dairy

In this part, we'll look at myths surrounding bad cholesterol, eggs, dairy products and sun-blocks.
 

Bad cholesterol is the cause of heart disease.

The TRUTH: Like fats, cholesterol may be damaged by exposure to heat, oxygen and free radicals. Both good and bad cholesterol are not immune to such exposure.

Free radicals are what's in the air and around food, that causes this oxidization; free radicals cause your freshly-cut apples to go brown (an obvious sign of oxidization). The free radicals make dairy products more "sticky" and tend to stick to the walls of arteries.  This sticky stuff is known as 'plaque'. You can see the plaque stuck in diseased hearts from post mortem-ed bodies of heart attack victims (my uncle was one, he was just 41 when he passed away and he ate a lot of meat in his heydays). 

The plaque found in diseased arteries and hearts can range from yellow to white - exactly the same colours of those found in cheese and milk (read more below!)

The oxidization of cholesterol (fats) is what contributes to the pathological buildup of plaque in the arteries. It's not whether good or bad cholesterol; it's whether the fat is oxidized.

Scene I:

Sunday morning, approximately 10:30 Arizona Time which, for the record, had also become Pacific Daylight Time earlier that same day without us having to do anything. So loss of sleep was not a factor for any party involved in this story.


Act I

 (I'm in the family room. My wife enters from the garage)

She: That damn Fry's!

(Fry's is a grocery store like Kroger's - because it's owned by Kroger's. The company apparently felt that the name, Fry's, was better suited to Arizona's climate.)

Me (alarmed - at having my computer chess game interrupted): What happened?

She: The milk was bad... I took it back and the manager gave me a hard time.

(The milk was stamped: sell by: 3/6, use by 3/8. It was - March 8th)

Me: He WHAT?!?

She: He asked me for my receipt and said there was so little left.

Me: He didn't take the milk back?

She: He did, but he was rude.

Me: What's the phone number?

She (under her breath as she looks) He made me feel like I had nerve returning it.

Me: The "use by" date used to be a week after the "sell by" date. Don't worry, I'll handle this.