Your doctor tells you your cholesterol is high. You're confused. What does that even mean?

Is cholesterol bad? Is it good? Should you avoid it in food? Do you need medication?

The answers might surprise you.

Cholesterol isn't the villain you've been told it is. It's actually essential for life.

Here's what you need to know.

What Is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance found in every cell of your body.

It's not a fat (lipid), but it travels through your bloodstream attached to prote...

Local Yocal is a fantastic butcher shop in McKinney Texas.  They have a great philosophy.  If you live in the Dallas area, you have to make a trip up to McKinney for a Steak 101 class. 

One of the cool things about any specialty butcher shop they can and serve some of the unique cuts of meat that you don’t normally get from your local supermarket. 

At Local Yocal you can pick up unusual cuts like the spinalis or the McKinney (Las Vegas) steak along with your usual favorite cuts. The spinalis muscle is the “cap” to the rib eye, and if you haven’t had it, you are missing out. 

This can also be called a Coulotte in France, but that isn’t correct. They are the same but from a different section of the cow.  In my opinion, the spinalis is more marbled and more tender than its calotte sister.

You probably don’t realize it, but you have had this cut, but it was part of the rib eye.  When you are looking at your typical ribeye, this is the part of the steak that is outside of the fat vein t...

I often get asked if prescribed drugs can cause nutritional deficiencies, and the simple answer is yes.  It is widely known that drugs force physiology to do something that it is either incapable of doing or can't do for some other reason. 

This bullying of physiology is going to tax and strain other parts of your physiology which will imbalance your available nutrients.  Think of it like a robbing Peter to pay Paul balancing act. While it is sometimes necessary to take drugs to either save your life or balance things out in the short term, there is always some price to pay.

Now I am NOT telling you that you need to stop taking medication.  You need to consult the physician that prescribed the medication and be sure you do before starting a supplement regimen of these vitamins and minerals. 

However, I felt it was necessary to let you know the potential deficiencies these drug classes may cause along with the foods that may help increase those nutrients. 

This was one of those meals at the end of the shopping week that I just hunted and gathered what we had in the refrigeration and freezer to come up with this one. 

I had some organic grass-fed ground beef in the fridge.  A patient made me some bone marrow broth, which was fantastic.  I also had some zucchini left from a meal earlier in the week, and I had a tube of tomato paste. 

Plus I always seem to have a ton of herbs and spices in the cupboard. So I picked up some garlic and onion powder and basil.  I have to say making this one pan bone marrow broth saute was fast and easy. 

It was so good that Lilly and TJ attacked Erin when she sat down with her bowl.  The best thing to me about this bone marrow saute is that the broth and zucchini are so healthy for you, this is as close to a super bowl of food as you can get. 

The broth will help heal your leaky gut, and the zucchini will help heal the adrenal glands.

Ingredients:

• 4 slices of bacon, humanly raised
• 2 pounds of Ground b
...

This is one of those very hard, very personal topics that always brings out the passion in people, no matter what side you stand on.   The choice to vaccinate your child could be one of the most agonizing decisions you have to make in the first few years of your child’s life. 

If you choose to not vaccinate, you have to wonder if you're risking their lives to all the horrible diseases that those vaccinations might protect you from.  If you do vaccinate, your question then becomes what are the real potential consequences for injection your child with potentially damaging chemicals?

Honestly, for me it was an easy decision to not vaccinate.  One of the main reasons that we will talk about today is that vaccines do not create immunity. Immunity is defined as:

1. The state of being immune from or insusceptible to a particular disease.
2. The condition that permits either natural or acquired resistance to a disease.

Not to get to in depth here in the function of your immune system, but ...

 British food is often knocked as being bland.  I actually really like it especially when we are talking about things like bangers, black pudding, rashers and these Scotch Eggs.  They make a great breakfast or snack that can be made days in advance.  You can really do your favorite sausage with this but pork breakfast sausages are traditional and are a bit easier to mold onto the eggs.  If you don’t have enough sausage on the egg it will pull off the egg, so make sure that you have enough sausage.

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1.5 pounds loose sausage
• Oil

Directions:

1. Hard-boil the eggs, place in a pot and cover with water.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling rapidly, turn the heat off and cover the pot with a lid for 10 minutes. 
3. Then transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. When cooled, peel the eggs.
4. Divide the sausage meat into 6 equal portions.
5. Use your hands to form each portion of meat into a flat pancake a few inches wide.
6. Wrap
...

There are so many things that stress and worry new parents. The feeding of their baby is one of the most common concerns that I get asked.  Specifically, what and when to start feeding baby solids?  Not to add more pressure to the new parent but this really is one of the more important decisions you can make for your child’s health and for your sanity over the next few years. 

The right food choices at this time can lead to a healthy gut microbiome and balanced blood sugar that will help curb the ups and downs of the toddler temper tantrums. The problem is that this really is one of those topics that you can get lost in because there are so many theories about what is right and why. When to start?

This one is pretty simple.  You should start at about 4 months but all children are a bit different.  The exact time is determined by the size and maturity of the child.  A physical sign they are ready to start eating/supplementing solid foods away from breast milk is when they stop pushing...

I was on a mission last Saturday to buy a vegetable that I had either never used or that cooking it had intimidated me in the past.  I had never used bok choy before just because I didn’t know what to do with it.  So I thought bok choy or Chinese cabbage would expand my culinary horizons.   I decided to go with a garlic ginger bok choy stir fry or more accurately sauté.  I didn't know what it would taste like so I thought it would be best to hedge my bets and go with something that I knew I would like, the “Asian beef.”  This meal turned out great!  I recommend letting the beef marinade all day or better yet do it the night before you plan on cooking it.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds Tri-tip steak
• ½ cup coconut aminos
• 3 tablespoons garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons ginger, diced
• ½ cup toasted sesame seed oil
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 4 teaspoons 5 spice powder
• 4 bunches bok choy
• ¼ cup coconut aminos
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons ginger, fresh di
...

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “I am thinking about doing a vegetarian diet.  What do you think?”  I usually just shake my head and ask them why they are going to cut out the best source of essential fats, high-density nutrients, and complete proteins?

Honestly, I can see why some people would want to avoid animal proteins.  Whether it be for environmental or ethical reasons, the animal feeding operations can be pretty grotesque.    You can look at beef feedlots, chicken farms, and fish farms, and you'll find food operations that do horrible things to the environment and the foods that we eventually consume. 

However, I would propose that it would be a much better ethical and moral statement to vote with your wallet and purchase the healthier alternatives of pastured meats and sustainably caught fish. There are still vegetarian proponents who argue that even these sustainable pasture-based farms are doing irreparable damage to the environment.  I will point those pe...

My love affair with coconut amino’s continues!  They haven’t let me down yet.  This is honestly on of the best sauces that I have ever made or ever eaten.  Last week I went to a Seafood 101 cooking class at Central Market.  This is a paleo-fried recipe that they made with tuna.  The Ginger Shiitake Mahi Mahi is such a great meal.  It was quick, easy, and honestly one of the tastiest I have ever made. I have never cooked with shiitake mushrooms before, but I have to say that I am going to start looking for more recipes with them.  They have a tremendous health benefit with significant amounts of B vitamins and a decent source of calcium.  Plus they're great for the immune system,  and they had a great flavor, especially with the aminos.  Hopefully, you enjoy this as much as we did.  Just a fair warning there may not be any leftovers at the end of the meal.

• 36 ounces of Mahi Mahi filet
• 2 tablespoons of toasted sesame seed oil
• 4 tablespoons of ghee
• 1/3 cup of sliced green onions
...