Better cholesterol testing and why food industry has us hooked

One of the things that light me up as a Coach is when I get to pass along amazing resources to those seeking to both improve their health, but understand the core drivers to optimizing health.

I want to share two resources with you today.

Here's the first resource: In a recent coaching session, I had a client who was pretty freaked out about her cholesterol level.  She admitted that the 2020 Pandemic year resulted in her eating differently and not working out like she used to.  She'd gained some weight, but also thought that might be in part due to menopause.  Yet, it was the cholesterol number that stopped her in her tracks!  The doctor said it was too high and recommended a prescription, which she turned down preferring to explore lifestyle changes and holistic methods.

This conversation led me to recall a recent podcast on The Doctor's Farmacy, Dr. Mark Hyman's podcast, where he interviewed Dr. Elizabeth Boham.  You can watch it here on YouTube or listen to it on your podcast app.  In this episode, they really speak to the most accurate forms of cholesterol testing available today and how particle size of your cholesterol plays a vital role in whether an elevated cholesterol level is harmful. 

If you want to better educate yourself on this topic, have cholesterol concerns or know someone taking statins, you'll want to watch/listen to this.

The second resource I want to share with you today is a new book by Michael Moss entitled Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions.  In it, it explores things like why are there so many different flavors of potato chips? 

Experiments show that "the faster something reaches the brain, the greater the brain's response," Moss writes. Foods that contain both sugar and fat produce a double hit to the brain and thus a double arousal, and food companies know this.

Moss' research around processed food reveals a startling truth, that it is "inexpensive, it's legal, it's everywhere. And the advertising from the companies is cueing us to remember those products and we want those products constantly. So the food environment ... is one of those key things that makes food even more problematic for so many people."

Big Food has found the right combination to keeping people snacking and craving more and more processed foods.  They're not just mastering their marketing, their chemists are targeting our brains.

So if you're looking to light up your brain in a non-food healthy way, pick up the book "Hooked" and then leave comment with what your biggest takeaway or aha moment was from it.