People absolutely hate going to the supermarket with me. I have often crushed many dreams in the bakery section and have nearly brought people to tears in the packaged foods department.

I often go by myself (It’s just too upsetting watching adults cry). Off I went to the local Wal*Mart to pick up some paper goods. The usual: paper towels, tissues, toilet paper and all the while minding my own business. Until my super nosy busy body alter ego began to eavesdrop on a conversation between two women.

The younger woman was apparently the daughter of the older woman.

“Yes, we can get Daddy the foods the doctor recommended. He said he has to eat low-fat to lose the weight. Mom, if we don’t really help him this time he could have another heart attack.”

Oh boy. Did I really want to help. Instead of stepping right in with my magic cape, I proceeded to follow the 2 women (I swear, I’m going to get arrested one day).

“Let’s get him these granola bars for snacking. It says right here they’re heart healthy. He can’t have meat anymore so we can pick up some of these frozen dinners that are low in fat.”

What was I to do? On the one hand, I shouldn’t be following people around Wal*Mart, but on the other hand how could I stand back and watch this?

These days it’s difficult not to meet someone who is either suffering from heart disease, has had a heart attack or has been told they are at risk for heart disease. It’s just about as common as meeting someone with brown hair. Unfortunately, the media and even many well-meaning doctors are completely misinformed on how to tackle this growing epidemic. It’s the number one killer in the US and plaguing many other countries as well.

What are we to do?

The best plan of attack is to combat the risk factors the best we can.

Use the following 5 tips to get you started on a heart healthy plan:

1. Drop the smokes. Yes, smoking has been shown to be one of the biggest risk factors in heart disease, mainly because of all the toxic chemicals added to cigarettes (not that I’m recommending tobacco or anything.)

2. Walk, walk, walk. If finding time for a structured exercise program is just too much of a challenge right now, just start by walking. I have known many people who have strengthened their heart and reversed severe conditions by getting outside and walking. If you can, find a scenic route. There’s nothing more calming than the outdoors. (I highly recommend whistling and singing while you walk. It makes for happy thoughts.)

3. Calm down. By this I mean, don’t stress about the stuff you don’t have to. This is actually a very funny statement coming from me who used to stress about everything! Deadlines, laundry, work, family… you name it, I stressed about. Not until I realized that this would kill me no matter how healthy my food was did I drop the stress and pick up the laughter. Right now as I write this newsletter, I’ve got more things that need to get done today than are humanly possible. My reaction “Haha..better put my Superwoman shirt on”

4. Do not and I repeat, do not go on a low-fat diet. Your heart condition may get worse in your attempts. Drop the bad fats (like hydrogenated oil and the nasty oil in French fries and donuts) and start eating more healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, salmon, walnuts and whole organic eggs.

5. Do not be afraid to eat saturated fat. If read “The Truth About Saturated Fat” in The Diet Solution Program you know that eating saturated fats is not what is causing people to get heart disease. It is processed foods, sugars and an overabundance of refined carbohydrates that is making this country so sick. The whole saturated fats topic gets me so fired up, I even made a video to further inform you – check it out here:

What did I say to the 2 women at WalMart?

“Excuse me Ma’am. I don’t mean to be nosy, but I write a Blog that may really be helpful to you and for you, its completely free.” Gave her the web address and bolted out of there. All that and I totally forgot to get my stuff!

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com

  

I’m not much for politics. I think if anyone should be president, it should be me. “Organic food all around!” Woohoo. (maybe someday).

There has been so much talk here in the US about how our new president is so healthy and what a wonderful example he is to our country, I decided to feature him in one of my articles. He even made it on the cover of Men’s Health magazine (That’s healthy, no?)

My good idea came to a screeching halt as I was doing a little bit of internet research. Seems like some other health professionals made him out to be the “healthiest president this country has seen in a long time” (did I mention I should be president?) and got completely smashed by their readers.

Why? I wondered the same thing until I read that our dear Prez is a smoker or maybe an ex-smoker or people don’t even know what his smoking status currently is.

You can’t imagine the angry comments I came across in some of these articles:

“I can’t believe you would even promote a man who smokes as healthy. What a horrible example to our country”.

“Just because he exercises and eats good foods doesn’t make him healthy, especially if he is a chain smoker”.

The angry comments just went on and on.

One reader attempted to come to the President’s defense by saying that the article was about exercising and healthy eating and our President definitely has things right in that department. (and wrong in others?)

As I sat there reading, I couldn’t help but think “When is bad, unhealthy eating going to receive the same negative stigma as smoking cigarettes?” Ok, I know what you’re thinking. “Isabel, you just can’t compare the two. Smoking cigarettes is just horrible and kills thousands of people each year.”

Consider these interesting facts…

In 2003, Heart Disease was the number 1 cause of death in the United States (28%), with Cancer second (22%).

In 2004, Heart Disease was still number 1 (27%) and Cancer number 2 (23%)

In 2005 the numbers stayed exactly the same. Again, Heart Disease numero uno and Cancer numero dos.

Based on these numbers, why aren’t we getting irate about people eating drive-thru fast food meals as much as we are about people smoking in public? Should we be giving our children the real facts, just like we do about cigarettes? I’m not here to scare the daylights out of anyone, I’m just looking at the facts and wondering where our health efforts really need to be focused.

By no means is this an excuse to drop the burger and start buying packs of Marlboros. Smoking is a nasty habit, for more reasons than I need to list here. However, maybe our society really needs to consider where all our diseases are really coming from and stop putting the WHOLE blame on the Marlboro man.

Ponder on these thoughts for today and stay tuned for Thursday’s newsletter where I’ll give you the real way to combat this countries number one killer.

Oh, and Isabel for President? What do you think?

  

I have been known to be quite the chef. (Actually, more of a mad scientist). When you make healthy and natural eating a way of life like I have, it really is important to keep all of your meals new and interesting.

This particular recipe created quite a stir at my house. A friend of a friend who was here over the holidays made this comment while I was cooking “Isabel, we’re going to die of heart attacks with all that butter.” (Uhh, no dinner for you my friend).

Unfortunately, this is a very common misconception. People still think that butter and saturated fats are the reason heart disease is one of the top killers in this country (and now in many other countries as well). The truth is that it’s not the natural fats that are causing this epidemic, its the sugar, processed and packaged foods and overconsumption of refined oils that are causing so much disease (and you can add Diabetes, High Cholesterol and High Blood Pressure to this list as well).

I go into this topic in much greater detail in the Fats Chapter of the Diet Solution Program but here are a few nuggets of info to ponder:

1. Did you know that during the 60 year period from 1910-1970, the proportion of traditional animal fat in the American diet declined from 83% to 62%?

2. During this same time butter consumption plummeted from 18 pounds per person each year to 4 pounds per person each year.

3. During the past 80 years, the consumption of dietary cholesterol intake has increased only one percent.

So where is the problem? Why all the heart disease?

1. During the same period, the average intake of dietary vegetable oils (margarine, shortening, and refined oils) increased by about 400%.

2. During the same period, the consumption of sugar and processed foods increased by about 60%

Those are the facts, but there’s never better proof than the results I see with my clients and my readers. When people finally stop eating margarine, refined oils, “fake” butters, sugar and processed foods, their health sky rockets! (and by sky rockets I mean, gets better, greatly improves, elevates to whole new levels). Not to mention all the body fat they lose off their body (now isn’t that just an awful side effect?)

It’s important to mention that the butter I use is organic and grass fed. It has this beautiful deep yellow color and is not white like most conventional butters. It has gone through minimal processing and has no added growth hormones and antibiotics. I get all my butter from www.grasslandmeats.com

Now that I told you butter is ok to eat (A glorious day isn’t it?) here is my yummy chicken recipe:

(Please remember that the mad scientist in me sometimes forgets to document the exact amounts so you may need to play around with this a bit.)

Chicken with “I’m not afraid of butter” dressing

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts (approximately 1 lb of chicken)
6 Tbsp of melted butter
lemon juice from 1/2 large lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

Directions:

Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a large pan. Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cook chicken breasts in butter covered on very low heat. Do not let the butter get brown. Pour lemon juice in a seperate bowl. Slowly stir in the remaining melted butter as you stir mixture. Then slowly add the olive oil as you stir mixture. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Once the chicken is cooked through, served on a plate and pour the “dressing mixture” over your cooked chicken breasts.

Don’t be surprised if you are tempted to pour this dressing on your veggies and just about every other food item you can think of. It’s delicious!

Happy Butter Day!

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com