I’ve been an avid proponent of preventative medicine and wellness for as long as I can remember. So when I discovered that I have a hereditary predisposition to high cholesterol, I became determined to use natural medicine to help me.

My search led me to the breathtaking shores of Calabria Italy, where a sour citrus fruit known as Bergamot (the flavor in earl grey tea) grows.

Discover Calabria, Italy and the luscious Bergamot with me in this video:Earl Grey Tea and Cholesterol

What is Bergamot?  Citrus Bergamot is a deliciously aromatic fruit, resembling a cross between an orange and a pear in an equally beautiful region of the world. Learning of its traditional use to treat high cholesterol, I had to understand more.

The team of scientists I met with explained to me this antioxidant-rich fruit contains polyphenols that help support against oxidative stress and inflammation in the body, balance blood sugar, and support healthy cholesterol levels. Two very special constituents, in particular, melitidin and brutieridin, discourage the production of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, while helping your body make HDL (“good”) cholesterol.

Bergamot is highly anti-inflammatory, and it is thought that anti-inflammatories have a powerful influence on the quality of the particle size of LDL cholesterol. Scientists and cardiologists understand that the size of your cholesterol particles may have more to do with heart disease than the quantity of them. Yet, another case where quality triumphs over everything else! You want to have more of the fluffy kind and less of the dense cholesterol particles.

So when you live and eat in a way that positively increases your “fluffy” particles and lowers the amount of “dense” cholesterol particles, you are decreasing your risk for heart disease. Including the antioxidant-rich Bergamot in your daily diet is a strong way to help make this shift.

This is how you can enjoy the Citrus Bergamot plant too: 

• A simple way to enjoy bergamot is the classic pairing of earl grey tea. Take a little extra time when shopping to verify the tea is made with real bergamot extract as opposed to synthetic fragrances, which have zero therapeutic effect. 
• Purchase the oil extract or bergamot essential oil to flavor salad dressings, sauces or desserts, (much like you would vanilla or almond extract). 
• Consider taking a supplement that supplies 500mg of Bergamot, the equivalent of what you would get by eating one fruit. This is the way to reap the most medicinal benefit from bergamot.  

Naomi