones that are solid at room temperature: animal fat, butter, stick margarine, lard. Trans fat contains cross-linked hydrogen bonds, which make it stable for long periods of time at room temperature. Eating trans fat leads to abnormalities in cholesterol (decreasing your good and increasing your bad), as well as increasing inflammation and damaging your arterial cells, which makes you more prone to clotting. (By the way, trans fat was originally designed for candle wax, but the market died with the advent of electricity.) The value of trans fats is that they have a long shelf life; the average food manufacturer would love to make foods with healthy fats if they could have the one-year shelf life that they can get from the unhealthy fats. The good fats, by contrast are the ones that are liquid at room temperature but get thick when they get cold, like olive oil. They help raise your HDL levels to clear away the guck. Far more important than the calories of fat are what fatty acids \can do to your cell functions, and how they influence arterial function and inflammation.
| Super (Youthful) Fats: Facilitate Spatula Action | Stupid (Aging) Fats: Cause the Clogs, Clump Up the Spatula |
| Monounsaturated Fats. They come in two forms: omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids, in the form of fish (3s) and nut oils (3s and 6s). The omega-3s have been shown to improve arterial and brain function. They’re found in olive oil, canola oil, fish oils, flaxseeds, avocados, and nuts (especially walnuts). They’ve also been shown to reduce blood pressure and lipid levels when used in place of carbohydrates. Bottom line: Make about 30 percent to 40 percent of your fats the monounsaturated variety. | Trans Fat. This is the fat that contains hydrogenated vegetable oil. It’s the worst kind of fat and will stunt weight-loss efforts. Trans-fatty acids are in all kinds of food—especially when long shelf life is important—from buttered popcorn and cookies to chips and margarine. Bottom line: Say no. Stay away from them the way you’d avoid highways on the day before Thanksgiving. Clog city. |
| Polyunsaturated Fats. These are like monounsaturated except that they contain more than one unsaturated bond. They are usually present in vegetable oils and sesame oils. They may improve arterial and brain function, and will help keep up your satiety levels. Bottom line: Make 20 percent to 40 percent of your fats polyunsaturated. | Saturated Fats. Found in meats and dairy products, these fats will make you gain weight and clog your arteries. Bottom line: Limit saturated fat to lean sources like lean cuts of beef and low-fat dairy products. Aim for less than 4 grams of saturated fat per serving. Less than 20 grams, or less than 30 percent of your daily allotment, should be from saturated and/or trans fats combined. |
Note: The best oil to have in your home is extra-virgin olive oil or organic (or cold-press) canola oil. For cooking, you can also use sesame or peanut oil. That’s because their smoking point-that is, the temperature at which the fat burns-is very high. Cook beyond it and you’ll end up with a burned, charcoal flavor. Once heated, oils can become rancid and also can generate toxic chemicals, so you lose the major benefit of eating these usually healthy foods. Also, it’s best to cook the food, rather than the oil. So don’t heat the oil directly in the pan; instead, roll your food in the oil first and then heat the food so the oil doesn’t become overheated.
Here are smoke points (in Fahrenheit) for some commonly used healthy oils:
Unrefined canola oil: 225°
Unrefined sunflower oil: 225°
Extra-virgin olive oil: 320°
Virgin olive oil: 420°
Sesame oil: 410°
Grape-seed oil: 420°
Refined peanut oil: 450°
Semirefined sesame oil: 450°
Clear It All Up. More and more evidence is showing that clog-free living is correlated with raising your amount of HDL to thwart the clot-triggering process. By raising your HDL, you increase the amount of healthy cholesterol that’s available to clear away the lousy cholesterol. Things that have been shown to effectively raise HDL include:
Consuming healthy fats found in olive oil, fish, avocados, and walnuts.
Walking or doing any physical activity for at least thirty minutes a day-no excuses.
Taking niacin. Take 100 milligrams four times a day. Regular (and OTC) niacin is much cheaper than prescription niacin, and there seems to be a beneficial effect of extended-release doses. Sometimes higher doses are needed, in which case your doctor needs to peek at your liver function to ensure that you avoid the uncommon toxicity. To reduce flushing (feeling hot and light-headed), take an aspirin a half hour ahead of time and take the niacin as you go to bed. Do not increase the dose above this level without talking to your doctor, and check with your doctor before using niacin at any dose if you have a history of liver problems.
Taking vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid). We recommend a dose of 300 milligrams a day to decrease LDL and raise HDL with no side effects yet known.
Having one drink of alcohol every night. You should not be drinking just to get your HDL up, but if you do drink alcohol, stick to one drink, and you may see some small beneficial effects.
Substituting protein or monounsaturated fat in place of carbs. Recent research suggests that this can help reduce BP and modify lipid levels.
Just Say Yes to This Drug. If there were one magic pill for fighting fat and saving lives, the pharmaceutical industry would send everyone from scale makers to diet-book authors into bankruptcy. There’s no pill that will do it all. (At least not yet. More on drug solutions in the appendix.) But that doesn’t mean you can’t use drugs to improve your health and reduce your cardiovascular risk factors. Our recommendation-and the closest thing to a pill with mystical powers-comes in the form of two baby aspirin (162 milligrams total) a day. You need two rather than one, since many folks are resistant to the lower dose. (There is no measurable increased risk of stomach problems in studies with this small increase in doses from 81 milligrams to 162 milligrams, and the reduction in heart attacks or ischemic strokes goes from around 13 percent to around 36 percent.) Aspirin makes platelets less sticky and decreases inflammation that occurs to narrow the space where blood flows through your arteries. And it’s been shown to reduce arterial aging and immune system aging, and that means decreasing your risk of everything from heart attack, strokes, and impotence to colon, rectal, and esophageal cancers, and maybe even breast and prostate cancers. To reduce the gastric side effects, drink a half glass of warm water before and after taking the pill. (See your doc if you have any history of serious bleeding, are taking blood thinners, or do extreme sports.)
Have Regular Readings. Not just with your book club or by an astrologer. These regular readings are about tracking your health numbers. Instead of measuring your success through the scale, the real measurement-and test-of your success is seeing whether you’ve