Smart Balance??

[JerseyGyrl]

The love of my life was diagnosed with high cholesterol the end of December. We are trying to get it down with diet, exercise & supplements. I'd like opinions on Smart Balance. Does it really help lower cholesterol?

[Sherri]

Hi Catherine!

I'm not familiar with Smart Balance. I am more familiar with a natural supplement Red Yeast Rice and Co-Q 10. When taken together they are quite effective to bringing the LDL down and the HDL up. It's not a good idea to take a prescribed statin with the Red Yeast Rice for it has the same active ingrediant as mevacore. It's always a good idea to take Co-Q 10 when taking any statin. Although our bodies produce Co-Q 10 natuarally, Statins will deplete our systems of it. So its necessary to supplement ourself with the Co-Q 10. I treat my cholesterol with Red Yeast Rice because I had a bad reaction to lipitor and decided to treat it on naturals, exercise and diet. I've been quite successful.

[sallyseachange]

Can't say I know anything about Smart Balance (we don't get it where I live). Lots of people have success with flush free niacin, I believe. Exercise is great and if by "diet" you mean Atkins, you're spot on.

[kate58]

Smart Balance is a spread that does not include transfats, which is good, but it is a reduced fat product and the diet that goes along with it and is published on the site, plus the other smart balance products which are recommended during the diet, are high carb low fat products. They definitely would NOT be Atkins friendly for the most part.

For example one third of a bag of their movie style microwave popcorn has 13g net carbs - but if you opt for the 'Smart and Healthy' option instead you can up that to 19g. And who eats one third of a bag of popcorn???

I'd do a bit of reading before you get into the diet part of dealing with high cholestorol. Quite a bit. Start by reading the Atkins book, then move on to Gary Taubes book Good Calories, Bad Calories.

If you look around these forums a bit you will find literally dozens of stories of people who have transformed their cholesterol and blood lipid profiles on Atkins - avoiding low-fat products and eating what conventional wisdom would insist is a very unhealthy level of fat.

Reading the books above plus a lot of other material in addition to personal experience has made it clear to me that low-carb, not low-fat is definitely the way to do for a healthy heart.

And that is without getting into the whold controversy about how strong the link between cholesterol and heart disease actually is.

It's a massive area. How you choose to go diet wise is really somthing you will have to decide for yourself, but you can only make that decision from a position of knowledge.

[JerseyGyrl]

He began taking a supplement right after he was diagnosed that contains Beta-Sitosterol, Guggul, Red Rice Extract, Beta Glucan and Soy Isoflavones.

Sherri, Smart Balance is a "buttery" spread that claims to have a patented blend of vegetable oils to help improve cholesterol ratio. They have several variety's, including one with flax.

Sally, I agree Atkins would be the way to go. I am encouraging that

[Sherri]

Hey Catherine, Mufas (momounsaturated fats) are really good for your cholesterol. Check this out and read up on them and how by eating them, and incorporating them into each meal, you can lose weight all over. By eating them it also targets the difficult belly fat. The good thing is they're Atkins friendly!

Check it out at www.flatbellydiet.com click on where it says" Eat delicious foods and never feel hungry" It will tell you about MUFAS. It's something I found out personally when I incororated them into my daily meals. My tummy is the biggest part on me and always the last to go. It really does work on my lipds too!

[JerseyGyrl]

Thanks for your help & advice...but...I have a question, who is Catherine