Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Jim Fain

I remember thirty years ago reading about the benefit of lecithin. Back in those days my main interest was finding a supplement that might help clear foggy thinking. Thirty years ago, I was 23... so you can tell the problem with thinking wasn't from old age. But, I wanted to have a heap of fun on the weekend and still do research on Monday morning.

A radiopharmacist friend tossed a big, thick book at me one Monday at work. The book was on nutritional supplements and was a surprise to me, I must have thought no one noticed the sluggishness brought on by the weekend.

After the aspirins kicked in, I read from cover-to-cover. Being skeptical, I was curious about most of what was written, but only really interested in trying lecithin. Need was the driving factor.

Lecithin is found in egg yolk, liver, nuts, whole wheat, soy and corn. It is also a natural part of every cell in our body.

It is high in phosphorus and bonds with iron, iodine and calcium to give power and vigor to the brain, as well as helping digestion and absorption of fats. Lecithin is thought to break up cholesterol, boost immunity and help prevent gallstones.

The list is very long as nervous tissue health, as well as liver health, is influenced.

With lecithin you get a high amount of phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl inositol, and linoleic acid. These are very important to maintaining health.

Beyond the proven benefit for memory improvement, or slowing memory loss, the clinical proof from the PDR for Nutritional Supplements is profound for liver health. The PDR lists hepatitis A, B and C, alcohol damage and possibly reducing liver cancer as benefits, too.

I like lecithin granules, as two or three tablespoons each day is easy to do and inexpensive. The nut-like granules taste good when eaten by the spoonful, but mixing it into most any recipe would be easy. A good product should not cost more than about $11-12, for 14 oz.