CHE Standards

Scott Said:

Cholesterol reduction?

We Answered:

Besides reducing your intake of animal protein such as meat, eggs and dairy products (skim milk is OK as it is cholesterol free) and increasing your intake of complex carbohydrates such as oats, other cereals, bread, muesli and pasta you could also take some natural remedies such as fish oil, garlic oil and other natural remedies that you can find in a web search for "high cholesterol" + "natural remedies".

You may need several natural remedies as each one helps a bit.

Cholesterol tablets can give you severe side effects such as aching muscles.

Walter Said:

Body Fat Reduction! How do I do it?

We Answered:

Carbs? Fat?

What a pile of bullsh!t. You have probably just got into a plateau from doing the same exercises week in, week out so your muscles - which have memory - have got bored, are no longer stimulated and thus the muscle has stopped growing and the fat has stopped melting.

Start mixing up your work out routine and, needless to say, make sure you eat healthy foods and cut all of the crap out. Keep your calorie intake at no LESS than around 1500-1800 calories and no more than 2100 per day (assuming you are an "average" sized adult male). Eat small amounts of food around 6 times a day.

Start doing shorter, but really intense CV sessions. Start doing new weights exercises.

Also, you cannot burn fat without eating healthy. Go do a gym workout then go home and eat sh!t = very poor, if no weight loss at all.

Likewise, eat healthy a don't exercise = very poor weight loss as well.

Finally, let's talk about carbs. Carbs are not bad. That is marketing, Atkins diet, weapons-grade horsesh!t.

You lose fat by a very simple equation - less calories in, MORE calories out. Carbs are energy (and like most things considered "food", contain calories). You need them if you exercise. They are also almost as essential as PROTEIN if you want to build muscle. They get glycogen back into the muscles and help synthesise protein.

Just stay away from processed (white) carbs - like white bread, white pasta, white rice, etc. And instead, hit the wholegrain carbs - wholegrain bread, wholegrain pasta, wholegrain rice, oats, etc. These are good carbs, and are excellent for energy, stabalising blood sugar levels and thus can help REDUCE body fat.

Also, not eating carbs after X hour of the day is also complete bull. I eat carbs after my workouts at about 8.30-9pm, yet I have still managed to burn off around 2 stone of body fat in 10 months... So what does that say???

Exercise correctly/regularly and eat a healthy, balanced diet (wholegrain (carbs), lean meats, fruit, veg, nuts, seeds) and the weight will fall off and, assuming you are doing weights and doing it properly, the muscle will grow.

Hope this helps you misinformed cretin.

Doris Said:

food question?

We Answered:

1. Yes, legumes are excellent sources of protein with little fat, no cholesterol, and they taste good.

2. Meat and Beans are high in protein.

3. All of the above. Saturated fat and cholesterol lead to major health problems in today's populations. A reduction in these will pay off in the long run.

Christian Said:

Which is better for health, low fat diet or low carb diet?

We Answered:

Both are bad! you need a balanced healthy nutrition. The secret is to have all the proteins, minerals, vitamins and fiber in a reduced amount of calories. I lost 40 lbs in 3 months with such a personalized program and I keep my ideal weight for 6 years now. I help others to achieve their goals.

Diana Said:

What was the reason for the DRASTIC reduction in CAD mortality and overall mortality in the Lyon Diet Study?

We Answered:

Is this a question or are you trying to promote the so called "cholesterol myth?" To appropriately interpret the results of a study it is important to have an understanding of the types of study (cohort, clinical trial, etc.) and the terms used such as the difference between absolute or relative risk reductions. There are many risk factors for heart attacks not just elevated LDL. So it is not surprising that cardiovascular events can be reduced by modifying other risk factors independent of LDL. For example, if someone stops smoking they reduce their chance of death or cardiovascular events. Their LDL might not change, but this does not mean that elevated LDL is not a risk factor of heart attacks. There is overwhelming evidence that elevated LDL and low HDL increases the risk of cardiovascular events like a heart attack and death. I can provide you with every clinical study that supports this, but you will be reading it for awhile.

The Lyon Heart study was overall a decent study, but it still had several flaws. All of the patients in the Lyon heart study had a previous heart attack and were receiving the medical standard of care, which likely included aspirin, beta blockers, ace inhibitors and potentially statins. The trial only included 605 patients, which is small for this kind of study. The trial was terminated at 27 months, which is not very long time when looking at an endpoint like heart attacks and death. The patients in the control group received a standard American diet that consisted of 34% of calories from fat, 12% from saturated fat, 11% from monounsaturated fat, 6% from polyunsaturated fat, and 312 mg/d of cholesterol. The diet of the control group did not meet the AHA Step I diet guidelines (30% of calories from fat, 8% to 10% from saturated fat, and 300 mg/d cholesterol.) The AHA Step I diet is the recommended diet for someone who has a previous heart attack; therefore the patients in the control group were not even receiving the standard of care in regards to dietary recommendations. Compared to the control group, people in the experimental group consumed less linoleic acid and more oleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid and dietary fiber. The baseline diet was only assessed in the experimental group at the beginning of the study, and the diet of the control group at baseline was presumed to be comparable. Moreover, nutrient intake in the control group was only assessed at the conclusion of the study so the dietary behavior of these subjects would not be influenced. Thus, it is not clear whether any dietary changes were made by the control group. In addition, dietary data are reported for only 30% of patients in the control group and 50% of those in the experimental group.

The major end points of the trial were cardiovascular death and nonfatal heart attack. The numbers you are using for risk reduction is the relative risk reduction, which is not always useful in clinical practice. It is best to look at the raw numbers and the absolute risk reduction. If you do not understand the difference between the absolute and relative risk reductions, then you should read about this first before trying to interpret this data. The primary end point occurred in 14 patients in the treatment group compared to 44 in the control group. The absolute risk reduction is 9.9% and the relative risk reduction is 68%. The absolute risk reduction is more useful in this case. Relative risk reduction is frequently used by pharmaceutical companies to make the results more impressive.

The clinical findings from the Lyon Diet Heart Study implicate risk factors beyond lipids and lipoproteins, which have historically been our primary targets of intervention. The fact that omega-3 fatty acids exert cardioprotective effects via multiple mechanisms (ie, prevent arrhythmia, have anti-inflammatory properties, decrease synthesis of cytokines and mitogens, stimulate endothelial-derived nitric oxide, are antithrombotic, are prostaglandin and leukotriene precursors, and inhibit atherosclerosis) suggest that they could have accounted for the cardioprotective effect observed. The unprecedented reduction in coronary recurrence rates, despite the fact that lipid/lipoprotein risk factors were comparable, clearly points to other important risk factor modifications as major influences in the development of CVD. There is a pressing need to identify these risk factor(s) and effective intervention strategies. No conclusions about LDLs influence on heart disease can be determined from this study. We already know there are multiple risk factors for cardiovascular events and there are most likely risk factors that have yet been identified.

Eileen Said:

When following a LOW CARB diet, how conterproductive is using blood pressure drugs and cholesterol drugs?

We Answered:

How long ago did you successfully use the Low Carb diet? Age can have a major effect on your metabolism. And judging from the drugs you are on - I would say you don't exercise much. If you are eating the same amounts as you did back then and are at the same activity level, then I would say your metabolism has naturally decreased over time. It is time to get back in the gym, and exercise (with your doctors approval) to boost your metabolism - it is something you should be doing anyways.