Healthy eating

I have a sweet tooth that can sometimes get wildly out of control, especially when it comes to candy of the sour variety. That being said, the inclination for us humans to be addicted to sugar is widespread, quite natural, and really, really bad.

There's just something about fructose that makes us apes go crazy. Consider the other great apes; all they eat is fruit, and fruit is naturally high in fructose.

I would recommend reading this article by Rich Cohen about sugar in last August's National Geographic, which lays bare the problems that arise due to the consumption of excess sugar. The bottom line? Excess consumption of sugar is doing us the opposite of favors and is really easy to fall prey to. As the article states, "excessive sugar isn't just empty calories; it's toxic."

Last year was when I first started taking all of this more seriously. I was getting bloodwork done for this and that when my results raised a few red flags. It seemed like I might start following in a familial trend of having high cholesterol if I wasn't careful. I upped my exercise habits for a while and opted to eat healthier foods while at school. However, my work load got considerable larger and both my exercise and regular meals tapered off. My friends would always bring something sugary for us to snack on while we studied.

About a month ago, I got some bloodwork done again and my numbers have hardly budged. I realized that I couldn't hide behind my school work to avoid facing my health problems. Luckily, I'm going strong with my blood pressure and HDL levels (the 'good' cholesterol that is generally said to come from being active).

Still, I had to make some changes, and I had to stick to those changes. I've started to keep a small notebook where I plan to log the results of future routine blood tests and my daily diet and exercise. Hopefully, I'll be able to observe and learn about what works and what doesn't work for me.

In the meantime, I'll likely be seeing a nutritionist and doing research on my own about what changes to my diet I need to make (although the word 'diet' positively makes me cringe). These will be some good preliminary pointers for those of you who want to keep your cholesterol in check but also for those of you who maybe want to get healthy or trim weight in general because they sure do apply in that case as well.

1. Reduce consumption of cholesterol-containing foods. This one's pretty much a given, but it'll give me the most trouble.

• Eat less meat (especially organ meat like liver), egg yolk, milk fat, and shellfish like shrimp and lobster
• Choose oily fish which are lower in cholesterol, especially white-fleshed fish

2. Increase consumption cholesterol-lowering foods. These include soy protein, nuts, garlic, and alcohol. Which is why they say a glass of red wine in the evenings is good for you.

3. Reduce the amount of saturated fat and hydrogenated fat you eat. With nutrition labels nowadays, this should be easily spotted.

• Instead, choose foods containing omega 3 fatty acids such as coldwater fish (seabass, salmon, tuna)
• Pick monounsaturated fats over polyunsaturated fats, like olive oil, canola oil, and nut oils, because they don't lower HDL (the "good" cholesterol)

4. Some sources also point to...

• Grazing, or having many small meals throughout the day, instead of eating three square meals a day
• Choosing whole grain bread over white bread
• Eating oatmeal and drinking orange juice in the morning
• Having a grapefruit something like every other day
• Using honey instead of sugar or jam
• And drinking lots of water

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