Can’t Eat Money. What’s in Your Condiments? Chronic Inflammation. Cholesterol Myth. Statin Risks. West Nile Virus.

 

For “Foodie Friday”:

Food For Thought

 

_______

What’s in Your Condiments?

“Commercially prepared condiments are typically a mixture of low-quality, genetically engineered ingredients, chemical preservatives, fillers, and taste and texture enhancers that have potential health risks

Five common condiments are discussed with sample ingredient lists for each: mayonnaise, sour cream, ranch and blue cheese dressing, ketchup, and steak/barbeque sauce

Suggestions are provided for preparing homemade condiments, making them a beneficial part of your overall nutrition plan, such as making your own cultured sour cream and yogurt as a base for dressings.

#1: Mayonnaise

Most commercially prepared mayonnaise is made using soybean oil, which is one of the most harmful fats you can consume, regardless of whether it's partially hydrogenated, organic, or made from newer soybean varieties modified in such a way as to not require hydrogenation. Soybean oil can pave the way for health problems ranging from obesity and heart disease to reproductive problems.

#2: Sour Cream

Sour cream is frequently made from milk and cream that contain the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone rBGH, the largest selling animal drug in America. RBGH is banned in the 27 countries of the European Union because of its dangers to human health. The growth factor in rBGH (IGF-1) has been shown in scientific studies to increase your risk for breast cancer.

#3: Ranch and Blue Cheese Dressing

Typically, commercial ranch and blue cheese dressings are chemical brews that bear little resemblance to food, if you read the ingredient list. These dressings often contain soybean oil, artificial food dyes, and monosodium glutamate (MSG), a dangerous excitotoxin that can cause weight gain, depression, headaches, various degrees of brain damage and other problems.

#4: Ketchup

Most bottled ketchups consist mostly of uber-cooked tomatoes, water, and large quantities of sugar, usually in the form of corn syrup. Many contain "natural flavorings," which are chemicals that sometimes include MSG. One tablespoon of the most common brands of ketchup contains 4 grams of sugar, even the organic varieties—and most people consume more than one serving.

#5: Barbeque Sauce and Steak Sauce

Popular store-bought steak and barbeque sauces contain little real food and a lot of chemical fillers and preservatives, including potassium sorbate, caramel color (which often contains MSG), excess sodium, dyes, texture and flavor enhancers, and genetically engineered ingredients. They typically contain fructose, usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup or one of its equivalents.”

From:  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/12/condiments.aspx

_______

Heart surgeon speaks out on what really causes heart disease

“Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.

What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or other substances that are known to cause injury to the body?

The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream diet that is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. This repeated injury creates chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity.
Let me repeat that: The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine.

What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.

What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.

Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. you kept this up several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body right now.

While you may not be able to see it, rest assured it is there. I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who all shared one common denominator -- inflammation in their arteries. 

While we savor the tantalizing taste of a sweet roll, our bodies respond alarmingly as if a foreign invader arrived declaring war. Foods loaded with sugars and simple carbohydrates, or processed with omega-6 oils for long shelf life have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades. These foods have been slowly poisoning everyone. ”  More at:  http://www.sott.net/article/242516-Heart-surgeon-speaks-out-on-what-really-causes-heart-disease

_______

Cholesterol Myth: What Really Causes Heart Disease?

“In the fight for better health, Americans view cholesterol as Public Enemy No. 1. Doctors tell us to stay away from food high in saturated fat, like butter, eggs and meat because it's responsible for heart disease.

But what if that's wrong?

Dr. Stephen Sinatra, a cardiologist who's been practicing for over 30 years and co-author of The Great Cholesterol Myth, thinks it's wrong. [By Jonny Bowden and Stephen Sinatra]

Cholesterol Not the Perpetrator

"You know cholesterol is found at the scene of the crime for heart disease, but it's not the perpetrator," he contends.

Sinatra explained that since half of all patients hospitalized for heart disease have high cholesterol, that means the other half do not.

He had a similar experience in his own practice, which helped him realize high cholesterol didn't cause heart disease.

"I was doing angiograms on people with 150, who had far advanced heart disease," he recalled. "And the converse, I was doing angiograms on somebody with cholesterol of 280 and they had no heart disease."

Deadly Inflammation

If cholesterol doesn't cause heart disease, what does? Sinatra is among a growing number of physicians who point the finger at inflammation, which is caused by a number of things. Eating too much sugar is at the top of the list.

Sinatra admits a small percentage of LDL cholesterol is bad because it's inflammatory. But he said, for the most part, it's good for you.

Saturated Fats Okay

In place of all that sugar, Sinatra advises replacing it with vegetables and fats. He also highly recommends eating unsaturated fats such as nuts, avocados, fish, and olive oil.

He touts saturated fats like butter, unprocessed meat (the kind you get in the meat department, not the deli) and one of his favorites: coconut oil.

"I love coconut oil," he said. "Coconut oil is a saturated fat. Because it's a saturated fat, it's less prone to oxidation. So it protects you."

He encourages people to put aside their fears that saturated fats cause heart disease. Although they may raise your cholesterol, he believes that that will not hurt you. In fact, it will probably improve your health.

However, it is very important not to confuse unsaturated fats or saturated fats with trans fats. Although doctors may disagree about whether you should eat saturated fats, no doctor will ever tell you it's safe to eat trans fats. You should avoid them like the plague.

"I call trans fats unguided missiles that really cause enormous inflammation in the blood vessels," Sinatra said.

Trans Fats = Plastic?

Trans fats are man-made fats and are, sadly, in most processed foods. That means most of the foods in packages contain trans fats.

You can check to see whether a product contains a trans fat by checking the list of ingredients.

Again, do not pay attention to the labels. Food manufacturers have discovered legal loop-holes so that they can advertise on the front of a package that an item "contains no trans fats" when it actually does.

So look at the list of ingredients for a hydrogenated oil. That's a trans fat. Like the name suggests, a trans fat is an oil that has been infused with hydrogen. Food manufacturers discovered that by creating trans fats and adding them to food, it prolongs a product's shelf life.

Therefore, a good indication a food contains a trans fat is whether it lasts for months, such as many crackers and packaged baked goods.

Unfortunately, trans fats are molecularly similar to plastic! As such, it's not difficult to believe that they wreak havoc on your body, especially your heart.

Statin Risks

In other words, for many statin users, the risks outweigh the gains.

"The side effects of statins are grossly under-reported," he said.

Muscle pain and fatigue are two of the key complaints he hears from statin users.

"'Doc, I can't get out of a chair. I have weakness in my thighs. I can't play doubles tennis. I walk the dog and I'm virtually exhausted,'" he said he's heard from many patients.

Sinatra said the reason for these symptoms is often misdiagnosed.

"These are statin side-effects," he concluded. "However, a lot of the doctors and patients think they're getting older. They're not getting older, these are statin side effects."

"It can actually bring on the onset of Alzheimer's Disease by 15 years. So you have to be cautious with statins," he advised.

So if you've been praying for good health, take to heart these three things:  stop eating sugars, stop eating trans fats, and stop worrying.”  More at: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2012/october/cholesterol-myth-what-really-causes-heart-disease/

_______

On This Day:

NYC reports first cases of West Nile virus, Aug 23, 1999:

“The first cases of an encephalitis outbreak are reported in New York City on this day in 1999. Seven people die from what turns out to be the first cases of West Nile virus in the United States.

A cluster of eight cases of St. Louis encephalitis was diagnosed among patients in the borough of Queens in New York City in August 1999. The sudden cases of critical brain swelling were found exclusively among the elderly. At about the same time, people noticed an inordinate number of dead crows throughout the city. Other birds, including exotic varieties housed at the Bronx Zoo, were also found dead.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) was called in to investigate. They found that the West Nile virus, previously found only in Uganda and the Middle East, had been contracted by birds throughout the area, including robins, ducks and eagles. In addition to birds and humans, horses have also been known to be susceptible to the virus, which is spread by mosquitoes.

Upon further investigation, the victims thought to have had St. Louis encephalitis had actually had been infected with West Nile. It causes flu-like symptoms and can be deadly in both the elderly and small children. By the end of the summer, there were 56 confirmed cases of West Nile in New York, though the CDC estimates that 80 percent of people infected with West Nile show no symptoms and therefore would not seek medical help.

In subsequent years, the West Nile virus moved steadily westward across the United States.”

______

Yesterday:

Misty and I went to get Jay, and had our walk down there while we waited for him to get ready. 

Ray primed the soffit while Jay and I put up the rest of the fascia boards on the screen and front porches. Now it’s ready for the roof.

Then Jay and I went north on Hiway 75 to Muellers, and bought the roofing.  They don’t sell the polycarbonate roofing any more.  They said they had too many complaints about people saying it leaked, but that was because they were screwing it down too tight and cracking it.  So I bought 6 sheets of r-panel metal roofing and ordered some r-panel translucent fiberglass for over my patio door.  I don’t really like fiberglass as it yellows, and theirs doesn’t let in much light.  I’m going to rethink that today.