Can The Early Man's Diet Prevent High Cholesterol?
By dpernas
@dpernas (57)
Uruguay
October 11, 2006 3:54pm CST
Imagine you took on a journey back to the world of the early man. What would you be doing most of the time to feed yourself and your family? Would it be easier for you to pick fruits, plant vegetables or hunt animals? Common sense would tell us that eating a diet of meat might just be occasional, as animals would be difficult to hunt down. It also requires more energy to hunt for food than plucking from the trees. So naturally, the larger parts of the early man's diet consisted mainly of fruits and plants.
Eating a diet consists of mainly fruits, nuts and plants, increases the intake of the plant sterols called "phytosterols". Although today's diet does include phytosterols, the amount is not enough to exert significant health benefits. It is commonly believed that a daily intake of approximately 1,000 mg of phytosterols is needed to lower serum cholesterol level.
Phytosterols, occur only in fruits, vegetables and nuts. Although they may have many similar functions as that of the human cholesterol, they differ in small but significant ways. To date, numerous studies conducted on the effects of phytosterols supplementation, have shown that phytosterols are highly effective in lowering cholesterol level.
The cholesterol in the human body comes from the food we ate plus the cholesterol manufactured by the liver. Excess cholesterol is excreted into the intestines, but unfortunately, most of this cholesterol will be reabsorbed. In order for the cholesterol to be absorbed, it must get into the transport mechanism to reach the inner lining of the intestines.
Phytosterols, are not easily absorbed and remain largely in the gastrointestinal tract. However, they do compete with the cholesterol for the transport mechanism, preventing and decreasing the delivery of cholesterol to the absorption sites. This action enables the phytosterols to lower serum cholesterol level.
Although various drugs and supplements are available to lower our cholesterol levels, we should also approach it with caution when lowering our cholesterol level. The reason being that cholesterol is very much needed as raw material in many of our bodies' chemical and biological functions. When cholesterol level is too low for too long a period of time, it may be harmful to our health.
Well, it should be safe if we adopt the phytosterol-rich diet of our ancestors.
Frank Mangano have discovered a all-natural method to lower your high cholesterol. Read more about 'Mangano method' at: http://www.highcholesterolprevention.com/frank-mangano.html
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1 response
@peavey (16936)
• United States
14 Oct 06
There's a big difference in the overall lifestyle of modern man and earlier times. That includes more than just food, it includes physical exercise and no alarm clocks. Stress, sleep deprivation and sitting at the computer (or its equivalent), have all contributed not only to high cholesterol, but high blood pressure, strokes and a lot more modern ills.
I don't think it's wise to zero in on one facet of a complex problem, but starting with food wouldn't hurt. Just don't stop there. Our bodies produce more cholesterol than we eat in general, and the cholesterol that we eat is easier for our bodies to get rid of. We overproduce cholesterol because of our lifestyles.
