SUPER FOODS FOR IMMUNE: OAT BRAN VERSUS CHOLESTEROL
Oat bran is one of my favorite Super-Food grains. I recommend it to all my patients who want to protect themselves against a heart attack. My own studies indicate that, in addition to lowering overall cholesterol levels, oat bran helps raise your HDL—high-density lipoprotein—the “good cholesterol” that helps keep your arteries clear.
Practically every patient I see for the first time has a high cholesterol level. This puts them at greater risk for heart disease. There are medications to lower cholesterol, and sometimes they must be used. But these drugs, like all drugs, have dangerous side effects. I usually put my patients on a low-fat, low-cholesteol, high-CC diet, which lowers their cholesterol better than the drugs do, without any side effects other than better all-around health.
I once pitted a Super Food diet rich in oat bran against a cholesterol-lowering drug. Two of my patients had been on the medication for several months. The first patient’s cholesterol had actually risen a bit. So had his LDL—low-density lipoprotein— “bad cholesterol.”
I placed these same two patients on the low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-sugar, Super Food diet, with special instructions to eat 1/2 cup of oat bran in the morning and three oat-bran muffins a day. In three months I measured their cholesterol levels again. In both patients cholesterol levels had dropped from dangerously high to reasonably safe. (I like to see cholesterol below 180. Under 160 is excellent.)
Beginning Ending
Cholesterol Level Level
Patient #1 247 -180
Patient #2 260 -190
I also checked their HDL and LDL levels. (I tell my patients to raise their HDL to 50 or higher, and get their LDL down to 100 or less.)
HDL (“good cholesterol”)
Patient #1 35 -50
Patient #2 28 -55
LDL (“bad cholesterol”)
Patient #1 176 – 105
Patient #2 255- 135
The Super Food diet, with added oat bran, did a better job than the cholesterol-lowering drugs, without any side effects. No side effects, that is, except for giving their “doctor within” plenty of nutrients to use in building vibrant health.
Oat bran lowers cholesterol by increasing the excretion of bile acids in the stool. (Bile acids, which are made in your liver, are used to absorb fat in your food, and some are partially reused to make cholesterol.) Eating oat bran helps you excrete as much as 50 percent more bile acid than you normally would. Greater excretion of bile results in less cholesterol.
Oat bran isn’t the only food that lowers blood cholesterol. Grains, beans, lentils and other fibrous foods all protect against heart disease by lowering cholesterol.
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