Oat Bran Lowers Bad Cholesterol

About two years ago, I started adding oat bran to my daily oat meal in the morning. My blood test has consistently shown that oat bran helps lower my cholesterol levels; more precisely, it lowers only the bad cholesterol (LDL) not the good cholesterol (HDL). And, that's exactly what we want - increasing the HDL/LDL ratio.

Similar results have been found in many medical studies. So, how exactly does oat bran work to lower LDL? As you may already know, the liver use cholesterol to make bile acids, which contain cholesterol and are necessary in the digest process. Oat bran is very rich of soluble fiber and forms a gel in the digestive tract like what you see, when it is cooked in the pot. The gel binds onto bile and is eliminated along with the bowel movement. As the result, your body tries to produce more cholesterol to make up that loss by taking away cholesterol from your blood stream.

In addition, oat bran is one form of soluble fiber. As fermented in the colon, soluble fiber forms certain kid of fatty acids, which are absorbed by a vein in the abdomen and transported to the liver, where they inhibit cholesterol production.

I hope these facts give you enough incentives to start adding oat bran to you diet. To be effective, oat bran must be consumed along with a low-fat diet like the Fishtarian diet. If you plan to add oat bran to your muffins, you should consider removing ingredients, such as, york and butter from your recipe. Finally, wheat bran does not produce the same kind of result as oat bran.

Remember, we've got our new home. Visit and enjoy your stay at Fishtarian.com today.

[picture by: foodistablog]

Fishtarian.com Launched

I'm glad to announce that the new Fishtarian.com website is officially launched today. With the goal to become your trusted partner in pursuing your heart healthy diet and living, we've designed Fishtarian.com featuring both blog posts and a variety of products. Our editors will continue to bring you the latest medical information about your health as well as share with your their personal experience. We look forward to your continuous support and working more closely with you to satisfy your needs in the Fishtarian living.

Weight-Loss Diets and Lifestyle Change

There is a wide variety of weight loss diet plans on the market to choose from. Atkins, Zone, or Ornish? Low-fat, low-carb, or high-protein? "Which one is effective or the most effective?", you ask.

That used to be a hard question to answer, because of all the marketing twists and spins. A recent medical study published in New England Journal of Medicine was set to straighten this up. And, you may not be surprised by the findings, because your grandma already told you - burn off more calories than you consume.

The study included 811 overweight adults and randomly assigned them to one of four diets, each of which varied in fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Generally speaking, the group of dieters were recommended to cut 750 calories per day from their diet and exercise 90 minutes a week. After six months, the group reported an average loss of 13 pounds across the board. But, their weight climbed back up afterward and ended up only a loss of 9 pounds at two years.

In the end, the study found only 15 percent of the group achieved the goal of 10% weight loss from their starting weight. There was no winner among the four different diets. Dieters who stuck to their assigned diet plan and exercised as recommended reported better results.

So, the key to your success in weight loss is whether you can stick to your diet plan and continue to burn off more calories than you consume. Let's be candid. Practicing a diet plan for a long time or even for the rest of your life takes a personal commitment as serious as your marriage. The good advice for a successful marriage from your grandma has been the willingness to sacrifice some privileges as a single and compromise on a lifestyle that suits both parties in the marriage. That is perhaps the only sound advice to your successful diet plan - your commitment to a lifestyle change. And, that very same advice applies to people who look to manage their cholesterol levels with a heart-healthy diet like Fishtarian.

So, are you ready to make such commitment today?

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