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Cholesterol Told to Cut Eggs and Eat Margarine, Should I Take Lecithin?
Typed manuscript prepared for Ojai Valley News.
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Dear Dr. Meinig: Recently I was told my cholesterol is high and I should cut down on eggs and eat margarine. I eat about 4 eggs a week, besides cooking with them. We have been using “modified butter”–a combination of creamery and mixed oils. Do you agree with the change in my diet? Or could I continue as is and take lecithin? Please, I need help. Thank you. We follow your column with interest. – No signature.
Dear N. S.: Our wacky world today accepts all sorts of artificial manufactured products as good food to put into our stomachs and rejects time honored eggs and butter and other natural foods. Cereals high pressure heated, shot from guns and heavily sugared are advertised as better than the grains they are derived from in spite of the two thirds loss of vitamins and minerals suffered during the processing. Those of us who question the use of the Food and Drug Administration’s 700 approved chemical preservatives, stabilizers, emulsifiers, dyes, bleaching agents, and the additional 3,000 allowed as “probably” safe are called nutritional nuts or quacks.
I happen to think the high processing of vegetable fat to make margarine which removes most of its food value, including the majority of its vitamin E, adds hydrogen to solidify and sterilize and coloring to make it look like butter is an abomination and insult to our intelligence.
A good many reputable authorities are now advising that the type of diet prescribed for you doesn’t effectively combat the heart attack syndrome. This is because it is not the foods containing cholesterol that are the major trouble makers but the junk refined foods that cause our body tissues to manufacture excess amounts that are the real culprits.
Lecithin is thought to lower cholesterol levels but its high phosphorus content makes it necessary to use with some discretion and caution. For those needing more phosphorus in their diets it is most helpful but for those already high in this element osteoporosis (softening of bones) is an unfortunate side effect.
On March 14th I covered more of the points of interest on this subject in answering a question about children with high cholesterol. If you will send a long self addressed, stamped envelope, a copy will be mailed to you.