Friday, December 28, 2007

don't eat that

Turns out the #1 thing, in fact, the only thing I need to avoid to protect my gallbladder is trans-fat.
You've heard about that. My nutritionist told me to stay away from it about a year before the government scientist people started talking about it. It's helpful that they are against it, though, because now it's easier to find food that doesn't have it.
The scientist people are against it because it increases LDL cholesterol. The thing is, it's just not recognized by the liver as a food. Regular food oil is taken and the chemical structure is changed by adding hydrogen molecules in order to turn the liquid into a solid. That's what shortening is. And margarine. blech.
So with this new chemical structure the liver just does the best it can to metabolize it, but it really doesn't know how. The liver is the place where cholesterol is produced. It is also the place where bile is produced and that's the stuff that flows through the gallbladder.
Makes sense, huh?
So now I can have fat, as long as it is God-made-for-eating fat. I have to ask a lot of questions when I eat out, but that's ok.
So, do some research and see what you think.
Next time I'll talk about a book that does a great job of explaining the liver/weight connection.

4 comments:

Melanie said...

Very interesting. We changed to olive oil and real butter awhile ago..just in moderation. I wonder..the best thing would be to go natural..so what about splenda and such. They say it is taken from sugar..is it? What sugar/sweetener do you use?

Anonymous said...

I don't do artificial sweeteners. I'll talk about that in the next post, because the book I mentioned really helped me understand that stuff.

Anonymous said...

Kay, A Dietition I worked with once said that whatever form fats had at room temp. was how they set up in your veins. Yukko!
Julie

Robin said...

Interesting Kay. I've always disliked margarine. When butter tastes so good why would we even want margarine? I guess we still need to use moderation with butter and even fats that are good for us like olive oil. A friend told me that she lets butter come to room temp and mixes it half and half with olive oil for a healthier mix than just butter.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say about sweeteners - splenda as mentioned above and I'd like to know also what you think about stevia. I've never tried it, but I've been told too - the money has held me back.

Oh its raining here near Washington DC tonight - we've only had one light dusting of snow so far this season. We usually get some decent snow.