Do you ever feel lonely?

Writing this blog has been extremely gratifying and cathartic. It has certainly evolved over time. My biggest intent at first was to inform friends and family of the challenges that my husband and I have faced with his stroke last April. Then I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder (finally) after suffering for probably close to 50 years. It has now evolved into a blog not only about challenges, but how to rise to those challenges. I am not, I mean I TRY not to be a whiny person. I have always thought when there was a challenge, you can whine briefly, but then get up off your buns and do something about it. Consequently, I see ourselves trying to face this challenge head on and move on.
It is sort of like closing the barn door after the horse got out, but I am determined to keep the wolves from coming in to get the rest of the team.

I was trying to find a picture of a burger/fries with a side of pills, but no go.

Today, Dr. Oz had a very interesting article about changes one needs to make in their lives after a catastrophic event (in this case a heart attack). The questioner (in the column) was asking about her husband who had had a heart attack and how the cardiologist said he could have anything he wanted to eat, post bypass surgery "in moderation". First off, I think the words "in moderation" mean different things to many people. "In moderation" re: freshly baked chocolate chip peanut butter cookies by cousin J could easily mean a dozen, easy. So for this cardiologist to give them that advice is falling down on the job. Dr Oz and Dr. Roizen agreed. They said "it is not uncommon for us to hear about cardiologists who rely on medications to do the job of protecting patients from another heart attack."

They went on to state that in a recent study of 30,000 people, average age of 66, who had suffered a heart attack/stroke/diabetes and were thought to be getting the best medicine possible found that those who ate a heart-healthy diet cut their cardio-vascular death by 35%, the risk of another heart attack by 14% and the risk of congestive heart failure by 28%. Here's what their diets looked like:

• Lots of fish
• Vegetables
•  Fruits
• whole grains and legumes
• not much saturated fat/dietary cholesterol/sodium

Lifestyle changes of diet and exercise when added to meds and surgery had good results based on these changes. Notice how these changes seem like a broken record? That's because they seem to work.

That said, my dear husband has tried various statins to help control genetically high cholesterol levels. They worked great, until he started getting muscle pain and agony with some and higher liver enzymes with others. Since his stroke, he has been on an older type of statin that was more water-soluble and taking Coq10 for helping possible muscle problems caused by the statin.
The only problem is, he again has gotten so much muscle pain, but in a different manifestation from the other stains he was taking. Before, the pain was unbearable, cramping of legs. it was fairly obvious early on. This time, it didn't manifest itself for about 8 months. It started with a sluggish feeling, like "walking through mud". Foggy brain drain, a feeling of helplessness, tingling of extremities and around his lips plus a dull thudding headache that was constant.

We made multiple trips to the doctor and they kept telling him he had anxiety and it was causing all those problems. Nice. Now you will hear doctors say something like "it's all in your head" and immediately you get your hackles up thinking that means that the pain itself doesn't exist. No, I think they meant that the pain is real, but your head thinking is so strong it forces your body to be sick. Sounds like the sanitized version of "You are a mental case."

Knowing my DH, I never thought for one moment that his issues were caused by his thought processes, but I know it was really eating away at him, causing him to start questioning his own health. The pain he was experiencing also was having a causative effect on his well-being.
"Could this be another stroke coming on? What if this? What if that?"

I watched him feeling worse and worse and felt impotent in helping him. So we started to dig a little into the statin world. (I think that might be a Disney-like place in Mobile, Alabama:

"Welcome to Statin World! Be prepared for the ride of your life!") 
Not to be confused with Staten Island.These are not the same thing.
 What we found out was worrisome. The side effects, the statistics of those taking the drugs versus not taking the drugs, etc. I will not go into all that. (I put in a link at the bottom)
What are statins anyway? This from Wikipedia:
  
'Statins (or HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) are a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol levels by inhibiting the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which plays a central role in the production of cholesterol in the liver. Increased cholesterol levels have been associated with cardiovascular diseases,^[1] and statins are therefore used in the prevention of these diseases. Research has found that statins are most effective for treating cardiovascular disease (CVD) (secondary prevention), with questionable benefit in those without previous CVD, but with elevated cholesterol levels.^[2][3] Statins have rare but severe adverse effects, particularly muscle damage, and some doctors believe they are overprescribed.'

 The magic drug we have been waiting for? Possibly, to some extent, for some patients.
Should they be used in place of good diet and exercise? An emphatic NO!  Overprescribed? Probably. They are a 26 billion dollar industry.
I also don't believe for one second that the muscle problems are rare.

He made the decision to go off of them last Thursday for the pain was worse and worse. Yesterday, he was like a new man! Oh my gosh! It was amazing, like night and day. Two days off the statins and while he wasn't leaping and dancing like Baryshnikov, he was feeling so much better and it seemed like he was back to his old self. His whole attitude and demeanor had changed. He was brighter and more animated than I have seen him in a long time. As in months and months. He even drew up some building plans for a project I want to do. (Isn't that sneaky of me to think of a project for him to build to get him out of his funk?)
We are hoping with the careful diet changes to keep his cholesterol levels good, so we will see what happens. All we know is that the side effects of the drugs have not been worth the benefits they may impart. He will be seeing the stroke doctors this week and we will share with them what he has gone through and go from there.

Anyway, back to the title of the blog. If you have a chronic illness or a condition that has been problematic for you, I ran across a website, courtesy of another blogster with Behcet's. It is a wonderful site that is good for sufferers and caretakers alike. Please go to it and check it out.
http://www.patientslikeme.com/

If you are interested in finding out more about statins here's a nice little site.
http://chriskresser.com/the-truth-about-statin-drugs

Live to eat/eat to live

One should eat to live, not live to eat.  This has been attributed to none other than the full-figured Benjamin Franklin.
Apparently, he stole it from Socrates (also no slouch himself) who said famously: 
 “Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.” The joke has been that the French live to eat, but the Brits eat to live. I am insulted. I LOVE British food! The Cornish Pasties! (no not the things the strippers wear on their nipples) Genuine Fish and Chips served in newspaper. With malt vinegar. YUM. Okay, well, that's about it. The steak and kidney pie is er, interesting. The English breakfast is a little, er, pukey: runny eggs, toast, okay the marmalade is yum, a "rasher" of bacon which isn't bacon like we know it. (Here's where France has it all over the Brits. The French breakfast: Croissants! Chocolate Fudge hot cocoa in a BOWL. Can you say "petit dejeuner"? which isn't really "petite" at all!)

I have been in love with food for nearly all my life. I think everyone should have amazing food to eat in the time frame between breast milk and Ensure. I have no idea where my love affair with food started. In the middle part of the last century there were many new inventions: The TV dinner. Who can forget the awesome little metal tray (pre-microwave era) that came with an entree! side dishes! dessert! And THEN the HUNGRY MAN size dinner was invented!

This yummy dinner contains 1450 calories, 58 grams of fat, 174 carbs. 

 Then there were fishsticks! Tater Tots! (250 calories, 14 grams of fat/150 calories, 7 grams of fat respectively) Hey, is that for the whole bag???? What? A serving? What the heck is a serving anyway?

In any case, my taste buds have, uh EVOLVED. I appreciate good food in all its forms. This does not include fast food, however. Okay, the smell of KFC can send me reeling....
But other than that, I want food to not only be pleasing to the eye but to the palate. (Just as a point of reference, a woman I know once said to me at a church potluck: "I love following you in the buffet line because your plate looks like art."  That still makes me happy when I think of that for some reason)
Anyway, I digress. Why does food have to be one or the other? Why is it considered a sin of gluttony if you profess to enjoying food? Now I have been at buffets where I have been stunned to see people pile food so high on their plates they can hardly balance it.

I confess my DH and I once sat at a buffet in Reno watching with amazement two people eat plate after plate after plate for two hours, long after we had finished. Okay, now that might be gluttony. But I am not talking about that, I am talking about making and eating beautiful food. I have always been interested in the freshest food possible. I have used canned food in the past sparingly (fruit/sauces/tomatoes/olives/some soups) but in the past few months, I have severely limited any processed foods and have gone to probably 90-95% fresh food (this includes frozen which is not processed per se, but which is nutritionally close to fresh). I have always said if the label had more than 5 ingredients, then I don't want it in my kitchen. Well, in the past few weeks, it has been even more so. The other thing that I have always tried to do was eat seasonally: Not buying watermelon in December for instance. I do this for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is that sometimes foreign countries do not have the checks and balances when it comes to safety practices. And yes, I wash my spinach and bagged lettuce that clearly states: Triple washed! Ready-to-use!

   I get ticked off when some vegetarians state: "Well, if you didn't eat meat, you wouldn't get e.coli." I wish it were that simple! But how does that explain how lettuce, tomatoes, green onions,sprouts, etc have been recalled due to e.coli and other lovely things that have sickened and killed hundreds of people?
But I must confess, preparing beautiful food IS time-consuming. How can the average person (that has an outside-the-home job or has multiple children grabbing/pushing/pulling you every which way) make the time to prep beautiful food that nourishes the soul as well as the body? PLUS you have to SHOP for the food? What can you do? Here's a few tips that have worked for me:
1) Pre-prep as much food as possible. I cut fresh veggies and place them in individual bags for snacking ahead of time.
2) I pre-cook chicken in bite-size pieces and freeze in family size portions for later meals.
3) My famous meat mix: 1/3 ground sirloin 1/3 ground turkey breast 1/3 ground turkey sausage. I use this for everything from meatballs to taco mix to a base for casserole-like dishes.
4) Try to plan menus around the veggies you get. For instance, I like to buy a large bag of spinach and a large container of mushrooms, but then I create lots of menu items around it: Spinach/mushroom scramble with egg whites for breakfast. (I do not buy egg substitute...I throw out the yolks of my eggs, cheaper, healthier. )
Spinach salad with mushrooms for lunch, spinach lasagne for dinner.
5) Add healthy ingredients to menu items, even though a recipe may not call for it: add black or red beans to meat in the lasagne. For instance, I added lentils to the meat mix for the moussaka.Yum.   6) Don't throw out the salt shaker, just hide it. Use lots of herbs and spices to flavor your food. 
Okay, this went way to long...stay tuned for more later!  

Staying the Course (when it looks like you are failing)

Words can make you crazy. Messages in your head can "make" or "break" you. I didn't want to change our diet to lose weight, yet, I figured that I would naturally lose weight. We are eating so well. Yes, we are eating more healthy fats. That in itself was a huge roadblock in my brain. Prior to this, I was on the "fat is bad bandwagon". As I have said, having a weight-loss mentality in the past of "all or nothing", I have literally been giving our new food plan, "my all". What does that even mean?  

• Carefully weighing and measuring everything that goes into our mouths.
• Making sure that everything going into our mouths is the freshest and healthiest unprocessed food possible.
• Regular exercising, aerobic and weight training.
• Drinking only water, green tea, or oolong tea, none of my beloved artificially sweetened water add-ins,
• Reading every single label for carbs/fiber/protein

•  Trying to get veggies in wherever possible (Case in point, tonight had my grand kids over, and they aren't veggie fans. I made tacos with my meat mixture of ground sirloin/ground turkey breast/lean turkey sausage. This time, I added steamed broccoli that I ground up in the food processor and added to the meat mixture, also included whole grains and black beans, no one was the wiser...shh, don't tell them.)   

So, where has that gotten me? Zilch. Yes, you heard me. I have not lost anything.  Although I am not really sure why, I have to remind myself that I am not doing this to lose weight. I am doing this to be healthy. I am doing this for my husband to be healthy. So, why does it feel kind of bad that I haven't lost weight? Our lives are run by the numbers. If the number on the scale doesn't cooperate, we feel like we are indeed a failure. I have seen it time and time again. When I worked for the dietary program, a member would come in and look so crestfallen, thinking they had "failed" that week. They would weigh-in and find that they had lost even a little bit and you would see the joy in their face, a spring in their step, for they hadn't "failed". On the flip side of the coin, you would have someone come in so excited over the great week they had had, then...the weigh-in...and they found they had gained or stayed the same and the pain in their face and voice would break my heart, even as I tried to reassure them that their great week hadn't changed, they still had that great week. You knew they heard not a single word. 

I have been there. I remember a great week that I had once, but the scale showed a 5lb gain, I cried and ran out, inconsolable. I felt that I was the world's biggest failure, because I tried. I had really tried. 

After I reached my goal and went to work for the company that had helped me succeed, I realized that there are millions of people who try every single day to be a success, yet they don't reach the very thing they had hoped for. Their goals lie shattered in the dust. They give up, they quit, they go back to eating the way they always did, because they think "why bother?" 

What defines success? Staying with something because you know in your heart is the right thing to do, regardless of the tangible instant gratification like a lower number on the scale. How can I possibly measure success in this context when I haven't lost any weight? Here's something I noticed in the past few days:

My skin condition that they still don't know what it is (It is an odd discolored patchiness all over my arms, neck, and chest. The biopsy says it is an inflammation of some kind, but the docs don't think it is related to my Behcet's) is getting better. Up until about a week ago, my skin looked like that of an 80 year-old. It was crepe-like, dry and sallow. It has improved so much, I can hardly see the discoloration! It is softer and smoother. Success? See, I don't want to jinx this, but it really does look like an amazing transformation. Is it even possible? Only time will tell....

The Low(er) Carb Journey so far...

Let me first state I was not putting down any diet program or anyone utilizing such programs. I myself lost 140 pounds on one such program, so I am the last person to say something against them. I am on a journey of discovery if you will, to figure out if it is possible to specifically change health issues that people face by just eating differently. I called it "Mindful Eating" in my last post because I felt this best described what I am trying to accomplish.

That said, I want to share how it has been so far. This is Day Four of the Big Experiment.
What do we eat?
Oatmeal/Pumpkin combo for breakfast, with walnuts, flaxseed for Omega 3s
 Lots of veggies, fruits, both raw and cooked. I will throw spinach into some ground turkey along with onions,peppers to get more veggies in.
 Salmon, olive oil, hemp seed avocado,whole grain pitas/English muffins (2-3 servings a day)  

Also 3-4 cups of green tea or oolong tea, no sodas or fruit juices.
No sugar (except the teeny bit I add to my tea via stevia/sugar mix)
No white flour, no starchy fruits/veggies.
Yes, I still get a bit of chocolate...about 1/2-1 ounce of dark chocolate. No, it's not in a cookie.

I will share with you that this is not easy. Not easy in the fact that it takes a LOT of prep work. I am not sure it would be feasible if I was still working. It takes a lot of planning too. I also tried to simplify keeping track by using a simple Excel spreadsheet. 
Another thing for fun, I was reading about a cool app for my smartphone called My Fitness Pal. I got the app to record a day's worth of eating to get an idea of how many calories we are getting. I am not calorie counting per se, but I wanted to get an idea of how many calories per day we are consuming. Yes, oil does have a LOT of calories, so I would be shaking in my boots if I was counting calories. In any case, we are hitting about 1500-1600 calories a day. 
The plan is to exercise 4 times a week for 30-60 minutes a day (which I had already been doing) but DH has now joined me at the gym! I am convinced that regular exercise will help with cholesterol issues. Well, at least that is the theory...we shall see.

The doctor had made a note DH should be getting 4 grams of fish oil a day (4000 mg) but in looking at the capsules that were marked 1200 grams (the thinking being he would need 3-4 capsules a day) we realized that each 1200 mg, contained about 300 actual grams of what he needed  of the Omega 3s, so I have carefully figured out what he needs each day to meet that goal, using fish/walnuts/flax seed or hemp seed. 
Granted the fish gives a different type of Omega 3 than the plant based Omega 3, but we are working on that. It's kind of fun, but I wish I had more of a chemistry background to fully understand all the ramifications of all the nutritional aspects, but fortunately I like to read up on it.  
What REALLY gets me is a) when you read about Omega 3-6-9 in, say, a magazine they assume you know what they are talking about. Honestly, until I really looked into it, I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. And b) a degree would be helpful. 

If you are interested in reading more from people who know more than me, here are some links. I tried to find things that are helpful and weren't advertisements for other products.
http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/index.html
A simple explanatory website that can help you wade thru the hype.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/health-fitness/diet-nutrition/understanding-diet-nutrition.html
Another simple, but not simplistic site. Okay, it had some advertising on the site, but the links to info themselves didn't seem to be pushing stuff.
There are tons of websites, so search around on your own, but remember! If they are selling you supplements or vitamins that will "heal" what's ailing you, proceed with caution!
 

Day One- Eating mindfully

After I posted on the blog yesterday, I sat down and hashed out an eating plan. It was based on reading tons of stuff especially about different foods and their inflammatory/anti-inflammatory properties as well as careful reading about the Omegas and carbs possibly being culpable in the whole diabetic/pre-diabetic debate. I honestly can say I have never given carbs a whole lot of thought for my weight gain (or their blame)

One of the things that I had come to believe was that carbs were not the culprit, it was FAT! Not enough FIBER! It was drummed into my head that low-carb diets were a fad, that really it was total intake that made you fat coupled with lack of exercise. I am now starting to think that I may have been wrong. I don't mean wrong about extreme diets, anything that is so out of whack it could easily cause way more problems.
Examples:
One woman I worked with completely and 100% cut out fat. She was almost religious in her devotion. She lost her hair and her skin became dry and nails brittle. (Imagine what it was doing to her insides)

Extreme low-carb dieters are known to have a high incidence of gall bladder/kidney issues due to the body's inability to handle high protein. In fact, I can count 5 women in my immediate circle that were carb-haters that had to have their gall bladders removed. (It may be coincidence, but I don't think so)

Anyway, I found a site that seemed to have a very common sense approach to eating complex carbs i.e. fruits/veggies/whole grains as well as a good balance of fish/chicken/lean meats and very little dairy. This seemed like the best thing for me as I have issues with dairy. It also seemed that it would be a good fit for DH...yes, there are healthy oils that would seem to substitute for the fish oil/flax seed oil combo supplements he is taking. As I mentioned before, I think that eating foods is better than supplements any day. UNLESS you are deficient in some area (calcium/Vitamin D etc), I am not sure supplements are a good idea. Oh my goodness! I know some will read this and will think it is blasphemy. I do know that supplements are a big business. Americans are reported to spend in the neighborhood of 11 billion dollars a year on supplements. That is billion with a B. What could 11 billion buy? Well, it could essentially buy you 1/3 of the state of Washington, based on their 32 billion dollar budget for the current fiscal year. It could buy you nearly 2 Rhode Islands based on their budget for this FY.  Is this the emperor's new clothes? Are we being sold a bill of goods? (or a bull of goods )

Another thing that I went looking for was how much people spend on weight loss. I could not get an accurate number due to the fact that some studies included gyms/diet programs/supplementary foods bars/bariatric surgery etc, while some quoted the diet programs only. Safe to say it can be as low as 20 Billion or as high as 60 Billion depending on what is included. Whew. How much is spent on fruits and veggies per year? The closest study I could find was from the USDA website.
From 2000. Wow an 11 year old study, get out much? Anyway, what we spent as a nation was about 222 billions dollars at the grocery story. Of that, about 16 billion give or take was for fresh fruits/veggies. (although it was 35 billion for all fruits and veggies) Seems pretty good until you look at 8 billion for candy, 9 billion for salty snacks, 13 billion for soft drinks and 21 billion on processed/prepared foods. It boggles the mind.

So, I am setting out on a quest. A quest to see if by carefully and mindfully eating for optimal nutrition, no counting calories/carbs/points, instead choosing specific foods for their nutritional value and throwing out those that seem to be mediocre on the food chain, can we become healthier?

Can we reverse the "pre-diabetes" that both DH and I have? Can we find other health benefits? Better well-being overall? More energy? More youthful in appearance? Lose body fat? All this without a formal diet program, just mindfulness and more exercise is my goal. I will keep you posted.

I made a very simple Excel spreadsheet with foods to eat everyday or once or twice a week based on the anti-inflammatory food pyramid. As I said, less dairy, more fish and healthy oils (especially those all-important 3's, the balanced 6 to 3's and the 9's) and of course there is chocolate on it, sparingly, which I take to mean 42 Snicker bars a day. Kidding!

This is a huge change for me. I have been vegetarian (closer to vegan) for more than a year. In the past few posts, I have alluded to the fact that trying to do something healthy for me by going veg has blown up in my face. I have decided that we are not failing, we are being pro-active in looking for the balance that I think our bodies so desperately seek.

Was Madonna really in her 20's when this movie was made????
And why did we dress like that in the 80's? What were we thinking?

It's all good, It's all bad

I am talking FOOD. The title of the post today is a little joke, spoken by my DH as I read him an article today from Dr. Oz. Now I am not a rah-rah fan of Dr. Oz like some people are. I do think he has a good, common-sense thoughtfulness about health, but I found his show to be a bit of a "lowest-common denominator" type of show. It seemed that the show's appeal used the premise that YOU the viewer knew absolutely ZERO about good health, foods to eat, etc. I am not knocking that, it does have its place, as I think a lot of people feel helpless and hopeless about what they should be doing to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Scratch that. I think 90% of the people out there have heard the message over and over: diet and exercise but the conflicting messages you get, coupled with famous people talking about good health but oh yeah, they are SELLING the very products they tout, make a muddied mess in your brain about what you really need to do for good health.

This is because no one REALLY knows. That's right, I said it. You can use your best guesses based on past knowledge and this study or that study, but no one really knows. It is a crap shoot.

Today, I am going to focus on Omegas 3-6-9. I have often heard that these are important building blocks for good health and well-being. Why do we need a degree to understand it?
When DH and I went to the nutritionist after his stroke, we expected to hear something we DIDN'T know. Now, we are not idiots and I have been interested in nutrition for many many years and its effects on health. She was a personable, fairly young woman. I mention her age group so you will know that it has probably been about 5-7 years since she was in school. We heard all the usual: eliminate white flour/sugar but she also said: Do not eat nuts, and essentially eliminate oils/fats from your diet, and please do not eat eggs.
According to most learned people today, this is old-thinking in the worst way. The Mediterranean Diet that so many doctors recommend today touts nuts, (yeah, yeah, not those Planter's Mixed Nuts in deep fried oil bliss) healthy oils, eggs, and yes; fish, poultry, and lean red meats.

It's no wonder you go nuts thinking about nuts AND OILS. Anyway, back to The Omegas (sounds like a singing group) What are they? Why are they "essential"? I turned to the greatest authority in the land: The internet.

(When doing research online, please be aware that a lot of those sites are TRYING TO SELL YOU SOMETHING.)

Omega 3: Alpha-linoleic acid (ALA)is the "parent". Your body cannot it on its own, this makes them "essential". These get metabolized into EPA and DHA (eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). You thought it was some sort of environmental agency, right? Nope, they perform lots of good things for your body, not the least of which is anti-inflammatory properties.
You can find these in certain "fatty" sea foods such as mackerel, oysters,wild salmon, and sardines. But if you are a vegetarian, you can find it in flax seed, hemp seed, walnuts, canola oil, eggs, pumpkin seeds, algae. How much should you get a day? I have always been a huge believer in diet over supplements, but maybe you hate fish and don't eat a lot of veggies. If you eat fish twice a week, this should give you all you need! If you don't, consider a supplement of 800-1000 mg of Omega 3's. BEWARE: not every supplement makes this clear. Some say for example "contains 1000 mg of fish oil" but that doesn't mean they contain 1000 mg of Omega 3's. Another problem, as you age, your body has a harder time converting the ALA into EPA and DHA. UGH.

Omega 6: The "parent" is Linoleic Acid which is an "essential"fatty acid. Guess what? We get this in spades in our diet which often results in an imbalance of 6's to3's. You can find this in sunflower oil, Safflower oil, Canola oil, Soybeans, and eggs as well as just about every processed food out there.
Sounds good, right? What's the problem here? Well, Omega 6's are known to cause inflammatory responses. So, if you have arthritis or auto-immune disorders, you just sucked in your breath. If you don't have those, here's another problem: Inflammatory responses can also bring on heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimers, oh the list goes on! So, a relatively healthy person should sit up and take notice: Inflammation: BAD, balance: GOOD. In most cases, we draw plenty of old Omega-6's, so you might want to pay attention as to how much is too much.

 Here are some good internet sources not trying to sell you anything that go more into depth about Omegas 3-6-9:http://www.umassmed.edu/healthyhearts/tipsheets/omega3.aspx
http://www.womentowomen.com/healthynutrition/differencebetweenomega369.aspx

Now onto Omega 9, which is really why I wrote this today. In Dr. Oz's column today, he wrote about the benefits of Omega 9's and its great source of olive oil, not to be confused with Olive Oyl, Popeye's gal pal. However this picture of Olive Oyl demonstrates how olive oil might be a good heart-healthy oil.

In the column that was published today there is one thing that made me take notice: 2 tablespoons of olive oil a day can slash your odds of heart disease by 44 %! (here is the link so you can read further)
http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2012/12/drs_oz_and_roizen_olive_oil_ju.html
Well obviously this is an essential oil, right? Turns out I had this ALL wrong. It is not considered "essential". WHAT???? What "essential" means in this context is this: Our bodies make plenty from unsaturated fats in our body. So, you most likely do not need a supplement. Hmm, doesn't this fly in the face of all you thought you knew? It pretty much slapped me upside the head. Truly. But here is something interesting: When your body does not produce enough 3's and 6's, it draws on 9's. Isn't that a kicker? So it appears what might be lacking in our diets is not the 6's or the 9's but that pesky Potion No. 3, the Omega 3's. But it is so confusing when you go read labels. For instance, we were told by DH's PCP to get on flax seed and fish oil supplements for his cholesterol levels ( long before his stroke). No guidelines of how much or explanation of what they do. We traipse off to Costo: Provider of all Supplements to check it out. I am sitting here looking at the bottles and realize that John/Jill Doe would not have the slightest idea what to look for.

Bottle one:Fish Oil 1200 Mg...what does THAT mean? That there are 1200 mg of Omega 3's? Look on the back: 2 capsules provide 2400 mg of fish oil but that equals 720 mg total of Omega 3's or 360 EPA, 240 DHA and 120 of "other". To top it off, the fish is from Peru. Not that there's anything wrong with that per se, but we are careful not to get fruits and veggies out of season from foreign countries, due to poor regulatory guidelines, is fish oil the same?

He also takes something called Triple Omega providing 3-6-9 all rolled into one. 1 capsule provides 434 mg of 3's, 276 mg of 6's, and 170 of 9's. It is from fish/flax seed/safflower/olive oil. The fish (no origin stated) is from anchovies and sardines If we go on the recommended ratios, he is getting way too much 3's and not enough 6's and 9's. Confused? Ideally, you should get two to four parts 6's to 1 part of 3's. Huh? what about the 9's? Here's the fun part: If you are getting enough 3's and 6's, your body converts it to 9's readily, but since our bodies are somewhat deficient in 3's or they are overly heavy in 6's, that is where the problem seems to lie.

If you are vegan or vegetarian and don't want to take fish oil, there are some other alternatives. Here is a link that helps explain it far better than I can.
http://www.womentowomen.com/healthynutrition/veganepadha.aspx

I am re-thinking all that I have known/heard/surmised. Here's our newest plan: We plan on adding 2 servings of fish per week, up the hemp seed (sprinkling it on other foods), eating more avocado, we already use olive oil almost exclusively in cooking, but heating it up you lose some valuable properties, therefore we will eat more added to salads "cold" .

Do you worry about whether it is "Extra Virgin"? No, this is not a porn movie, but EVOO is the first pressing (which can mean pressing or centrifuging by mechanical means, not chemical means) of the olives. If you buy "pure olive oil" you may be getting olive oil that has used charcoal as a filter, so look for EVOO for taste as when you are using on salads.

"Virgin" olive oil, is also produced by pressing or centrifuging, just not the "first" pressing. Believe it or not, there is an International Olive Council that determines these designations, but the US is not a part of it. One thing the US requires is that there is the country of origin on the bottle. If you are thinking that they are all from Italy, "Credo che ancora bambino": (Think again, baby) You may be getting oils from all over the world mixed together. Just be watchful if this matters to you.

I plan on tackling other food/diet related things in the upcoming days as we try to sort out the huhs from the whats and whys. Happy Eating! And by all means, read those labels!