Why are we shooting for the bare minimum when we could have optimal health?

Why are we shooting for the bare minimum when we could have optimal health? Let’s play a game. If I told you you needed to get optimal levels of, let's say, Vitamin D, E, A, B, as well as zinc, magnesium and selenium everyday, what would you put on your plate today to make sure that happened?  Ding, ding, ding! I know! What about the Recommended Daily Dietary Allowances (RDA) listed on most foods? Isn't that the nutritional sherpa we need? I suppose the RDA is helpful to help you avoid age old diseases like rickets or scurvy, but the RDA [...]

The fatal flaw of most diets and how to turn it around in your favour

The fatal flaw of most diets and how to turn it around in your favour There are so many different "diet labels" telling us how to eat. There’s Vegetarian. There’s Vegan. There’s Raw. Paleo, 4:3, Wheat Belly, 5:2, Atkins, Zone, and Gluten-Free. South Beach, Dukan, Mediterranean, Weight-Watchers, Blood-Type, Grapefruit, and Skinny Bitch. 3-Hour, Best Life, Cabbage Soup, Caveman, Fat Flush and Glycemic Index diets. French Women Don’t Get Fat, Hormone, and Jenny Craig programs. Macrobiotic, Master Cleanse and Food Combining diets. Beverly Hills and Nutrisystem. Shangri-La, Volumetrics, and the list goes on and on. asdfasdf The labels above [...]

6 critical things I wish I knew three years ago about how to reduce cholesterol

6 critical things I wish I knew three years ago about how to reduce cholesterol After my diagnosis with Familial hypercholesterolemia in 2011 I spent three years searching for effective natural methods to lower cholesterol and gain heart health. I actually felt a little bit like a crazy outsider for much of this journey because most of the research I uncovered advised eating foods and making lifestyle changes that were the complete opposite to what is being distributed by most well meaning but misinformed doctors, healthcare practitioners and media outlets. Below are the 6 critical facts I wish I had had on day one [...]

Why are fats, including coconut oil, good for your heart even though they are saturated fats?

Why are fats, including coconut oil, good for your heart even though they are saturated fats? I got a great question from a reader yesterday that I thought would be useful to share. The benefits of saturated fat, and fat in general, have been misunderstood until recently. New research from the past 5 years is causing widespread changes in dietary fat recommendations Oct 25th: QUESTION FROM AMANDA "Just wanted to thank you for putting your journey online. I am someone who was diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia since birth and have managed to stay off the statins. The diet [...]

Grains are a tricky food when eating for heart health

Grains are a tricky food when eating for heart health When you’re eating a heart healthy diet, you want to be choosing your grains with extreme care. I like this quote from Jonny Bowden Ph.d, who put it this way: “If you ate a great balance of foods from the 150 healthiest foods on the planet, and you never touched another grain for the rest of your life, you wouldn’t be missing anything nutritionally. The same cannot be said of the fruits, vegetables, eggs, oils, spices, meats, fish, and poultry." So when I eat a grain, I think very carefully [...]

Get healthy and feel incredible with easy daily habits

Get healthy and feel incredible with easy daily habits This is going to be a very self-indulgent post... I have realized that the most popular posts on The Confidence Kitchen are ones that are really practical or include a small step that can be done on a daily basis. To that end, I have a new mantra/direction for my blog...drumroll... "Get healthy and feel incredible with easy daily habits" I have created a new "about.me" page that covers my philosophy and why I am writing The Confidence Kitchen. I excerpt some of it below... I've gone down the rabbit hole [...]

Make sure you take these supplements if you are taking Statin pills to lower cholesterol

Make sure you take these supplements if you are taking Statin pills to lower cholesterol Coenzyme Q10, Vitamin D and C among key supplements needed to protect against the side effects of statin drugs that are taken to lower cholesterol but often have other damaging consequences If you, or someone you know, are one of the 1 in 3 people over 45 taking Statins to lower your cholesterol, then you will benefit by knowing the specific mechanism that statin drugs interrupt in the body - this is the mechanism that reduces cholesterol production, but [...]

New diagram showing how soluble fibre reduces your LDL cholesterol naturally

New diagram showing how soluble fibre reduces your LDL cholesterol naturally I made this simple diagram below to show you one of the most effective mechanisms you can leverage to lower your own cholesterol naturally. If we understand how it's removed, then we can work on supporting these mechanisms and get our body into a healthy,  low cholesterol zone, without drugs, as I have personally done over the last year since Sept 2011. Despite that fact that we have all heard non-stop over the last 20 years how bad LDL cholesterol is for us, I don't think that message is working [...]

Statins have not been shown to prevent heart disease or heart attacks

Statins have not been shown to prevent heart disease or heart attacks The more research you do into heart health, the more incredulous you become at what governments support and doctors prescribe to millions. Up to 7 million in the UK, and almost 200 million people in the USA (half of men, ages 65 to 74, and 39% of women, ages 75 and older) are taking Statins to improve heart health. This is shocking considering there is little evidence for most patient groups, and no evidence for women who have never had a heart attack, that Statins provide any positive benefit and in fact it [...]