High Cholesterol

FoxHouse

Hello all,

I received bloodwork which suggests I have high cholesterol however I wasn't fasting in advance of test so there is potential the results are slightly skewed.

I was looking for advice on what people have done/eaten to reduce their cholesterol! Due to allergies I cannot eat fish/shellfish as this was one thing the nurse suggested so all other suggestions/advice welcome!

Thanks

silverharp

in isolation i wouldnt worry about it too much, if you want markers for heart health it would be, dont be overweight, dont go down the road of pre diabetes and be reasonably active, dont smoke and dont drink too much. Eat a diet that promotes the above and let the cholesterol look after itsself. Did your doctor do any blood sugar tests for instance?

SuperRabbit

silverharp wrote: »

in isolation i wouldnt worry about it too much, if you want markers for heart health it would be, dont be overweight, dont go down the road of pre diabetes and be reasonably active, dont smoke and dont drink too much. Eat a diet that promotes the above and let the cholesterol look after itsself.

Heartwise, you forgot: Don't eat red meat! Or maybe once in a blue moon as a special treat.


High cholesterol is most harmful for people with chronic stress, so make sure you have take time to unwind and enjoy hobbies. People think of stress they think of reacting to pressure and things like fear and anxiety, but anger is part of it too.


Here are the HSE guidelines on their cholesterol page:

Diet

Eating a healthy diet that is low in saturated fats can reduce your level of LDL (bad cholesterol).

A healthy diet includes foods from all of the different food groups:

carbohydrates (cereals, wholegrain bread, potatoes, rice and pasta)
proteins (lean meat, beans and fish)
unsaturated fats
fruit and vegetables (at least five portions a day)

You should try to avoid or cut down on the following foods, which are rich in saturated fat:

fatty cuts of meat and meat products, such as sausages and pies
butter, ghee and lard
cream, soured cream, creme fraiche and ice cream
cheese, particularly hard cheese
cakes and biscuits
chocolate
coconut oil, coconut cream and palm oil

Guidelines would suggest that:

the average man should have no more than 30g saturated fat a day
the average woman should have no more than 20g saturated fat a day

To get an idea how much saturated food you are consuming, take a look at the food labels of the foods you are eating.

Their page suggests that omega 3 is important, most supplements might have fish so be careful. Flaxseed / linseed is a fish free option, very reasonably priced in Lidl and Aldi

Chancer3001

If I were you I would go on Google scholar and read some of the articles yourself about the effects of diet on cholesterol

silverharp

SuperRabbit wrote: »

Heartwise, you forgot: Don't eat red meat! Or maybe once in a blue moon as a special treat.


High cholesterol is most harmful for people with chronic stress, so make sure you have take time to unwind and enjoy hobbies. People think of stress they think of reacting to pressure and things like fear and anxiety, but anger is part of it too.


Here are the HSE guidelines on their cholesterol page:



Their page suggests that omega 3 is important, most supplements might have fish so be careful. Flaxseed / linseed is a fish free option, very reasonably priced in Lidl and Aldi

i didnt forget, it doesnt make sense that red meat is intrinsically bad for humans or we wouldnt have evolved on the stuff and countries like Hong Kong eat lots of meat and are one of the longest living on the planet. A lot of the research and guidelines are based on epidemiological studies, not controlled studies in a lab. Americans eat less red meat now than they did in the 1950's yet their health has gone way downhill with rising obesity and diabetes.

eat whatever keeps you at a normal weight and normal blood sugars and you will be way ahead of the posse. To me that means keeping sugar, processed carbs and processed oils low

SuperRabbit

silverharp wrote: »

i didnt forget, it doesnt make sense that red meat is intrinsically bad for humans or we wouldnt have evolved on the stuff and countries like Hong Kong eat lots of meat and are one of the longest living on the planet. A lot of the research and guidelines are based on epidemiological studies, not controlled studies in a lab. Americans eat less red meat now than they did in the 1950's yet their health has gone way downhill with rising obesity and diabetes.

eat whatever keeps you at a normal weight and normal blood sugars and you will be way ahead of the posse. To me that means keeping sugar, processed carbs and processed oils low

It doesn't make sense to you but it has been proven and the world health organization and the irish heart foundation recommend avoiding red meat. SO your own personal opinion is completely irrelevant I'm afraid.

In all probability for most of our history our ancestors got most of their protein from fish, but even if you are right and they somehow ate cow every week, if they lived past childhood they died around 50 / 60, I don't think OP wants to die around 50. Ad hoc evolutionary explanations for things are not worthwhile, the best science we have at the moment says we need to stay away from red meat, if that changes I'm sure the WHO will change their recommendations.

Alf Veedersane

The HSE guidelines suggest eating lean meat. That doesn't exclude red meat.

mathie

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

The HSE guidelines suggest eating lean meat. That doesn't exclude red meat.

The HSE guidelines also suggest eating cereal
WHO > HSE :pac::pac::pac:

silverharp

SuperRabbit wrote: »

It doesn't make sense to you but it has been proven and the world health organization and the irish heart foundation recommend avoiding red meat. SO your own personal opinion is completely irrelevant I'm afraid.

In all probability for most of our history our ancestors got most of their protein from fish, but even if you are right and they somehow ate cow every week, if they lived past childhood they died around 50 / 60, I don't think OP wants to die around 50. Ad hoc evolutionary explanations for things are not worthwhile, the best science we have at the moment says we need to stay away from red meat, if that changes I'm sure the WHO will change their recommendations.

“Proven” is a strong term and sure I don’t want to get a heart attack at 50 so Ive a keen personal interest in this. The point is there isn’t the proof, just what happens to be a perceived consensus. There simply isn’t the data that would constitute proof , at best you get thousands of people to fill in questionnaires every seven years or so and ask them what they have eaten in that term, I couldn’t answer that question with any confidence. If people are eating “a lot” of meat they are also eating a lot of other things too, it just takes the bias of the researchers or their funders to blame one element which may simply be a long for the ride. In population terms France and Hong Kong for example beat the US in terms of heart health, or indigenous peoples like the Maasai or Plains Indians in the past who ate high meat and dairy diets were not dropping dead of heart attacks or obesity despite not having access to healthcare.

At the end of the day Cholesterol is an energy transport system and repair system of the body and any decent researcher would tell you they don’t fully understand every function or what every level means, Low LDL has been associated with Alzheimers , high triglycerides seems to be something you want to avoid, total cholesterol seems to have been replaced by looking at the ratio of HDL to LDL. All I can say is that meat doesn’t raise my blood sugar and it doesn’t make me put on weight because its not something I tend to want to overeat and it’s a very nutrient dense and satiating food, its staying in my “good basket”

SuperRabbit

I don't know if someone gave me a cookie and then said "oh, it probably causes cancer and heart disease according to hundreds of studies" I'd be like, yeah I'll just have a different biscuit instead. If you had to paint the kids room a paint that showed no connection at all to childhood cancer and one that was a probable cause of cancer you'd choose the first one, right? So I'd choose fish and chicken over pork and beef, it's no massive sacrifice.



By the way, another factual inaccuracy: Offal is nutrient rich, but the beef and pork we eat is just muscle and is not nutrient rich at all, it's got lots of protein all right, but chicken has more.

But I'm sure you are coming from the right place, if the guidelines are too hard people tend to just throw their hands up in the air and not even try to eat healthy. For some people cutting it out is impossible but cutting down is great too. But it doesnt help matters to pretend like your recommendations are somehow equally valid or more valid than the World Health Organisation's, that just makes things confusing.

Gravelly

Study says there's no link between cholesterol and heart disease

SuperRabbit

Gravelly wrote: »

Study says there's no link between cholesterol and heart disease

did you actually read that article? It says the opposite of what the headline says, the article is debunking the study

Gravelly

SuperRabbit wrote: »

did you actually read that article? It says the opposite of what the headline says, the article is debunking the study

No it didn’t. It looked at both sides of the argument, but in no way whatsoever did it debunk the study.

gctest50

SuperRabbit wrote: »

did you actually read that article? It says the opposite of what the headline says, the article is debunking the study

That's a very cranky post, all Gravelly did was post in a link - a bacon sandwich might be a good idea :P

SuperRabbit

gctest50 wrote: »

That's a very cranky post, all Gravelly did was post in a link - a bacon sandwich might be a good idea :P

Ha ha! You are right. My dinner is in the oven, don't worry. Sorry, thank you for calling me out.

Gravelly wrote: »

No it didn’t. It looked at both sides of the argument, but in no way whatsoever did it debunk the study.

It says that the study doesn't prove anything for certain and at the very end that there is no reason to think you shouldn't continue watching your cholesterol levels. It certainly doesn't say what the link text says, that's all I meant. Sorry that I got all snarky.

" for now this review doesn't provide solid evidence that high LDL cholesterol is good for you, or that statins are of no help."

"There is currently no comprehensive body of evidence that contradicts current official advice on saturated fat consumption – which recommends no more than 30g of saturated fat a day for men and 20g for women."

tvjunki

FoxHouse wrote: »

Hello all,

I received bloodwork which suggests I have high cholesterol however I wasn't fasting in advance of test so there is potential the results are slightly skewed.

I was looking for advice on what people have done/eaten to reduce their cholesterol! Due to allergies I cannot eat fish/shellfish as this was one thing the nurse suggested so all other suggestions/advice welcome!

Thanks

You will be retested in a weeks time. You can reduce this with a bit of work. You get omega from nuts oils s no need to have fish.


Husband cholesterol was 9.7 and he reduced it to 7.9 in 6 weeks.
He took yoghurt with stenols in them . No sweets, no fixy drinks, cut out white bread and had max of 2 slices of brown bread per day but mixed lunches from soup salads and sandwiches.
Start looking at the back of packets and anything with less than 5 g per 100g of satuarted fats should help. Drink more water.
He had porridge everyday for breakfast. Then put a spoon of 'heart up barley(beta glucan). Beta glucan reduces the cholesterol in the blood.
Increased fruit but no fruit juice. Handful of walnuts or a few Brazil nuts per day.
Go back to old fastioned cooking.

In the uk they are now using the '8 week blood sugar diet ' by dr Michael Mosley. He had very high cholesterol but dropped it by doing 800 calorie for 8 weeks only. Worth a read. I have it ready to start it.
Good luck.
He lost over a stone in that time as well.

Tar.Aldarion

Lose weight, exercise, don't eat refined sugar, cut back on foods high in saturated fat (oils, meat), avoid junk food, increase fiber - legumes, veg etc.
Apparently possibly eating Brazil nuts? https://nutritionfacts.org/video/four-nuts-once-a-month/