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Tag: blood sugar

  • Can Onions Help with Weight Loss, Cholesterol, and PCOS? | NutritionFacts.org

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    Let’s talk about treating weight loss, cholesterol, and PCOS with diet. What can an eighth of a teaspoon a day of onion powder do for body fat, and what can raw red onion do for cholesterol?

    In one of my previous videos about onions, I talked about the data supporting—or not supporting—the role of onions in boosting testosterone in men, protecting bone health, controlling allergies, and dealing with the side effects of chemotherapy. What about weight loss? Enter the “Effect of Steamed Onion (ONIRO) Consumption on Body Fat and Metabolic Profiles in Overweight Subjects.” Researchers used steamed onions, which aren’t as spicy and have a weaker smell, so they could better disguise them as a placebo. They dried them into onion powder and gave people a minuscule amount—about an eighth of a teaspoon (300 mg) a day. Surely, a little daily dusting of onion powder wouldn’t affect people’s weight. But check out the results reported in the abstract: Measurements using a DEXA scan showed a significant reduction in body fat mass, and a CT scan revealed a significant decrease in whole, visceral, and subcutaneous fat areas.

    Hold on. If a little onion powder is so effective for weight loss, why wasn’t it featured in my book How Not to Diet? Because, as so often happens in studies, the spin in the abstract doesn’t accurately represent the actual data. The DEXA scan results measured no significant change of fat in the group that got the placebo capsules. They only appeared to lose about a spoonful (7 g) of fat, whereas the group unknowingly taking an eighth of a teaspoon of onion powder stuffed into capsules lost nearly one and a half pounds (0.64 kg) of body fat—a significant drop from baseline, but not a statistically significant drop compared to the placebo group, meaning the loss could have just been due to chance. Same thing with the CT scan results: 5 times more loss of overall fat and over 30 times more loss of the dangerous visceral fat, but the results did not reach statistical significance compared to placebo.

    A more recent study tried four teaspoons (9 g) of onion powder a day and similarly failed to accelerate the loss of visceral, total, or subcutaneous fat compared to placebo—but the placebo was also four teaspoons (9 g) of onion powder a day. They used yellow onions versus white onions, and it seems they both may have caused a loss of abdominal body fat, without a significant difference between them. Either way, you might look at these two studies and think, sure, but what are the downsides? It’s only an eighth of a teaspoon of onion powder a day, so why not give it a try? It can’t hurt, but we just don’t have enough evidence to be confident it will actually help.

    Let’s talk about polycystic ovary syndrome, also known as PCOS. It’s one of the most common hormone disorders, affecting 5% to 10% of reproductive-aged women. In addition to causing symptoms like irregular periods, “PCOS is a pre-diabetic state, with decreased insulin sensitivity.” PCOS treatment is challenging due to medication side effects. So, are there dietary options? How about a randomized controlled clinical trial of raw red onion intake?

    Why onions? Well, onion extracts can evidently improve blood sugar and insulin sensitivity in rats with diabetes and, more importantly, were found to reduce blood sugar levels in humans with diabetes, but evidently not in non-diabetic humans. People with PCOS are kind of pre-diabetic, so would it work for them? First, let’s look at those other two studies. To study the “Metabolic Effects of Onion and Green Beans,” people with diabetes spent a week eating either a small onion (60 g) each day or the same diet with about six cups (600 g) of green beans instead—and both approaches worked. The onion lowered people’s blood sugar levels by about 10% compared to a non-onion control diet, while the green beans lowered them by roughly 15% compared to the control.

    Here’s the study that supposedly shows no blood sugar benefits for people without diabetes. It’s true—onions don’t seem to lower normal blood sugar levels, which is a good thing, but check out what happens when you feed people sugar. Have people consume about two and a half tablespoons (50 g) of corn syrup, and their blood sugar levels shoot up over the next two hours before their body can tamp it back down. But give people the exact same amount of sugar along with more and more onion extract, and the blood sugar spike is significantly dampened, almost as much as if you had instead given them an antidiabetic drug, as you can see below and at 4:00 in my video Onions Put to the Test for Weight Loss, Cholesterol, and PCOS Treatment.

    We see the same blunting effect on blood sugar when people get a shot of adrenaline and eat onion extract, compared to receiving adrenaline without the onion extract, as you can see below and at 4:11 in my video.

    So, are there blood sugar benefits for both people with and without diabetes? No difference was found in blood sugar levels or other markers of insulin resistance between the high-onion and low-onion groups of PCOS patients, nor were there any differences in a marker of inflammation between the two groups. But women with PCOS aren’t just at higher risk for diabetes and inflammation—they are also at higher risk for high cholesterol.

    Women with PCOS are over seven times more likely to have a heart attack and develop heart disease, the number one killer of women. But consuming raw red onion appears to be effective in lowering cholesterol, though the group that ate more onions only dropped their LDL cholesterol about 5 points (5 mg/dL), which was not significantly different than the group that ate fewer onions.

    I did find this study from 50 years ago where researchers fed people nearly an entire stick (100 g) of butter, and their cholesterol shot up about 30 points within hours of consumption but by only 9 points or 3 points when combined with about a third of a cup (50 g) of raw or boiled onion. The moral of the story: Don’t eat a stick of butter.

    Doctor’s Note

    Check out the previous video I mentioned: Friday Favorites: Are Onions Beneficial for Testosterone, Osteoporosis, Allergies, and Cancer?.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • A Simple Measure Of Strength That Predicts Metabolic Health

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    Grip strength, the measure used in the study, responds well to regular resistance training and functional movement—think lifting weights, carrying groceries, or doing pushups. Whether you’re managing a known risk or simply aiming to stay strong as you age, prioritizing strength could be one of the most powerful things you do for your long-term health.

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  • 6 Ways Taking Veld Grape Extract Supports Metabolism

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    Metabolism is often reduced to how quickly you burn calories, but in reality, it’s the foundation of nearly every process that keeps your body functioning well. It refers to how your body turns food into energy, manages blood sugar, regulates appetite, builds lean muscle, and stores (or uses) fat.

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  • The Neuroscientist-Approved Snack That Boosts Afternoon Energy

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    The caffeine alternative you’ve been waiting for.

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  • Is Fasting an Effective Treatment for Diabetes? | NutritionFacts.org

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    By losing 15% of their body weight, nearly 90% of those who have had type 2 diabetes for less than four years may achieve remission.

    Currently, more than half a billion adults have diabetes, and about a 50% increase is expected in another generation. I’ve got tons of videos on the best diets for diabetes, but what about no diet at all?

    More than a century ago, fasting was said to cure diabetes, quickly halting its progression and eliminating all signs of the disease within days or weeks. Even so, starvation is guaranteed to lead to the complete disappearance of you if kept up long enough. What’s the point of fasting away the pounds if they’re just going to return as soon as you restart the diet that created them in the first place? Might it be useful to kickstart a healthier diet? Let’s see what the science says.

    Type 2 diabetes has long been recognized as a disease of excess, once thought to afflict only “the idle rich…anyone whose environment and self-support does not require of him some sustained vigorous bodily exertion every day, and whose earnings or income permit him, and whose inclination tempts him, to eat regularly more than he needs.” Diabetes is preventable, so might it also be treatable? If we’re dying from overeating, maybe we can be saved by undereating. Remarkably, this idea was proposed about 2,000 years ago in an Ayurvedic text:

    “Poor diabetic people’s medicine
    He should live like a saint (Munni);
    He should walk for 800–900 miles.
    Or he shall dig a pond;
    Or he shall live only on cow dung and cow urine.”

    That reminds me of the Rollo diet for diabetes proposed in 1797, which was composed of rancid meat. That was on top of the ipecac-like drugs he used to induce severe sickness and vomiting. Anything that makes people sick has only “a temporary effect in relieving diabetes” because it reduces the amount of food eaten. His diet plan—which included congealed blood for lunch and spoiled meat for dinner—certainly had that effect.

    Similar benefits were seen in people with diabetes during the siege of Paris in the Franco‐Prussian War, leading to the advice to mangez le moins possible, which translates to “eat as little as possible.” This was formalized into the Allen starvation treatment, considered to be “the greatest advance in the treatment of diabetes prior to the discovery of insulin.” Before insulin, there was “The Allen Era.”

    Dr. Allen noted that there are clinical reports of even severe diabetes cases clearing up after the onset of a “wasting condition” like tuberculosis or cancer, so he decided to put it to the test. He found that even in the most severe type of diabetes, he could clear sugar from people’s urine within ten days. Of course, that’s the easy part; it’s harder to maintain once they start eating again. To manage patients’ diabetes, he stuck to two principles: Keep them underweight and restrict the fat in their diet. A person with severe diabetes can be symptom-free for days or weeks, but eating butter or olive oil can make the disease come raging back.

    As I’ve said before, diabetes is a disease of fat toxicity. Infuse fat into people’s veins through an IV, and, by using a high-tech type of MRI scanner, you can show in real time the buildup of fat in muscle cells within hours, accompanied by an increase in insulin resistance. The same thing happens when you put people on a high-fat diet for three days. It can even happen in just one day. Even a single meal can increase insulin resistance within six hours. Acute dietary fat intake rapidly increases insulin resistance. Why do we care? Insulin resistance in our muscles, in the context of too many calories, can lead to a buildup of liver fat, followed by fat accumulation in the pancreas, and eventually full-blown diabetes. “Type 2 diabetes can now be understood as a state of excess fat in the liver and pancreas, and remains reversible for at least 10 years in most individuals.”

    When people are put on a very low-calorie diet—700 calories a day—fat can get pulled out of their muscle cells, accompanied by a corresponding boost in insulin sensitivity, as shown below and at 4:43 in my video Fasting to Reverse Diabetes.

    The fat buildup in the liver has then been shown to decrease substantially, and if the diet is continued, the excess fat in the pancreas also reduces. If caught early enough, reversing type 2 diabetes is possible, which would mean sustained healthy blood sugar levels on a healthy diet.

    With the loss of 15% of body weight, nearly 90% of individuals who have had type 2 diabetes for less than four years can achieve non-diabetic blood sugar levels, whereas it may only be reversible in 50% of those who’ve lived with the disease for longer than eight years. That’s better than bariatric surgery, where those losing even more weight had lower remission rates of 62% and 26%, respectively. Your forks are better than surgeons’ knives. Indeed, most people who have had their type 2 diabetes diagnosis for an average of three years can reverse their disease after losing about 30 pounds, as you can see below and at 5:37 in my video.

    Of course, an extended bout of physician-supervised, water-only fasting could also get you there, but you would have to maintain that weight loss. One of the things that has been said with “certainty” is that if you regain the weight, you regain your diabetes.

    To bring it full circle, “the initial euphoria about ‘medicine’s greatest miracle’”—the discovery of insulin in 1921—“soon gave way to the realisation” that, while it was literally life-saving for people with type 1 diabetes, insulin alone wasn’t enough to prevent such complications as blindness, kidney failure, stroke, and amputations in people with type 2 diabetes. That’s why one of the most renowned pioneers in diabetes care, Elliott Joslin, “argued that self-discipline on diet and exercise, as it was in the days prior to the availability of the drug [insulin], should be central to the management of diabetes….”

    Doctor’s Note

    Check out Diabetes as a Disease of Fat Toxicity for more on the underlying cause of the disease.

    For more on fasting for disease reversal, see:

    Fasting is not the best way to lose weight. To learn more, see related posts below.

    What is the best way to lose weight? See Friday Favorites: The Best Diet for Weight Loss and Disease Prevention.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • All About Allulose | NutritionFacts.org

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    Sugar and high fructose corn syrup are the original industrial sweeteners—inexpensive, filled with empty calories, and contributing to diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cavities, and metabolic syndrome. Artificial sweeteners, like NutraSweet, Splenda, and Sweet’N Low, are the second-generation sweeteners. They are practically calorie-free, but cautions have been raised about their adverse effects. Sugar alcohols, such as sorbitol, xylitol, and erythritol, are the third-generation sweeteners. They’re low in calories but carry laxative effects or even worse. What about rare sugars like allulose?

     

    What Is Allulose?

    Allulose is a natural, so-called rare sugar, present in limited quantities in nature. “Recent technological advances, such as enzymatic engineering using genetically modified microorganisms, now allow [manufacturers] to produce otherwise rare sugars” like allulose in substantial quantities.

     

    Allulose and Weight Loss

    What happened when researchers evaluated the effect of allulose on fat mass reduction in people? As I discuss in my video Is Allulose a Healthy Sweetener?, more than a hundred individuals were randomized to a placebo control (0.012 grams of sucralose twice a day), a teaspoon (4 g) of allulose twice a day, or 1¾ teaspoons (7 g) of allulose twice a day for 12 weeks. Despite no changes in physical activity or calorie consumption in the groups, body fat significantly decreased following allulose supplementation. There weren’t any significant changes in LDL cholesterol levels in either of the allulose groups, though.

    What about the purported anti-diabetes effects?

     

    Does Allulose Help with Diabetes?

    In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover experiment, people with borderline diabetes consumed a cup of tea containing either 1¼ teaspoons (5 g) of allulose or no allulose (control) with a meal. There was a significant reduction in blood sugar levels 30 and 60 minutes after consumption, but it was only about 15% lower compared to the control group and didn’t last beyond the first hour. To test long-term safety, the same researchers then randomized healthy people to a little over a teaspoon (5 g) of allulose three times a day with meals for 12 weeks. There didn’t appear to be any adverse side effects, but there weren’t any effects on weight or blood sugar levels either. So, it turns out the body fat data are mixed, as are the sugar data.

    Another study found no effects of allulose on blood sugar levels in healthy participants tested up to two hours after consumption, though a similar study on individuals with diabetes did. And a systematic review and meta-analysis of all such controlled feeding trials suggested that the acute benefit on blood sugars was of “borderline significance.” It’s unclear whether this small and apparently inconsistent effect could translate into meaningful improvements in long-term blood sugar control. It may not be enough just to add allulose—you might also have to cut out junk food.

     

    Is Allulose Good or Bad for You?

    As I discuss in my video Does the Sweetener Allulose Have Side Effects?, unlike table sugar, allulose is safe for our teeth; it apparently isn’t metabolized by cavity-causing bacteria to produce acid and promote plaque buildup. It doesn’t raise blood sugar levels either, even in people with diabetes. Allulose is considered a “relatively nontoxic” sugar, but what does that mean?

     

    How Much Allulose Is Too Much?

    In one study, researchers gave healthy adults beverages containing gradually higher doses of allulose “to identify the maximum single dose for occasional ingestion.” No cases of severe gastrointestinal symptoms were noted until a dose of 0.4 g per kg of bodyweight was reached, which is about eight teaspoons for the average American. Severe symptoms of diarrhea were noted at a dose of 0.5 g per kg of bodyweight, or about ten teaspoons.

    In terms of a daily upper limit given in smaller doses throughout the day, once participants reached around 17 teaspoons (1.0 g/kg bodyweight) a day, depending on weight, some experienced severe nausea, abdominal pain, headache, or diarrhea. So, most adults in the United States should probably stay under single doses of about 8 teaspoons (0.4 g per kg of bodyweight) and not exceed about 18 teaspoons (0.9 g per kg of bodyweight) for the whole day.

     

    So, What’s the Verdict on Allulose?

    Are rare sugars like allulose a healthy alternative for traditional sweeteners? Well, considering the variety of potentially beneficial effects of allulose “without known disadvantages from metabolic and toxicological studies, allulose may currently be the most promising rare sugar.” But how much is that saying? We just don’t have a lot of good human data. “As a result of the absence of these studies, it may be too early to recommend rare sugars for human consumption.” This is especially true given the erythritol debacle.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • Improve Blood Sugar & Triglycerides With Taurine, Study Shows

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    Only 12% of adults1 in the U.S. are considered metabolically healthy. Meaning: All five commonly accepted markers of metabolic health are within the normal range without the use of medication: fasting blood sugar, high-density lipoprotein (HDL cholesterol), blood pressure, triglycerides, and waist circumference. 

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  • Why Skipping Breakfast Is A Bad Idea + How To Avoid Doing It

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    If eating breakfast at home is a no-go, figuring out a few options for when you’re out and about might be helpful. Shapiro points out that coffee shops like Starbucks often offer healthy choices, such as whole-wheat breakfast wraps, egg bites, and protein boxes. Plus, you can usually find hard-boiled eggs, fresh fruit, or yogurt at corner stores or delis if you’re in a pinch.

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  • Research Shows How To Snack For Better Blood Sugar Control

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    Plus when to avoid snacking.

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  • Research Shows Vitamin D May Help Folks With Diabetes

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    Ranked as the ninth leading cause of mortality globally and contributing to more than 1 million annual deaths, it’s no wonder that the prevention and management of Type 2 diabetes, blood glucose spikes, and insulin resistance is a high priority in public health.

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  • 7 Alarming Health Concerns Linked To Low Magnesium Intake

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  • Mold Toxins in Cereals, Herbs, Spices, and Wine | NutritionFacts.org

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    Most crops are contaminated with fungal mycotoxins, but some foods are worse than others.

    Oats can be thought of as “uniquely nutritious.” One route by which they improve human health is by providing prebiotics that “increase the growth of beneficial gut microbiota.” There are all manner of oats, ranging from steel-cut oats to, even better, intact oat groats (their form before being cut), all the way down to highly processed cereals, like Honey Nut Cheerios.

    “Rolling crushes the grain, which may disrupt cell walls and damage starch granules, making them more available for digestion.” This is bad because we want the starch to make it all the way down to our colon to feed our good gut bacteria. Grinding oats into oat flour to make breakfast cereals is even worse. When you compare blood sugar and insulin responses, you can see significantly lower spikes with the more intact steel-cut oats, as shown below and at 0:54 in my video Ochratoxin in Certain Herbs, Spices, and Wine.

    What about ochratoxin? As seen here and at 1:01 in my video, oats are the leading source of dietary exposure to this mold contaminant, but they aren’t the only source.

    There is a global contamination of food crops with mycotoxins, with some experts estimating as much as 25% of the world’s crops being affected. That statistic is attributed to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, but it turns out the stat is bogus. It isn’t 25%. Instead, it may be more like 60% to 80%. “The high occurrence is likely explained by a combination of the improved sensitivity of analytical [testing] methods and the impact of climate change.”

    Spices have been found to have some of the highest concentrations of mycotoxins, but because they are ingested in such small quantities, they aren’t considered to be a significant source. We can certainly do our part to minimize our risk, though. For instance, we should keep spices dry after opening sealed containers or packages.

    What about dried herbs? In “Mycotoxins in Plant-Based Dietary Supplements: Hidden Health Risk for Consumers,” researchers found that milk thistle–based supplements had the highest mycotoxin concentrations. It turns out that humid, wet weather is needed during milk thistle harvest, which is evidently why they get so moldy. “Considering the fact that milk thistle preparations are mainly used by people who suffer from liver disease,” such a high intake of compounds toxic to the liver may present some concern.

    Wine sourced from the United States also appears to have particularly high levels. In fact, the single highest level found to date around the world is in a U.S. wine, but there’s contamination in wine in general. In fact, some suggest that’s why we see such consistent levels in people’s blood—perhaps because a lot of people are regular wine drinkers.

    Ochratoxin is said to be a kidney toxin with immunosuppressive, birth defect–causing, and carcinogenic properties. So, what about ochratoxin decontamination in wine? That is, removing the toxin? Ideally, we’d try to prevent the contamination in the first place, but since this isn’t always practical, there is increased focus on finding effective methods of detoxification of mycotoxins already present in foods. This is where yeast enters as “a promising and friendly solution,” because the mycotoxins bind to the yeast cell wall. The thought is that we could strain out the yeast. Another approach is to eat something like nutritional yeast to prevent the absorption.

    It works in chickens. Give yeast along with aflatoxin (another mycotoxin), and the severity of the resulting disease is diminished. However, using something like nutritional yeast as a binder “depends on stability of the yeast-mycotoxin complex through the passage of the gastrointestinal tract.” We know yeasts can remove ochratoxin in foods, but we didn’t have a clue if it would work in the gut until 2016. Yeast was found to bind up to 44% of the ochratoxin, but, in actuality, it was probably closer to only about a third, since some of the bindings weren’t stable. So, if you’re trying to stay under the maximum daily intake and you drink a single glass of wine, even if your bar snack is popcorn seasoned with nutritional yeast, you’d still probably exceed the tolerable intake. But what does that mean? How bad is this ochratoxin? We’ll find out next.

    Doctor’s Note

    This is the second video in a four-part series on mold toxins. The first one was Ochratoxin in Breakfast Cereals.

    Stay tuned for Should We Be Concerned About the Effects of Ochratoxin? and Should We Be Concerned About Aflatoxin?. You can also check: Friday Favorites: Should We Be Concerned About Ochratoxin and Aflatoxin?.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • 5 Ways To Get Deep Sleep When You’re Not In Your Own Bed

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    It’s very normal to have trouble sleeping when you’re not in your own cozy, perfectly personalized bed. If you’re traveling for the holidays, being intentional with alcohol, staying active, minding your blood sugar, taking a sleep supplement, and sticking to your usual routine as much as possible will help you get the sleep you need to wake up refreshed and ready to ring in the last few days of the year.

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  • Treadmill vs. Dumbbells — One Is Dramatically Better For Blood Sugar

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    This might be our new favorite study

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  • Ideal vs. Normal Cholesterol Levels  | NutritionFacts.org

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    Having a “normal” cholesterol level in a society where it’s normal to die from a heart attack isn’t necessarily a good thing.

    “Consistent evidence” from a variety of sources “unequivocally establishes” that so-called bad LDL cholesterol causes atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease—strokes and heart attacks, our leading cause of death. This evidence base includes hundreds of studies involving millions of people. “Cholesterol is the cause of atherosclerosis,” the hardening of the arteries, and “the message is loud and clear.” “It’s the Cholesterol, Stupid!” noted the editor of the American Journal of Cardiology, William Clifford Roberts, whose CV is more than 100 pages long as he has published about 1,700 articles in peer-reviewed medical literature. Yes, there are at least ten traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis, as seen below and at 1:11 in my video How Low Should You Go for Ideal LDL Cholesterol?, but, as Dr. Roberts noted, only one is required for the progression of the disease: elevated cholesterol.

    Your doctor may have just told you that your cholesterol is normal, so you’re relieved. Thank goodness! But, having a “normal” cholesterol level in a society where it’s normal to have a fatal heart attack isn’t necessarily good. With heart disease, the number one killer of men and women, we definitely don’t want to have normal cholesterol levels; we want to have optimal levels—and not optimal by current laboratory standards, but optimal for human health.

    Normal LDL cholesterol levels are associated with the hidden buildup of atherosclerotic plaques in our arteries, even in those who have so-called “optimal risk factors by current standards”: blood pressure under 120/80, normal blood sugars, and total cholesterol under 200 mg/dL. If you went to your doctor with those kinds of numbers, you’d likely get a gold star and a lollipop. But, if your doctor used ultrasound and CT scans to actually peek inside your body, atherosclerotic plaques would be detected in about 38% of individuals with those kinds of “optimal” numbers.

    Maybe we should define an LDL cholesterol level as optimal only when it no longer causes disease. What a concept! When more than a thousand men and women in their 40s were scanned, having an LDL level under 130 mg/dL left them with atherosclerosis throughout their body, and that’s a cholesterol level at which most lab tests would consider normal.

    In fact, atherosclerotic plaques were not found with LDL levels down around 50 or 60, which just so happens to be the levels most people had “before the introduction of western lifestyles.” Indeed, before we started eating a typical American diet, “the majority of the adult population of the world had LDLs of around 50 mg per deciliter (mg/dL)”—so that’s the true normal. “Present average values…should not be regarded as ‘normal.’” We don’t want to have a normal cholesterol based on a sick society; we want a cholesterol that is normal for the human species, which may be down around 30 to 70 mg/dL or 0.8 to 1.8 mmol/L.

    “Although an LDL level of 50 to 70 mg/dl seems excessively low by modern American standards, it is precisely the normal range for individuals living the lifestyle and eating the diet for which we are genetically adapted.” Over millions of years, “through the evolution of the ancestors of man,” we’ve consumed a diet centered around whole plant foods. No wonder we have a killer epidemic of atherosclerosis, given the LDL level “we were ‘genetically designed for’ is less than half of what is presently considered ‘normal.’”

    In medicine, “there is an inappropriate tendency to accept small changes in reversible risk factors,” but “the goal is not to decrease risk but to prevent atherosclerotic plaques!” So, how low should you go? “In light of the latest evidence from trials exploring the benefits and risks of profound LDLc lowering, the answer to the question ‘How low do you go?’ is, arguably, a straightforward ‘As low as you can!’” “‘Lower’ may indeed be better,” but if you’re going to do it with drugs, then you have to balance that with the risk of the drug’s side effects.

    Why don’t we just drug everyone with statins, by putting them in the water supply, for instance? Although it would be great if everyone’s cholesterol were lower, there are the countervailing risks of the drugs. So, doctors aim to use statin drugs at the highest dose possible, achieving the largest LDL cholesterol reduction possible without increasing risk of the muscle damage the drugs may cause. But when you’re using lifestyle changes to bring down your cholesterol, all you get are the benefits.

    Can we get our LDL low enough with diet alone? Ask some of the country’s top cholesterol experts what they shoot for, “and the odds are good that many will say 70 or so.” So, yes, we should try to avoid the saturated fats and trans fats found in junk foods and meat, and the dietary cholesterol found mostly in eggs, but “it is unlikely anyone can achieve an LDL cholesterol level of 70 mg/dL with a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet alone.” Really? Many doctors have this mistaken impression. An LDL of 70 isn’t only possible on a healthy enough diet, but it may be normal. Those eating strictly plant-based diets can average an LDL that low, as you can see here and at 5:28 in my video.

    No wonder plant-based diets are the only dietary patterns ever proven to reverse coronary heart disease in a majority of patients. And their side effects? You get to feel better, too! Several randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that more plant-based dietary patterns significantly improve psychological well-being and quality of life, with improvements in depression, anxiety, emotional well-being, physical well-being, and general health.

    For more on cholesterol, see the related posts below.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • A Bedtime Snack That’s Actually Good for You? Yes, It’s True

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    For 12 weeks, participants ate about two ounces of pistachios as their bedtime snack, roughly two small handfuls. In another 12-week phase, the same participants swapped the pistachios for a typical carb-based snack, like crackers or toast (and yes, your beloved bedtime cookies fall into that category).

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  • I’m A Longevity MD: 3 Things I Wish I Did For My Health In My 20s

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  • The Neuroscientist-Approved Snack That Boosts Afternoon Energy

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    The caffeine alternative you’ve been waiting for.

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  • Study Shows Vitamin D Improves Blood Sugar & Cholesterol

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    While most known for its role in bone and immune health, vitamin D touches pretty much every system in your body. And studies consistently show that poor vitamin D status is linked to type 2 diabetes1, heart disease2, and inflammation. (It’s estimated that 41% of U.S. adults3 are vitamin D insufficient). 

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  • 3 Metabolic Benefits Of Eating Whey Protein Powder Daily

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    Only 12% of U.S. adults are considered metabolically healthy. So most of us have some room for improvement when it comes to blood sugar, lipids, and blood pressure. And one (very easy) thing you can do to sway your health for the better is to eat more protein—specifically whey protein powder. 

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