Quotes from Jonny Bowden

Dates are not a low-calorie food, nor are they a low-sugar food. A single large pitted date has a whopping 66 calories, not bad if you eat just one, which, unfortunately, almost nobody does. But that same single date has calcium and magnesium in an almost perfect 1:1 ratio

Cranberry Juice

Goji Berries Really Cure Cancer? The problem with these exotic berries and the juices made from them (Goji, noni, acai) isn't that they're not incredibly healthy foods—they are. Foods that have been used in medical and healing traditions

Grapefruit Diet May Be Credible After All Now it turns out we may have spoken too soon. In spring 2006, a study from the division of endocrinology of the department

Potential weight loss, cholesterol lowering, and anticancer benefits aside—and those are pretty big benefits to put aside—grapefruit is a good low-calorie source of potassium and vitamin C. It even has a drop of calcium and magnesium, 20 mg of phytosterols, and a gram or two of fiber. The red and pink varieties also have vitamin A, beta-carotene, and the aforementioned cancer-fighting

Grapes are one of my favorite desserts, but my secret is this: I freeze them. Don't knock it till you try it. They taste like little balls of sherbet, and they're the perfect munchy

Guavas are fragrant, delicious tropical fruits that many Americans know only because they're frequently used in jellies. But these red-fleshed (and sometimes white-fleshed) fruits pack an amazing nutritional wallop. New

Honeydew melon may not be as loaded with vitamins and minerals as cantaloupe, but it's still a high-volume food that's both nutritious

Singh Khalsa, M.D., the internationally acclaimed expert in integrative medicine and author of Food as Medicine, the kiwifruit is one of the most underrated healing foods. "Because of their rich array of disease-fighting antioxidants and phytonutrients, they are often

When life gives you a lemon . . . squeeze it, mix with 6 ounces of water, and drink twice daily." That folk wisdom

Mangoes have a lot of potassium, vitamin A, and beta-carotene, plus they have some vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium, as well as a smattering of other nutrients. They're believed to be a rich source of enzymes, making them ideal to use as a tenderizing agent and perfect for marinades. And one mango contains more than 3½ g of fiber. Choosing the Best Mango Picking

And more and more studies and reports were coming out demonstrating that the real initiators of damage in the arteries were oxidation and inflammation, with cholesterol more or less in the role of innocent bystander. Oxidation and inflammation, along with sugar and stress (more on that in chapters 4 and 8), were clearly what aged the human body the most.

Low-fat had become the new mantra of the times, something we like to call the "Snackwell Phenomenon." Food companies rushed to create low-fat versions of every food imaginable, all marketed as "heart-healthy," with no cholesterol. (No one seemed to notice that manufacturers replaced the missing fat with tons of sugar and processed carbs, both of which are far more dangerous to our hearts than fat ever was.)

when you block that pathway at its virtual starting gate (as statin drugs do), you not only reduce the body's ability to make cholesterol but you also interfere with its ability to make CoQ10

cholesterol in the body is never a problem until it becomes oxidized. It's only this oxidized cholesterol—specifically, pattern B LDL cholesterol—that is a problem, because pattern B LDL molecules are the ones that adhere to the cell walls and initiate or accelerate the process of inflammation

LDL particle size test is the first test we recommend.

Some are small, dense, "angry," and much more likely to become oxidized, slipping through the cells that line the walls of the arteries (the endothelium) and beginning the inflammatory cascade that leads to heart disease.

If you have a pattern A cholesterol profile, most of your LDL cholesterol is the big, fluffy kind, which is great; but if you have a pattern B profile, most of your LDL cholesterol is composed of the small, dense, atherogenic particles that cause inflammation and ultimately plaque.

Taking a statin drug, or any other medication, based solely on the standard cholesterol test is a really bad idea. Ask your doctor for one of the newer particle tests.

CRP is a marker for inflammation that is directly associated with overall heart and cardiovascular health. In multiple studies, CRP has been identified as a potent predictor of future cardiovascular health

Dr. Sinatra's recommendation for an optimal CRP level is less than 0.8 mg/dL.)

Worth noting: Statin drugs can sometimes raise Lp(a) levels! This is mentioned on the warning labels of statin drug ads in the Canadian edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, but such labeling is not required by the Food and Drug Administration, so you won't see it in ads published in the United States.7

There's a direct correlation between high homocysteine levels and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

high-glycemic carbs can affect the progression of heart disease." During the consumption of foods high in sugar, there appears to be a temporary and sudden dysfunction in the endothelial walls of the arteries