The safest, most effective therapies for optimal health!

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by Ellen Landauer

What Are Plant Sterols?

 What are plant sterols? Also known as phytosterols, they are the the plant version of cholesterol. They are found in varying amounts in fruits, nuts, vegetables, seeds and grains.

Dr. Nadir Ali, cardiologist with over 25 years in practice asserts that in the last 3 years, instead of increasing, our expected lifespan has been decreasing. He says part of the reason for this is a vast increase in consumption of plant foods. Are phytosterols part of the problem?

We have been regaled with the propaganda that cholesterol from animal sources is bad, and phytosterols are good. When we ask 'what are plant sterols,' the vast majority of sources say that they are beneficial compounds that compete with, and displace, 'bad' cholesterol from animal fats.

We have been lied to, big time.

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What Are Plant Sterols?
Are They Good for Us?

What are plant sterols? Why would they not be good for us?

Cholesterol from animal sources is healthy. The cell membranes constructed using animal fat source of cholesterol are strong AND supple. That means eating healthy animal fats keeps our circulation younger and keeps us younger and more flexible! 

This is the exact opposite of the propaganda we (including myself) were programmed to believe! 

When cell membranes are made from phytosterols from plant-based diet, rather than animal-sourced cholesterol, the cell membranes are rigid, stiff and not as strong. Eating lots of plant foods - a diet abundant in phytosterols - makes every part of us less supple, less flexible! Eventually we can't move as well. 

Especially in the case of red blood cells (which need flexibility to bend when they go through tiny capillaries) this is very bad. Rigid red blood cells can't go through capillaries because they are too stiff to do so. This starves the body tissues fed by those capillaries. Skin, organs - all tissues in the body rely on capillary circulation to get nutrients and eliminate toxins. We age faster the longer we stay on a vegetarian or especially a vegan diet.

It has also been found that plant sterols are the 'cholesterol' clogging up the cardiovascular system! (See research below).

**NOTE: During the 'honeymoon phase' of a mostly or totally vegan diet, typically people feel great.

Why?

Because they are consuming little or NO animal protein and fat - they are cannibalizing their own flesh! Therefore, until that phase is over, one cannot claim to be vegan or vegetarian!

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Research

'Healthy' Sterols May Pose Health Risk

Date: July 16, 2008

Source: American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Summary:

Plant sterols have been touted as an effective way to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. However, a research study has uncovered that these compounds do have their own risks, as they can accumulate in heart valves and lead to stenosis.

Journal Reference:

1 Satu Helske, Tatu Miettinen, Helena Gylling, Mikko Mäyränpää, Jyri Lommi, Heikki Turto, Kalervo Werkkala, Markku Kupari and Petri T. Kovanen. Accumulation of cholesterol precursors and plant sterols in human stenoticaortic valves. Journal of Lipid Research, (in press) [link]

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What are Plant Sterols?
Health-Destroying Imposters!

PHOTO ABOVE: So-called 'healthy' foods I no longer eat!

Cholesterol is only one of a whole family of sterols. Cholesterol is found only in animals; the other sterols are found in plants.

It is the plant sterols that are used to make so-called cholesterol-lowering margarines, spreads, yogurts and other products. However eating these cholesterol-lowering products might not be such a good idea.

Dr J Plat and colleagues at Maastricht University's Department of Human Biology in the Netherlands, say that these plant sterols may actually be more important as a cause of heart disease than cholesterol.

Because plant sterols are structurally related to cholesterol, Plat and colleagues examined whether oxidized plant sterols (oxyphytosterols) could be identified in human blood and soy-based fat emulsions. They could: Approximately 1.4% of the plant sterol, Sitosterol, in blood was oxidised. This may not seem very much, but it is 140 times as much as the 0.01% oxidatively modified cholesterol normally seen in human blood. The same was also found in two soy emulsions.[1]

**AMAZING! THEY DON'T TELL YOU THIS!**
If any sterols are to blame for atherosclerosis, plant sterols are much more likely candidates than cholesterol because the popular idea that animal products, specifically protein, cholesterol, and saturated fatty acids, somehow factor in causing atherosclerosis, stroke, and/or heart disease is not supported by any available data, including the field of lipid biochemistry.[2-5]

On this point, it is interesting to note that Dr Ancel Keys, whose 1953 hypothesis began the fatty-diet-causes-heart-disease dogma did not recommend cutting down on animal fats. He recommended cutting vegetable oils.

References

1. Plat J, et al. Oxidized plant sterols in human serum and lipid infusions as measured by combined gas-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. J Lipid Res 2001; 42: 2030-2038.

2. Ravnskov U. The Cholesterol Myths. New Trends Publishing Inc, Washington DC, 2000. p 109.

3. Enig M. Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer on Fats and Cholesterol. Bethesda Press; Maryland, 2000, 76-81.

4. Smith R, Pinckney E. Diet, Blood Cholesterol, and Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Review of the Literature. Vector Enterprises, California, 1991

5. George V. Mann, ed. Coronary Heart Disease: The Dietary Sense and Nonsense. Veritas Society, London, 1993.

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Ellen Landauer is an expert with over 40 years in-depth study and experience of the safe and effective use of nutritional supplements, botanical extracts and detoxification methods.

She is Certified as an Advanced Practitioner of Structural Integration body therapy developed by Dr. Ida P. Rolf - also known as Rolfing. This hands-on therapy is the deepest, most comprehensive body alignment therapy. 

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Ellen Landauer is also a  PUBLISHED AUTHOR!

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To learn more about Ellen Landauer, see her detailed bio HERE

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