Food facts by Trainer John toomer

Can a bowl of oatmeal help prevent a heart attack? How about a handful of walnuts, or even your baked potato topped with some heart-healthy margarine? A few simple tweaks to your diet — like these — may be enough to lower your cholesterol to a healthy level and help you stay off medications.

Oatmeal and oat bran

Oatmeal contains soluble fiber, which reduces your low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the “bad” cholesterol. Soluble fiber is also found in such foods as kidney beans, apples, pears, psyllium, barley and prunes.

Soluble fiber appears to reduce the absorption of cholesterol in your intestines. Ten grams or more of soluble fiber a day decreases your total and LDL cholesterol. Eating 1 1/2 cups of cooked oatmeal provides 6 grams of fiber. If you add fruit, such as bananas, you’ll add about 4 more grams of fiber. To mix it up a little, try steel-cut oatmeal or cold cereal made with oatmeal or oat bran.

Walnuts, almonds and more

Studies have shown that walnuts can significantly reduce blood cholesterol. Rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, walnuts also help keep blood vessels healthy and elastic. Almonds appear to have a similar effect, resulting in a marked improvement within just four weeks.

A cholesterol-lowering diet in which 20 percent of the calories come from walnuts may reduce LDL cholesterol by as much as 12 percent. But all nuts are high in calories, so a handful (no more than 2 ounces or 57 grams) will do. As with any food, eating too much can cause weight gain, and being overweight places you at higher risk of heart disease. To avoid gaining weight, replace foods high in saturated fat with nuts. For example, instead of using cheese, meat or croutons in your salad, add a handful of walnuts or almonds.

Fish and omega-3 fatty acids

Research has supported the cholesterol-lowering benefits of eating fatty fish because of its high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids also help the heart in other ways such as reducing blood pressure and the risk of blood clots. In people who have already had heart attacks, fish oil — or omega-3 fatty acids — significantly reduces the risk of sudden death.

Doctors recommend eating at least two servings of fish a week. The highest levels of omega-3 fatty acids are in mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon. However, to maintain the heart-healthy benefits of fish, bake or grill it. If you don’t like fish, you can also get omega-3 fatty acids from foods like ground flaxseed or canola oil.

You can take an omega-3 or fish oil supplement to get some of the beneficial effects, but you won’t get all the other nutrients in fish, like selenium. If you decide to take a supplement, just remember to watch your diet and eat lean meat or vegetables in place of fish

Olive oil

Olive oil contains a potent mix of antioxidants that can lower your “bad” (LDL) cholesterol but leave your “good” (HDL) cholesterol untouched.

The Food and Drug Administration recommends using about 2 tablespoons (23 grams) of olive oil a day to get its heart-healthy benefits. To add olive oil to your diet, you can saute vegetables in it, add it to a marinade, or mix it with vinegar as a salad dressing. You can also use olive oil as a substitute for butter when basting meat.

Some research suggests that the cholesterol-lowering effects of olive oil are even greater if you choose extra-virgin olive oil, meaning the oil is less processed and contains more heart-healthy antioxidants. But avoid “light” olive oils. This label usually means the oil is more processed and lighter in color, not fat or calories.

Foods fortified with plant sterols or stanols

Foods are now available that have been fortified with sterols or stanols — substances found in plants that help block the absorption of cholesterol.

Margarines, orange juice and yogurt drinks fortified with plant sterols can help reduce LDL cholesterol by more than 10 percent. The amount of daily plant sterols needed for results is at least 2 grams — which equals about two 8-ounce (237 milliliters) servings of plant sterol-fortified orange juice a day.

Plant sterols or stanols in fortified foods don’t appear to affect levels of triglycerides or of “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Nor do they interfere with the absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins — vitamins A, D, E and K.

The American Heart Association recommends foods fortified with plant sterols for people with levels of LDL cholesterol over 160 milligrams per deciliter (4.1 mmol/L).

Consider your diet first

Before you make other changes to your diet, think about cutting back on the types and amounts of fats you eat, which can raise your cholesterol. That way, you’ll improve your cholesterol levels and health overall.

When cutting fat from your diet, focus on saturated and trans fats. Saturated fats, like those in meat and some oils, raise your total cholesterol. Trans fats, which are sometimes used to make store-bought cookies, crackers and cakes, are particularly bad for your cholesterol levels because they raise low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the “bad” cholesterol and lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL), “good” cholesterol. You should try to limit the number of calories you eat daily to less than 10 percent from saturated fat, and eliminate as many trans fats from your diet as possible.

The Dream and the Pain! On the Road to Being The Poor Chef…

I want to let you in on what it has been like making a cooking show: The ups and downs and some ways to go about getting on TV.

This is not an easy journey but can be done with a lot of hard work and effort. You also need to have a good product and find ways to go around the road blocks and also not make bad choices.

Today is May 6th and it has been a great few months with The Poor Chef.  We have seen a lot of success with the segment on NBC and our seasoning line that is now on shelves, our new cookbook deal and The Poor Chef magazine in the works, with all the national attention and press we have gotten, it would be a piece of cake, LOL!

We currently write for Soul Food Magazine as well as do a weekly radio segment, www.blogtalkradio.com. I wanted to write this so people looking to get into the business has a chance to understand the process, as well as see the ups and downs. We pride ourselves on being very creative and thought many people get to see a show complete and being aired on their favorite network, the glitz and the glamour but done see much of the hard work or rejection that comes with the journey.

We started with a simple idea that came from my son, I wanted to be able to feed him on limited funds (and I’m not saying I’m broke) LOL, what I mean is that being a single father is tough and feeding someone healthy is also a task, so I figured a great way to learn and show how to do such a thing could come from seeing real people do it. Long story short: I took some money and shot a decent pilot, we made due with what I had, and I realized very fast that we had a great concept.

I had just moved to Florida from California and this small town was no Sunset Blvd or Hollywood studio. I made a few calls and set up meetings with some networks out here. The first network was ABC. I met with the general manager and he told me that they did not want to do anymore cooking shows but thought after meeting me and seeing what we were doing that he would love to get me on possibly once a week. After about a week he had me on the news section of the show and it went great!  We were trying to figure out what we would do and in the mean time I did a few other shows like CBS, and also NBC’s Daytime. I knew we needed to get on TV, to one day get on TV, so we spoke to NBC about doing a once-a-week segment and they said yes. We knew we had something very special on our hands.

We were able to do a weekly show on Daytime in Tampa that was syndicated in six markets; it was great working with so many people of all races and making fun dishes. We quickly became a name in our local area. I had some great people working but also got to see a lot about people as well.  I’m not saying I’m perfect in any way but the dream I have is to help the ones around me do well, and I have been the horse to ride off into the sunset what needs to be done, a lot of people don’t see that and a lot of people have their own selfish gains.

The ride like any ride is bumpy at times but the joys and where we area at now is what makes you smile at the end of a long day. I wanted to share this and many other stories as well as what keeps me going and brings me joy, it’s not all about a show. I, being the nephew of Bob Marley, have allowed me to want to express my voice in many ways and i have some causes I want to bring to the light. Not just a TV show The Poor Chef is a way of life and a movement to educate on wellness and on health.

“EAT CHEAP BUT EAT WELL“