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Diet & Fitness:
Cholesterol and Heart Disease
In the annual physical, your doctor checks your cholesterol levels. But what is it? And what do the numbers say about your health?
Cholesterol is a type of lipid or fat. In our bodies, it travels through our blood stream in particles called lipoproteins. Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) are bad because they can lead to a buildup of plaque in arteries.
A mass of plaque can narrow your arteries and restrict blood flow – much like trying to sip juice through a clogged straw. Eventually, the plaque ruptures and a blood clot forms, cutting off the flow of blood, oxygen and nutrients to the brain.
Hello, heart attack and stroke!
High-density lipoproteins (HDL), on the other hand, are good because they pick up the LDL clogging your arteries and take it to the liver, where it's processed and eventually excreted.
A total blood cholesterol level of 200 and above is cause for concern, according to the American Heart Association.
Chow Down
"Lowering your cholesterol reduces your risk of contracting heart disease and dying from a heart attack," Brill says.
What you eat can affect the amounts of HDL and LDL flowing through your bloodstream, and Brill has a cholesterol-lowering eating plan that's tasty and effective.
"My diet is about what you can eat – not what you can't," she says.
What's on her list? Try these 8 super-foods. Aim to eat all eight daily and heed the two bonus tips as well:1. Oatmeal
Oats are rich in beta-glucan, a soluble fiber that acts like a sponge to soak up cholesterol.
How to sneak it in: Add cinnamon or dried cranberries to your morning oatmeal for a flavor boost. Oat-bran is a highly concentrated source of beta-glucan and it's easy to mix into homemade bread, muffin and pancake batter.
Brill's daily Rx: 3 grams of beta-glucan, found in a half cup of dry oatmeal or oat bran.
2. Almonds contain two powerful antioxidants – vitamin E and flavonoids – which prevent the oxidation of LDL, a precursor to plaque buildup.
How to sneak it in: Eat almonds with their skins, which pack a hefty dose of flavonoids. Stir a handful into yogurt or spread two tablespoons of almond butter on whole-wheat bread.
Brill's daily Rx: One ounce of dry-roasted, unsalted almonds.
3. Flaxseeds contain lignan and soluble fiber, which block the production of LDL and increase your body's ability to get rid of cholesterol.
How to sneak it in: Eat ground flaxseeds rather than whole ones, because your body can better absorb its nutrients. Brill likes to sprinkle them into her morning oatmeal. New studies also show that whole flaxseeds are better than flaxseed oil for lowering cholesterol.Brill's daily Rx: 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseeds.
4. Garlic impedes the liver's ability to make cholesterol.
How to sneak it in: Chop garlic into small pieces to release its flavor. Sauté it with steamed spinach, add it to sauces and soups or purée roasted garlic with cooked potatoes and olive oil for a heart-healthy version of everybody's favorite: mashed potatoes.
Brill's daily Rx: One clove and one Kyolic One Per Day Cardiovascular aged garlic extract supplement.
5. Phytosterol-Containing Foods
Phytosterols are a fat found in plant foods such as fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetable oils. They interfere with cholesterol absorption by blocking it from your intestinal cells.
How to sneak it in: Even a vegetarian diet provides no more than 300-400 mg of plant sterols a day, well below Brill's recommendation.
So supplement this with foods containing added phytosterols – chocolate bars, margarine, cheese, granola bars and cookies, to name a few – but keep an eye on saturated fat and trans-fat content.
Brill's daily Rx: 2-3 grams of phytosterols a day spread over two meals.6. Apples, particularly the skin and outer flesh, are rich in polyphenols, powerful antioxidants that help prevent plaque buildup.
How to sneak it in: Chop, slice or dice 'em, but leave the peel on for maximum health benefits.
Brill's daily Rx: One apple – to keep the doctor away, of course.
7. Beans contain a special soluble fiber that's fermented in the colon. Healthy bacteria eat the fiber and bean sugars to form short-chain fatty acids, which travel to the liver and inhibit LDL cholesterol production.
How to sneak it in: Brill loves Adzuki beans, which are used in Japan to make sweet red bean paste.
She also recommends cannelloni beans (try them in Tuscan soups, an Italian bean-based soup) and kidney beans, perfect in Southwestern chili.
Brill's daily Rx: 1/2 cup of legumes (beans, peas or lentils).
8. Soy Protein
Soy protein contains phytoestrogens – compounds that increase the number and effectiveness of LDL cholesterol receptors, improving the liver's ability to get rid of cholesterol in your bloodstream.How to sneak it in: Order a soy latte at your favorite coffeehouse, throw tofu into a fruit smoothie, use soy flour when baking, or mix a handful of roasted soy nuts with dried fruit for an energy-boosting trail mix.
Brill's daily Rx: 20–25 grams.
Two More Tips
A healthy diet isn't your only defense against cholesterol.
"Every step works to lower cholesterol in a specific way," Brill says. "By combining them all, you get an extremely powerful LDL-lowering approach."
Here are two of her favorite non-food-related tips:
9. Take Metamucil (Psyllium Husk)
Metamucil contains psyllium husk, a fiber that prevents cholesterol from entering intestinal cells. This fiber soaks up cholesterol so you excrete it rather than absorb it into your body.
It's "the most powerful LDL-lowering viscous soluble fiber in existence," Brill says.
How to sneak it in: Adults should consume 10-25 grams of soluble fiber a day, advises the National Cholesterol Education Program, but most get only 3-4 grams.
Brill says you should get half your fiber from a supplement and the rest from food.
Take half your daily dose of Metamucil before breakfast and half after dinner to avoid overloading your body on fiber, which can cause gas, constipation or diarrhea.Brill's daily Rx: Work up to 12 capsules a day, for a total of 6 grams of psyllium husk.
Or use the powdered version, which you can mix into water. It varies by product, but most Metamucil powders contain 3.4 grams of psyllium husk per serving.
10. Work Up a Sweat
Brisk exercise speeds blood flow in your arteries, reducing your chances of inflammation and clogging (two precursors to hardening of your arteries).
How to sneak it in: You don't have to hit the gym to get some exercise. Clip on a pedometer while you run errands and aim for 10,000 steps a day.
Brill's daily Rx: 30 minutes of exercise.
Start incorporating these foods and tips into your lifestyle today.This group is called "Peckers PICS." The English - slang definition of "pecker" is to pluck at the truth. Therefore, we peck at items such as Gay Men's Health and Male Fitness, Gay (LGBT) Politics & Issues. In this section you may peck at each photo in order to decide the winner of the "war of the fittest!" Whereas, you should select the guy that may inspire you to exercise and "get fit!" Warning: This may stoke you!1
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Carlo MasiYou Decide!South Beach - Miami Beach Gay Pride; April 17, 2010Stoked?Hustla - London, England / May 2, 2010[CLICK ME For Larger PIC]Little 'Glee' over Newsweek's article on gay actorsBy Lisa de Moraes / Thursday, May 13, 2010 / Washington Post
Fox's "Glee" is getting an unexpected turn in the klieg lights because of a Newsweek article suggesting that gay actors can't pull off heterosexual roles and which includes a lengthy discussion of "Glee" cast member Jonathan Groff.
"Glee" creator Ryan Murphy issued a scathing statement about the piece and has called for a boycott of the magazine. On Wednesday, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation issued a statement "urging Newsweek to issue an apology."
The article by Newsweek Associate Editor Ramin Setoodeh, which first appeared online and runs in the mag's latest print edition under "The Critics" heading, starts with a discussion of Sean Hayes's latest gig on Broadway in a revival of "Promises, Promises." Hayes plays an ad guy hopelessly in love with co-worker Kristin Chenoweth. Hayes is "best known as the queeny Jack on [NBC sitcom] 'Will & Grace,' " Setoodeh wrote.
Hayes's "sexual orientation" is "part of who he is" and seeing him "play straight" in the Broadway production is "weird" because he "comes off as wooden and insincere, like he's trying to hide something, which of course he is," Setoodeh wrote.
A big chunk of the column is devoted to the openly gay Groff, who plays the former captain of rival glee club, Vocal Adrenaline, on "Glee." Groff's character has defected to McKinley High School's glee club, New Directions, and is the current romantic interest of lead character Rachel on the Fox dramedy series.
"It's a little hard to know what to make of Groff" in the role, Setoodeh wrote, because "there's something about his performance that feels off.
"In half his scenes he scowls -- is that a substitute for being straight? When he smiles or giggles he seems more like your average theater queen, a better romantic match for Kurt than Rachel."
Groff has not publicly commented, and the Fox network isn't commenting either. But, after days of deafening silence, Murphy landed a wallop late Tuesday in the form of a call for a boycott of Newsweek until an apology is issued "to Sean Hayes and other brave out actors who were cruelly singled out in this damaging, needlessly cruel, and mind-blowingly bigoted piece."
Murphy noted that Setoodeh is gay and has tweeted that he is a fan of "Glee," and that Groff is "a casting choice embraced by fans and critics alike." And, finally, Murphy dismissed the article as an exercise in Setoodeh working "through the issues of his own self-loathing.
" GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios said the column disregards the work of a slew of gay actors, including Neil Patrick Harris of CBS's "How I met Your Mother"; Cheyenne Jackson, guest star on NBC's "30 Rock"; Cherry Jones of Fox's "24'"; Wanda Sykes of CBS's "The New Adventures of Old Christine"; and Alan Cumming of CBS's "The Good Wife."
Barrios noted that since the article's publication, Setoodeh "has attempted to reframe his opinion piece as an analysis of the lack of gay men in leading roles."
Setoodeh did not return our call by press time, but he went on Joy Behar's CNN Headline News show Tuesday night to defend his article. Or at least try to.
"See, what confuses me about it is, like, take Neil Patrick Harris -- he's playing a straight guy on 'How I Met Your Mother,' right?" Behar asked Setoodeh.
"Yes, but he got that role when he was straight," Setoodeh responded. "We didn't know -- he wasn't out of the closet when he got that role."
"Well then, according to your theory the audience would reject him now that they know he's gay," Behar said, speaking for us all.
"He was playing that role as a straight man until we came to accept him as a straight man. On top of that it's a TV character, it's not a movie character and it's also a caricature," Setoodeh explained, lamely we think.
"So we're restricting this to movies?" Behar goaded.
"It's over the top, funny, humorous, character -- it's not a romantic lead where women, like, actually are supposed to believe him as a heterosexual character," Setoodeh called out from the bottom of the hole into which he'd dug himself.
Chenoweth, Hayes's Broadway co-star -- and "Glee" guest star, "American Idol" guest judge and former co-star of ABC's "Pushing Daisies" and NBC's "The West Wing" -- pounced on the Newsweek article late last week, saying she was shocked the magazine would publish such a "horrendously homophobic [article], which argues that gay actors are simply unfit to play straight."
Apropos of full disclosure, we should note that the magazine is owned by The Washington Post Co. but recently put up for sale.
In a statement, Newsweek responded to criticism of the article, saying Setoodeh wrote "a thoughtful, honest essay on a controversial topic. It's unfortunate that his argument has been misunderstood and he has been unfairly accused of bigotry.
"We also hope we still get our advance copies of 'Glee' because here at Newsweek we're among the show's biggest fans (even the straight folks)," the mag said.
Yes -- they really did.
"Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges."
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