Dr. Tracy McAlvanah's Wellness Blog

Everyone has heard that high cholesterol is bad for heart health. But as it turns out, the association between cholesterol and cardiovascular disease has been somewhat misrepresented. Doctors are starting to accept that cholesterol levels do not necessarily predict risk for heart disease as much as we thought. Consider the following: 75 percent of  people  who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol. Older  patients  with lower cholesterol have a higher risk of death than those with higher cholesterol. Countries with higher average cholesterol than Americans such as the Swiss or Spanish have less heart disease. Recent evidence shows that it is likely statins’ ability to lower inflammation that accounts for the benefits of statins, not their ability to lower cholesterol. We need cholesterol! Cholesterol is a fat-like substance found in every cell in the human body. The liver makes 75 percent of cholesterol. Cholesterol helps produce cell membranes, vitami...

You’re eating healthy by opting for fruit juice and fruit smoothies over soda, right? Wrong, unfortunately. These more natural alternatives are still loaded with excess sugar and high in fructose, creating largely the same health risks as drinking sugary sodas. That Coke and Pepsi have bought dozens of fruit juice and smoothie brands is testament to the dubious health claims of these products. When studies linking sodas with obesity and diabetes hit the media, these companies began touting fruit-based beverages as an alternative. Fruit juice not the way to meet daily produce requirements Bottled fruit juice and smoothie sell themselves as a way to meet your daily requirements for fruit. But these drinks do not fill you up the way eating a whole piece of fruit does, and they bombard your bloodstream with more sugar than the human body was meant to handle. A smoothie can have the same amount of sugar as a large soda. It doesn’t matter if the sugar is “natural” — the impacts are delet...