A meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (March 2010 9(3)535-546), combined the relative risk rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) from 21 studies. This Mega-analysis represents almost 350,000 subjects whose diets and health outcomes had been followed for 5 to 23 years. The conclusion: “There is no significant evidence concluding that saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CVD.
Fallon, S, & Enig, M. (2010). Caustic commentary. Wise Traditionsin Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, 11(2).

Despite what your eye doctor may say, there are natural, common-sense strategies you can employ to help protect your healthy vision.

1. Quit smoking, if you currently do. Smoking ramps up free radical production throughout your body, and puts you at risk for less-than-optimal health in many ways. If you want healthy vision for your whole life, you cannot afford to risk less-than-optimal eye health with cigarettes.
2. Lose weight. If your over weight you’re going to have all the negative effects associated with being over weight or obese like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which can harm your eyes.
3. Care for your cardiovascular system. High blood pressure can cause damage to the minuscule blood vessels on your retina, obstructing free blood flow.
4. Normalize your blood sugar. Excessive sugar in your blood can pull fluid from the lens of your eye, affecting your ability to focus. And, it can damage the blood vessels in your retina, also obstructing blood flow.
5. Eat plenty of fresh dark green leafy vegetables. Studies have shown that a diet rich in dark leafy greens helps support eye health. And that those with the highest consumption of carotenoid-rich vegetables, especially ones rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, had increased vision health.
6. Consume omega-3 rich foods. Consume fresh caught salmon, or use a reputable omega – 3 supplement. A study published in the August 2001 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology found that consuming omega-3 fatty acids was protective of your healthy vision.

Mercola.com

Taken from the fruit portion of the seed off the coconut palm tree, coconut oil is one the most beneficial foods you can consume. In tropical regions where coconut oil or fat is a large portion of their caloric intake, people are much healthier and experience a much lower incidence of the modern diseases we do in the U.S. [1, 2]

There is an array of positive research published in the last few years showing the significance of coconut oil. [3] Coconut oil is classified as a “functional food” because of its health benefits that go far beyond its nutritional content. In fact, the coconut palm is so highly valued by Pacific Islanders as a source of food and medicine that it is called “The Tree of Life.” [4]

Coconut oil is the most saturated of all fats. Saturated fat has three subcategories: short chain, medium chain and long chain. Coconut oil contains approximately 65% medium chain fatty acids (MCFA). Although recognized for its health benefits many centuries ago, it wasn’t until 40 years ago that modern medicine found the source to be MCFA. Remarkably, mother’s milk contains the same healing powers of coconut oil. [5]

The saturated medium chain lipid lauric acid, which comprises more than 50 percent of coconut oil, is the anti-bacterial, anti-viral fatty acid found in mother’s milk. [6] The body converts lauric acid into the fatty acid derivative monolaurin, which is the substance that protects adults as well as infants from viral, bacterial or protozoal infections. This was recognized and reported as early as 1966. [7]

Since the first half of the 19th century, infection has been implicated as a cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD). [8] Researchers have been studying what causes the changes in the arterial wall. Professors Russell Ross and John Glomset formulated a hypothesis in 1973 about what causes CVD, concluding that CVD occurs in response to localized injury to the lining of the artery wall, which has been brought about by a number of things including viruses. [9, 10] The injury, in turn causes inflammation/infection. The plaque that develops is a result of the body trying to heal itself. It has been very well established that pathogens play an integral role in cardiovascular disease.

What is interesting about the role of viruses that have been found to initiate cardiovascular disease is they can be inhibited by the medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil. One could say that consuming coconut oil decreases one’s risk of cardiovascular disease.

Sources of Coconut oil:
Only use organic virgin coconut oil. I am currently using Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil. This oil is truly unrefined and made from organic coconuts. It contains a very high lauric acid content between 50 and 57 percent. I use between two and four tablespoons per day, which is what is recommended.

references:
1. Enig, Mary. “A New Look at Coconut Oil.” westonaprice.org. http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/coconut_oil.html

2. Rethinam, P. Muhatoyo. “The Plain Truth About Coconut Oil.” http://www.apccsec.org/truth.html

3. Enig, Mary. “Latest studies on coconut oil.” Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts. Spring,2006;7(1).

4. “Coconut.” Coconut Research Center. http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/

5. Kabara, Jon J. “Health Oils From The Tree of Life – Nutritional and Health Aspects of Coconut Oil.” http://www.coconutoil.com/John%20Kabara.pdf

6. Enig,Mary. Know Your Fats. Silver Spring: Bethesda Press, 2000

7. Lee, Lita. “Coconut Oil: Why is it Good for you.” Dec. 2001. coconut.com http://www.coconutoil.com/litalee.htm

8. Epstein, Stephen, et al. “Infection and Atherosclerosis.” Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2000;20:1417 http://atvb.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/20/6/1417

9. “Getting to the Heart of Atherosclerosis.” The UW Office of Research. http://www.washington.edu/research/pathbreakers/1973b.html

10. Furci, Michael. “Fats, Cholesterol and the Lipid Hypothesis.” www.bullz-eye.com.

A study published in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease, 28 February, 2009, found vitamin K consumption to strongly reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. This finding surfaced with an analysis of a cohort study, Prospect-EPIC, consisting of 16,057 women aged between 49 and 70, none of whom had cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. To the surprise of many, those who got their vitamin K from plant forms by eating lots of leafy vegetables did not fare better than the normal population. However, those women who got their vitamin K from animal sources like whole eggs, cheese, goose liver, and animal fats had substantially reduced incidence of cardiovascular disease.
Enig, Mary., and Sally Fallon. ?Caustic commentary? Wise Traditions, 2009;(10)2:11

Unfortunately, the researchers are calling for vitamin K2 supplementation not a healthy diet consisting of animal products, which would yield a whole host of other health benefits.

Sources of saturated fat: Beef, beef tallow (fat), dairy, palm oil, coconut oil.

Saturated fats? roles in the body include: [1]

? They constitute at least 50% of our cell membranes and give our cells integrity.
? They play a vital role in the health of our bones.
? They lower Lp(a), a substance in the blood that is said to indicate proneness to heart disease.
? They protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins like Tylenol (Acetaminophen).
? They enhance the immune system.
? They are needed for proper utilization of essential fatty acids.
? Stearic acid and palmitic acid, both saturated fats, are the preferred energy source of the heart. This is why the fat around the heart muscle is mainly saturated. The best sources for palmitic acid are beef, butter and palm oil.
? Short and medium chain saturated fatty acids have strong antimicrobial properties. They help protect us from harmful microorganisms. The best sources are tropical oils such as coconut oil and palm oil.
(Enig, Mary., and Sally Fallon. ?The Skinny on Fats,? westonaprice.org

http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html#benefits)

A recently published meta-analysis looked at 347,747 subjects in twenty-one studies to summarize the evidence related to the association of dietary saturated fat with risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and cardiovascular disease. During the 5 – 23 year follow-up 11,006 of the almost 350,000 subjects developed CHD or stroke.

Conclusion: Saturated fat consumption was not associated with an increased risk of heart disease or stroke
(American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jan 13, 2010)

Saturated fat found mainly in animal products has been vilified by physicians, the media, and the edible oil industry for over 60 years, despite mounds of evidence to the contrary. A meta-analysis of 21 prospective epidemiologic studies that had a total of 347,747 participants, showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke.

Saturated fats have been nourishing societies around the world for thousands of years. If animal fats (saturated fats) are so dangerous, and vegetable oils (polyunsaturated fat) are so healthy, why are we so unhealthy as a nation? The scientific data of the past and present does not support the assertion that saturated fats cause heart disease. As a matter of fact, people who have had a heart attack haven?t eaten any more saturated fat than other people, and the degree of atherosclerosis at autopsy is unrelated to diet.Ravnskov, Uffe. ?The cholesterol Myths: Myth number 4?

Coronary heart disease is associated with diet. Nutritional recommendations are frequently provided, but few long term studies on the effect of food choices on heart disease are available. We followed coronary heart disease morbidity and mortality in a cohort of 1752 rural men participating in a prospective observational study. Dietary choices were assessed at baseline with a food questionnaire. 138 men were hospitalized or deceased owing to coronary heart disease during the 12 year follow-up. Daily intake of fruit and vegetables was associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease when combined with a high dairy fat consumption, but not when combined with a low dairy fat consumption. Consuming wholemeal bread or eating fish at least twice a week showed no association with the outcome.

Food Choices and Coronary Heart Disease: A Population Based Cohort Study of Rural Swedish Men with 12 Years of Follow-up

Today in the United States one person will die from CVD every 37 seconds. This year in the U.S. over 1.2 million people will have a heart attack and just short of half will die. Approximately 80,000,000 people or roughly 25% of The U.S. has cardiovascular disease(CVD). It became our number one killer in the 1950′s and has not slowed down.(1)

Do you believe consuming saturated fat and cholesterol cause CVD? Do you believe eating polyunsaturated oils like canola and corn oil are not only good for you but lower your risk of CVD. If you answered yes to both of these questions, you are among the 10′s of millions who need to be enlightened by reading my article “Fats, Cholesterol and the Lipd Hypothesis”.

The truth is, saturated fat and cholesterol have nothing to do with your risk of cardiovascular disease. As a matter of fact there are many studies that show that people who have heart attacks do not eat anymore saturated fat than people who don’t have heart attacks. More-over the degree of atherosclerosis at autopsy, in heart attack victims, is unrelated to diet. It is also interesting to note that half of all heart attack victims do not have “clogged” arteries.

I have personally witnessed and cared for many patients who were experiencing (the big one) massive heart attacks in the emergency room. The degree of blockage had a wide range with the most common seemingly being between 80, 90 percent. But the interesting thing was, some people literally had no plaque what-so-ever according to cath lab reports. It was during my time working in emergency department, because of so many discrepancies, that I became very curious about what actually caused CVD.

Looking for a snack to kill that between meal hunger? Try almonds. 28g, aproximatey 20 – 25 alomonds provides 5.9g of protein, 13.8g of fat, and 6.1g of carbohydrates. Don’t be alarmed by the fat content. The fat is what will suppress your appetite, and 62% of the fat found in almonds is oleic acid. In comparison, olive oil contains 71% oleic acid. This fatty acid has strong anti-inflammatory properties and is what gives olive oil it’s outstanding reputation. 7% of the fat content is palmitic acid and 2 percent is stearic acid. Both of these saturated fatty acids are the preferred energy source of the heart, which is why the fat surrounding the heart is highly saturated.

Unfortunately, up to 30% of the fat found in almonds is the polyunsaturated fat linoleic acid. This is a double unsaturated omega 6 fatty acid that has been shown to be pro-inflammatory, immuno-suppressive, and shown to cause weight gain. Thankfully, almonds have enough of the good fats to compensate for the bad polyunsaturated fats.

A good source of fiber 20 -25 almonds contain 3.4g. Also Rich in minerals, almonds contain good amounts of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and zinc. So if your feeling hungry and you need something to munch on to hold you till the next meal, give almonds a try.

Nutritionaldata.com
Westonaprice.com
Enig,Mary. Know Your Fats. Silver Spring: Bethesda Press, 2000