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Cholesterol

As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists. – Joan Gussow

Today, food companies, many doctors and even some dieticians commonly recommend us to eat supposedly healthy margarine instead of evil butter. But should we listen to them?

Ghee is clarified butter. Although it is prepared completely from butter, its properties, according to Ayurveda, are very different from butter itself.

In many cases, ghee is recommended to be used in the diet. Even though ghee is understood not to raise cholesterol levels, if you have a cholesterol problem, check with your doctor / consultant before using ghee. If this has been recommended for you, you may either purchase ghee – consult whoever prescribed it for you as most commercial ghee is not very good. Home made ghee is always much better.

There are two ways to prepare the ghee yourself:

After giving you the bad news about chocolate a while back, I wanted to be nicer for a while, but I recently received an email asking if I could explain about ‘microwave ovens’, eating ‘microwave food’ etc (thanks Helen). So here it is.

The news is not good, if you prefer ‘ignorance is bliss’, now might be a good time to ‘accidentally’ have something better to do! When we think of ‘natural’ health & wellbeing, it would make sense that we would want to ‘cook’ our food in a ‘natural’ way.

Are you or any of your friends one of the many people who have given up butter in favour of the ‘supposedly’ healthier margarine? Let’s take a look at one (not the only) reason why I think you’ve been conned. Have you ever heard of Trans fats?…you’ve almost certainly eaten them and possibly in something you considered healthy. Unfortunately, it’s another case of food manufacturers tampering with ‘natural’ foods and turning them into ‘harmful’ foods, ironically in the name of health.

So what are Trans Fats?

Good & bad cholesterol, HDL, LDL’s – we love to make it complicated don’t we? It doesn’t have to be. Some important facts to begin.

1. Cholesterol is GOOD for you! Your body needs cholesterol to build cell membranes, vitamin D, hormones (e.g steroids), & bile acids.

2. Cholesterol levels that are ‘too low’ (i.e from medications) can be just as harmful as high cholesterol.
* Also, pharmaceutical drugs to treat cholesterol can compromise/harm the liver, which is the organ that is naturally (and ‘intelligently’) designed to purify the blood of toxins/excess cholesterol etc…so medication is not ideal long-term.

3. Plenty of people with ‘perfect cholesterol’ still have heart attacks.