Janet Brill

Brill presents a solid program for lowering your total and LDL cholesterol without using medications. All but one step are dietary: eat oats, eat almonds, eat flaxseed, beans, apples, psyllium, margarine made with phytosterols, soy protein and garlic. Add exercise, and you have the program. She gives the amounts you need, and in one appendix, some recipes for using these foods. She also presents meal plans, exercise plans, and a heart disease risk calculator, and tells you what other health benefits the 10 steps can provide.

This is not a health food store book just trying to sell supplements. Each step is explained fully- what each compound in the food does, right down to the cellular level. The studies she cites are peer reviewed. In the one case where most of the studies were done by the purveyors of the item, she comes out and explains that so you can make up your own mind if you want to trust those studies. Since this is not a sell the magic supplement book, the program is very inexpensive to use. Except for the phytosterol margarine, these foods are very, very cheap to eat. If you follow this diet, you’ll save money at the grocery store on top of not having to buy expensive statin drugs that are full of side effects- or have to pay for an expensive stay in a cardiac unit.

This is a sound program to follow even if you ultimately end up on statin drugs- it can keep your dose lower, and there are many health benefits to the diet. I’d advise anyone who has high LDL cholesterol to read this book and give it a try.… (mehr)