Cholesterol Down by Dr. Janet Bond Brill
10 Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol in 4 Weeks Without Prescription Drugs
Genre: Self-Help, Health, Nutrition
Published: December 2006
Rating: 5 of 5
When my doctor told me that my cholesterol levels were on the high end of normal, I decided it was time to make a few dietary changes to lower my LDL and triglycerides. I didn’t want to take drugs, especially the kind that you need to take forever, that can have unpleasant side effects.
I researched books and websites and found that Cholesterol Down: 10 Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol in 4 Weeks Without Prescription Drugs had great advice. I read this last year but it’s my annual checkup time again which made me think about the book and realize I never wrote a review.
Dr. Brill’s book explains how to lower cholesterol by adding foods such as plant sterols, soy, garlic, oatmeal, apples, beans, almonds, flaxseed and daily walking for exercise along with what foods should be avoided. Written in an easy to understand style it includes details on the how and why of each food or supplement to be added. She backs her advice up with facts and studies. We learn why we need cholesterol, how the body makes it, uses it and eliminates it.
The first part of the book contains the science and goes on to explain the 10 steps; the second half is recipes. If you aren’t interested in the science it can be skimmed over to get to the part everyone wants to know, the steps to lower cholesterol. The key is fiber. Lots of fiber, both soluble and dietary fiber but the focus is on soluble fiber which is what actually removes excess cholesterol from the body. A brief overview of the daily steps:
• One cup of oatmeal
• An apple
• A handful of almonds
• One clove of fresh garlic or a supplement.
• Two Tablespoons of flaxseeds
• Psyllium capsules (Metamucil)
• Walk 30 minutes a day
• One half cup of Beans or Lentils
• Use margarine with phytosterols
• Eat soy protein.
I added most of the suggested foods and supplements including oatmeal, an apple, almonds or walnuts, a garlic supplement and psyllium daily. I already walked the 30 minutes on my daily commute to work. I added the beans and flaxseed a few times a week. I don’t use margarine and I dislike soy, so those were not used by me. After a few weeks I got real tired of oatmeal so I substituted regular Cheerios, plus I added fiber where ever I could such as healthier whole grain breads and pastas.
The plan worked for me so I’m now a believer in the dietary approach. Wiithin three months my LDL and triglyceride numbers were down more than 20%, well within the normal range. Everyone’s body and medical history is different so I’m sure it doesn’t work for everyone, but it can’t hurt and it’s certainly worth a try.
Highly recommended.
All the wildflowers have dried up but the path around the pond is still a pretty place for a walk.
More Wordless Wednesday.
Mailbox Monday is touring through blogs. For the month of November it will be hosted by Knitting and Sundries. Next month the tour moves to Let Them Read Books where it will be hosted for the month of December.
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New books that came into my home last week:
I bought a copy of Skating Around The Law by Joelle Charbonneau. I had the pleasure of meeting Jo, having my copy signed and hearing her speak about writing the book. If her characters are as charming as she is this will be a great book.
Rebecca Robbins is a woman on a mission—to sell the roller rink she inherited from her mother and get back to Chicago. Fast. However, when she discovers the dead body of the town’s handyman headfirst in a rink toilet, potential buyers are scared off. Now Rebecca is stuck in a small town where her former neighbors think she doesn’t belong, living with her scarily frisky grandfather, Pop, and relying on a police department that’s better at gardening than solving crimes.
I received a copy of The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris from the publisher in a contest win.
THE UNNAMED is a dazzling novel about a marriage and a family and the unseen forces of nature and desire that seem to threaten them both. It is the heartbreaking story of a life taken for granted and what happens when that life is abruptly and irrevocably taken away.
I received a copy of How the Government Got in Your Backyard: Superweeds, Frankenfoods, Lawn Wars, and the (Nonpartisan) Truth About Environmental Policies by Jeff Gillman and Eric Heberlig from the publisher for review.
How the Government Got in Your Backyard distills the science, the politics, and the unbiased, nonpartisan truth behind hot-button environmental issues from pesticides to global warming. By clearly representing what the left says, what the right says, what the science is, and what the facts are, Gillman and Heberlig don’t set out to provide the answer — they light the path so concerned citizens can uncover their own true and informed opinion.
The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey
Genre: Non-Fiction, Science, Nature, Surfing
Published: September 2010 by Doubleday
Pages: 312
Rating: 4 of 5
When I decided to read The Wave I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The ocean, waves and the science behind them was a subject I was interested in but I didn’t see how someone could write an entire book about them. It didn’t take me long to find out. This book sucked me in immediately. There is a lot to learn about our oceans and the people who study them, sail them and surf them. In one word, fascinating.
This is not a dry facts and figures science book. Susan Casey writes in a wonderfully descriptive and engaging style. The book reads like a novel but at the same time you are digesting scientific data and amazing facts. She makes the science easy to understand and the descriptions of the surfers, the waves and the rough seas come to life.
The author traveled with surfer Laird Hamilton and his friends, all extreme surfers that seek out giant waves. These are not just any big waves, they are 60, 70 and even 100 foot high waves. They are not the kind of waves one can paddle out to; they require the surfer to get a tow with a jet ski and have a teammate to rescue them when they hit the surf. There is little margin for error. They risk serious injury and even death when slammed by the force of one of these waves. Their amazing adventure is told in alternating chapters with the story of the scientists and their aspirations to understand how and why these giant waves are formed.
Every two years wave scientists gather at a conference to exchange information on wave research. This has become a hot topic since the 2004 Indonesian tsunami and the recent concerns of how climate change could affect the world’s oceans. The warmer the water the more volatile the seas become with more destructive storms and larger waves. It is also theorized that with the sea level rising due to the melting of the ice cap there is more pressure on ocean bottom resulting in a greater number of underwater earthquakes and, as a result, tsunamis. Again, fascinating stuff.
Each year more than two dozen large ships and their crews go missing. It usually gets explained away as bad weather and is never studied in the same way an airplane crash is analyzed. These scientists want to change that and are now investigating disappearing ships. The author meets with many of the scientists, attends their conventions and explains the research to us in such a clear way that we don’t have to know calculus or chaos theory to understand it. I had no problem following along and I haven’t taken a science or math class in years.
If you enjoy reading about adventure I highly recommend this book. You may not want to go on a cruise or a swim in the ocean after you read it but I know you will be amazed, awed and entertained.
————-
Source: Review Copy provided by the publisher.
————-
Doubleday has offered to giveaway a copy of this book to two of my readers. Click here to enter for your chance to win. Contest ends 11/15.
————-
I’m participating in Book Review Party Wednesday. Click the link to find more great reviews.
The Book Blogger Hop, a weekly event hosted by Jen at Crazy For Books, is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word!
Post about the Hop on your blog. Spread the word about the book party! The Hop lasts Friday through Monday. If you don’t have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun! Each week there is a new discussion question for your post. This week’s question is:
“”What is the one bookish thing you would love to have, no matter the cost?”
That’s easy, I would have a house with a library. A big, high ceiling room lined with bookcases, a fireplace and comfy chairs with large windows opening to a view of a beautiful garden.
What great books did you hear about/discover this past week? Share your FRIDAY FINDS! This weekly event is hosted by Should Be Reading.
All Clear, a new book by one of my favorite authors, Connie Willis. This is book two and follows Blackout which I haven’t read yet but it’s on my list. I can’t resist the time-traveling historians.
In Blackout, award-winning author Connie Willis returned to the time-traveling future of 2060—the setting for several of her most celebrated works—and set three Oxford historians to World War II England: Michael Davies, intent on observing heroism during the Miracle of Dunkirk; Merope Ward, studying children evacuated from London; and Polly Churchill, posing as a shopgirl in the middle of the Blitz. But when the three become unexpectedly trapped in 1940, they struggle not only to find their way home but to survive as Hitler’s bombers attempt to pummel London into submission.
The Wonderful Future That Never Was: Flying Cars, Mail Delivery by Parachute, and Other Predictions from the Past by The Editors of Popular Mechanics and Gregory Benford just looks like fun. Where is my flying Jetsons car anyway?
Between 1903 and 1969, scientists and other experts made hundreds of predictions in Popular Mechanics magazine about what the future would hold. Their forecasts ranged from ruefully funny to eerily prescient and optimistically utopian. Here are the very best of them, culled from hundreds of articles, complete with the original, visually stunning retro art.
I heard this little house sparrow chirping and when I approached she posed for a picture. They are often under appreciated because they are a common backyard bird. (click photo for sharper image)
More Wordless Wednesday.
Thanks to Liz at Doubleday Books I have 2 copies of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey to give away to my readers.
Click here to read my review of this fascinating and entertaining story of the waves in our oceans and the people who study them, sail them and surf them.
Description from the publisher:
The Wave by Susan Casey
In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean
Category: Non-Fiction, Surfing, Nature, Science
Publish Date: September 2010
Pages: 312
For centuries, mariners have spun tales of gargantuan waves, 100-feet high or taller. Until recently scientists dismissed these stories—waves that high would seem to violate the laws of physics. But in the past few decades, as a startling number of ships vanished and new evidence has emerged, oceanographers realized something scary was brewing in the planet’s waters. They found their proof in February 2000, when a British research vessel was trapped in a vortex of impossibly mammoth waves in the North Sea—including several that approached 100 feet.
As scientists scramble to understand this phenomenon, others view the giant waves as the ultimate challenge. These are extreme surfers who fly around the world trying to ride the ocean’s most destructive monsters. The pioneer of extreme surfing is the legendary Laird Hamilton, who, with a group of friends in Hawaii, figured out how to board suicidally large waves of 70 and 80 feet. Casey follows this unique tribe of people as they seek to conquer the holy grail of their sport, a 100-foot wave.
Read an excerpt.
About The Author
SUSAN CASEY is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks. She served as creative director of Outside Magazine, where she was part of the editorial team that developed the stories behind the bestselling books Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm, as well as the 2002 movie Blue Crush. The Toronto-born Casey was also recently named Editor-in-Chief of O, the Oprah Magazine.
How to enter the Giveaway:
- Contest is open to US addresses only, no PO Boxes. Contest runs through November 15th.
- To enter leave a comment.
- For an extra entry, follow by email, Google Reader or subscribe to my feed. Let me know how you follow.
- For a second extra entry post a link on your blog, sidebar is ok, or tweet on twitter. Leave the link in your comment.
- Max 3 entries. You can put them all in one comment.
I will draw 2 random winners on November 16th. Be sure to leave an email address so that I can contact you if you win. Winners will have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address.
Under My Apple Tree 