This question and answer series is provided by one of our medical consults:
Miles Hassell, M.D.
Internal Medicine
Comprehensive Risk Reduction Clinic
Question: Would you suggest eliminating eggs from our diet?
Answer: We love eggs. An intact and unprocessed whole food eaten for thousands of years deserves a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. It is easy to prove that egg yolks are impressively high in cholesterol, BUT DIETARY CHOLESTEROL FROM FOOD IS NOT RELATED TO HEART DISEASE. We agree with Harold McGee when he describes eggs in his revised edition of On Food and Cooking as, “one of the most nutritious foods we have…unmatched as a balanced source of the amino acids necessary for animal life; it includes a plentiful supply of linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid that’s essential in the human diet, as well as of several minerals, most vitamins, and two plant pigments, lutein and zeaxanthin, that are especially valuable antioxidants. The egg is a rich package.”
Question: If dietary cholesterol and saturated fat intake are not among the significant heart disease risk factors, what is?
Answer: When we look at recent large, well done epidemiological studies like Greek EPIC or INTERHEART, we don’t find dietary cholesterol and saturated fat intake among the significant heart disease risk factors. Three important risk factors identified were not enough vegetables and fruit, too much refined carbohydrates like sugar, white flour, white rice, and ready to eat breakfast cereal, and hydrogenated oil as a source of trans fat.
Question: My doctor suggested that I raise my HDL “good” cholesterol, do you have any suggestions?
Answer: Here are some steps for raising HDL “good” cholesterol and lowering triglycerides
- Make a habit of daily exercise.***
- Eat healthy fats.
- Use fish oil.
- Avoid trans fats (like hydrogenated oils).
- Eat more whole foods, less refined grains and sugar.
- Maintain a healthy waistline and weight.
***Daily exercise raises HDL up to 10-20 percent and lowers your risk of future heart “events” by 30-60 percent – and the same benefit may apply to triglyceride levels. The goal should be 30-60 minutes of brisk walking daily, or at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise. Unless your physician instructs otherwise, I suggest that you exercise as vigorously as you can while still being able to talk. If you can still talk easily, you probably aren’t overdoing exercise. A useful rule of thumb is that you should get a bit short of breath and sweaty on a daily basis.
