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Cholesterol
Rmiss
Posts: 5 Member
in Debate Club
Need to know what to do with my earing habits that's easy to understand to lower cholesterol. ..please explain mono and saturated fats...
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Replies
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Eat 8 cups of spinach a day0
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It might help to know what your current levels are.
What I did to lower mine was to cut back on saturated fats especially from animal fats (meats, high fat dairy, eggs etc). I also avoid using any type of oils when cooking. My last total cholesterol was 168, LDL was about 105. Both used to be nearly double when at the highest. My overall diet is now a little under 15% fat and mostly from whole food plant sources.
Exercise and weight loss will also help especially if you're overweight. If not, then lowering dietary fat in general would be effective.2 -
Would be helpful to know your cholesterol profile (levels of HDL, LDL, and triglycerides). Reducing triglycerides generally involves reducing sugar and starch in the diet. Increasing HDL can be accomplished by getting enough fat, especially saturated fat. LDL is a calculated number, and unless you have had a particle test done (to see how much of it is VLDL) it's hard to say if it's too high. General rule of thumb is that if HDL is good and triglycerides are good, LDL is likely the larger type and is benign. Exercise and simply losing weight also helps your cholesterol profile, independent of dietary choices. That may be the simplest place to start.1
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tlflag1620 wrote: »Would be helpful to know your cholesterol profile (levels of HDL, LDL, and triglycerides). Reducing triglycerides generally involves reducing sugar and starch in the diet. Increasing HDL can be accomplished by getting enough fat, especially saturated fat. LDL is a calculated number, and unless you have had a particle test done (to see how much of it is VLDL) it's hard to say if it's too high. General rule of thumb is that if HDL is good and triglycerides are good, LDL is likely the larger type and is benign. Exercise and simply losing weight also helps your cholesterol profile, independent of dietary choices. That may be the simplest place to start.
What's your total?0 -
The most important and effective things to do are to be a healthy weight with regular exercise.4
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Walking 20 minutes on a treadmill every day made dramatic changes.
You can also walk outside.
Things to eat: http://www.mayoclinic.org/cholesterol/art-200451921 -
I have crazily high cholesterol, and even more crazily high HDL. I'm going to have an expanded lipid panel done to see if I have the healthy kind of LDL (yep, there's a good "bad" cholesterol), and whether I can just stop worrying about it.1
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Need to know what to do with my earing habits that's easy to understand to lower cholesterol. ..please explain mono and saturated fats...
Lose weight. Any visceral fat contributes.
Cinnamon every day. One apple with red skin every day. Carrots every day. Red beets every day. Fish Oil every day. Red Yeast every day. Oatmeal as often as possible. Red wine every day. Nuts every day. Garlic every day. Olive oil every day. Dark chocolate every day 72% minimum - 80's even better. Spinach every day. Avocado as often as possible. Beans every day. Black or green tea every day. Salmon of fatty fish every day.
Get as much of those in your daily diet and you will be golden.
Trust me.0 -
SingingSingleTracker wrote: »Need to know what to do with my earing habits that's easy to understand to lower cholesterol. ..please explain mono and saturated fats...
Lose weight. Any visceral fat contributes.
Cinnamon every day. One apple with red skin every day. Carrots every day. Red beets every day. Fish Oil every day. Red Yeast every day. Oatmeal as often as possible. Red wine every day. Nuts every day. Garlic every day. Olive oil every day. Dark chocolate every day 72% minimum - 80's even better. Spinach every day. Avocado as often as possible. Beans every day. Black or green tea every day. Salmon of fatty fish every day.
Get as much of those in your daily diet and you will be golden.
Trust me.
It certainly won't hurt, but it might not help, depending on your physiology. It's worth trying, if you have weight to lose, and you aren't already exercising. The only thing a healthy diet and exercise seem to do for my cholesterol is keep my HDL/LDL ratio extremely high, which may or may not be a mitigating factor. Thanks for the cinnamon reminder. I need to put it in capsules or something.
Is there a good substitute for red wine, and tea? I can't have either one.0 -
for me losing weight/exercise didnt help. what helps me is lowering my carbs. I went on a low cholesterol diet and my cholesterol still went up(the dr told me to follow the diet when I was first diagnosed). went on meds and still didnt do much while still following the diet. I ate all the things articles say to eat(oatmeal,cinnamon,etc) and that didnt help either. for me what lowered mine was lower carbs(not keto) but lower carbs none the less.what works for some will not work for others so its all trial and error if you ask me. mine lowered without meds the last time eating lower carb,but like an idiot I went back to eating higher carbs because well Carbs, so just try different things and what works for you and what doesnt. I refuse to go back on meds due to the issues they caused me.@lithezebra, Im the same way but the last time I did the lower carb it brought down all the numbers by over half and raised my good cholesterol a decent amount.3
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In July of 2015 these were my labs -
chol 176 (120-200)
trig 160 (High, <150)
HDL 47 (>39)
LDL 97 (<100)
I was overweight/obese, eating very unhealthy....fast food, real butter, a diagnosed binge eater. not exercising.
In December of 2015 my LDL was 147. Yes, it jumped 50 points. I do take Simvistatin 40 mg. My cardiologist wanted to change my meds. I said no. Give me a few months....
SO, I lessened my fast food consumption to maybe 2-3 x a month. quit eating butter. started walking, doing resistance with hand weights. most active in Feb, then April & May. My weight has not really changed. I'm still obese, currently 5' 3 1/2", 198 lbs. down about 11.2 lbs since May 14, it's mostly water since I have BED.
My current labs as of June 1st -
chol 143
trig 121
HDL 51
LDL 68 - Yup, I did it!
No, I did not eliminate red meat, eggs, dairy. I did have more oatmeal (old fashioned), ground flax seed, coconut oil, raw nuts (almond, walnut mostly). I did lower my carbs (keep under 100), and sugar (keep under 50). My water intake is about 96 oz a day. My protein is usually 100g or more a day, and my fat is high.
* In the past a high fiber diet helped too -- oatmeal, ground flax, fruits and veggies, and beans (like red, black, any of them really), I also remember eating bran flakes. *
I've had both high & normal results at a healthy weight & obese weight.
Hopefully tweaking your diet will help. It's hard to change, but was necessary for me. Good luck!1 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »for me losing weight/exercise didnt help. what helps me is lowering my carbs. I went on a low cholesterol diet and my cholesterol still went up(the dr told me to follow the diet when I was first diagnosed). went on meds and still didnt do much while still following the diet. I ate all the things articles say to eat(oatmeal,cinnamon,etc) and that didnt help either. for me what lowered mine was lower carbs(not keto) but lower carbs none the less.what works for some will not work for others so its all trial and error if you ask me. mine lowered without meds the last time eating lower carb,but like an idiot I went back to eating higher carbs because well Carbs, so just try different things and what works for you and what doesnt. I refuse to go back on meds due to the issues they caused me.@lithezebra, Im the same way but the last time I did the lower carb it brought down all the numbers by over half and raised my good cholesterol a decent amount.
I'm doing low carb too, not keto: very low sugar, high fiber, and high fat, but lower saturated fat than some of the LCHF diets. I don't know if it will help - I'll see!
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lithezebra wrote: »CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »for me losing weight/exercise didnt help. what helps me is lowering my carbs. I went on a low cholesterol diet and my cholesterol still went up(the dr told me to follow the diet when I was first diagnosed). went on meds and still didnt do much while still following the diet. I ate all the things articles say to eat(oatmeal,cinnamon,etc) and that didnt help either. for me what lowered mine was lower carbs(not keto) but lower carbs none the less.what works for some will not work for others so its all trial and error if you ask me. mine lowered without meds the last time eating lower carb,but like an idiot I went back to eating higher carbs because well Carbs, so just try different things and what works for you and what doesnt. I refuse to go back on meds due to the issues they caused me.@lithezebra, Im the same way but the last time I did the lower carb it brought down all the numbers by over half and raised my good cholesterol a decent amount.
I'm doing low carb too, not keto: very low sugar, high fiber, and high fat, but lower saturated fat than some of the LCHF diets. I don't know if it will help - I'll see!
well good luck,hope it helps!1 -
lithezebra wrote: »SingingSingleTracker wrote: »Need to know what to do with my earing habits that's easy to understand to lower cholesterol. ..please explain mono and saturated fats...
Lose weight. Any visceral fat contributes.
Cinnamon every day. One apple with red skin every day. Carrots every day. Red beets every day. Fish Oil every day. Red Yeast every day. Oatmeal as often as possible. Red wine every day. Nuts every day. Garlic every day. Olive oil every day. Dark chocolate every day 72% minimum - 80's even better. Spinach every day. Avocado as often as possible. Beans every day. Black or green tea every day. Salmon of fatty fish every day.
Get as much of those in your daily diet and you will be golden.
Trust me.
It certainly won't hurt, but it might not help, depending on your physiology. It's worth trying, if you have weight to lose, and you aren't already exercising. The only thing a healthy diet and exercise seem to do for my cholesterol is keep my HDL/LDL ratio extremely high, which may or may not be a mitigating factor. Thanks for the cinnamon reminder. I need to put it in capsules or something.
Is there a good substitute for red wine, and tea? I can't have either one.
Red skin grapes. Why can't you drink tea?
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SingingSingleTracker wrote: »lithezebra wrote: »SingingSingleTracker wrote: »Need to know what to do with my earing habits that's easy to understand to lower cholesterol. ..please explain mono and saturated fats...
Lose weight. Any visceral fat contributes.
Cinnamon every day. One apple with red skin every day. Carrots every day. Red beets every day. Fish Oil every day. Red Yeast every day. Oatmeal as often as possible. Red wine every day. Nuts every day. Garlic every day. Olive oil every day. Dark chocolate every day 72% minimum - 80's even better. Spinach every day. Avocado as often as possible. Beans every day. Black or green tea every day. Salmon of fatty fish every day.
Get as much of those in your daily diet and you will be golden.
Trust me.
It certainly won't hurt, but it might not help, depending on your physiology. It's worth trying, if you have weight to lose, and you aren't already exercising. The only thing a healthy diet and exercise seem to do for my cholesterol is keep my HDL/LDL ratio extremely high, which may or may not be a mitigating factor. Thanks for the cinnamon reminder. I need to put it in capsules or something.
Is there a good substitute for red wine, and tea? I can't have either one.
Red skin grapes. Why can't you drink tea?
Makes me feel like I have a UTI when I don't 0 -
SingingSingleTracker wrote: »Need to know what to do with my earing habits that's easy to understand to lower cholesterol. ..please explain mono and saturated fats...
Lose weight. Any visceral fat contributes.
Cinnamon every day. One apple with red skin every day. Carrots every day. Red beets every day. Fish Oil every day. Red Yeast every day. Oatmeal as often as possible. Red wine every day. Nuts every day. Garlic every day. Olive oil every day. Dark chocolate every day 72% minimum - 80's even better. Spinach every day. Avocado as often as possible. Beans every day. Black or green tea every day. Salmon of fatty fish every day.
Get as much of those in your daily diet and you will be golden.
Trust me.
FWIW, I was doing much of what you suggest dietarily when I was fat, but subbing algae DHA for fish oil because I'm veg (ovo lacto). I was also very active (rowing, spin classes, more). Minor improvement in chol/tris at best. (I was trying to avoid a statin.)
Losing 60+ pounds? Result from Nov 2015 compared to Dec 2014 (in parentheses):
Cholesterol: 176 (230)
Triglycerides: 82 (193)
HDL: 65 (45)
LDL: 95 (146)
VLDL: 16 (39)
Chol/HDL ratio: 2.7 (5.1)
Those with genetic susceptibilities or metabolic complications may differ, but weight loss worked pretty well for me. No one's talking statins anymore. Still eating the good stuff, too, because it's what I like.1 -
SingingSingleTracker wrote: »Need to know what to do with my earing habits that's easy to understand to lower cholesterol. ..please explain mono and saturated fats...
Lose weight. Any visceral fat contributes.
Cinnamon every day. One apple with red skin every day. Carrots every day. Red beets every day. Fish Oil every day. Red Yeast every day. Oatmeal as often as possible. Red wine every day. Nuts every day. Garlic every day. Olive oil every day. Dark chocolate every day 72% minimum - 80's even better. Spinach every day. Avocado as often as possible. Beans every day. Black or green tea every day. Salmon of fatty fish every day.
Get as much of those in your daily diet and you will be golden.
Trust me.
FWIW, I was doing much of what you suggest dietarily when I was fat, but subbing algae DHA for fish oil because I'm veg (ovo lacto). I was also very active (rowing, spin classes, more). Minor improvement in chol/tris at best. (I was trying to avoid a statin.)
Losing 60+ pounds? Result from Nov 2015 compared to Dec 2014 (in parentheses):
Cholesterol: 176 (230)
Triglycerides: 82 (193)
HDL: 65 (45)
LDL: 95 (146)
VLDL: 16 (39)
Chol/HDL ratio: 2.7 (5.1)
Those with genetic susceptibilities or metabolic complications may differ, but weight loss worked pretty well for me. No one's talking statins anymore. Still eating the good stuff, too, because it's what I like.
Congrats on getting your numbers down and being statin free. I've been statin free for 2 years now.
Notice the first sentence that I have highlighted in bold up above which was my 1st - and most important - suggestion to Rmiss.
Lose weight. Any visceral fat contributes.
That VF has got to be shed to lower the cholesterol - male or female. Mixed with the known foods to help lower it, most can achieve the good numbers without the use of medication. There will always be some with genetics that even with all the VF, SF, and RF as slim as possible - and eating known cholesterol lowering foods - will still have high numbers.
Anyway, getting rid of the visceral fat, belly fat, and back fat works wonders for most. It's like the old Smith Barney commercial: "How do people get good cholesterol numbers? They earn it!"
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@lithezebra I also had high cholesterol numbers
I cut down my saturated fat intake which really helped (everyone is different).
201 to 157 total.
From American Heart Association:
The American Heart Association recommends aiming for a dietary pattern that achieves 5% to 6% of calories from saturated fat. That’s about 13 grams of saturated fat a day for 2,000 calories a day.
* I think as you get into your senior years, saturated fat intake may be something to keep an eye on.
2 -
Cutting out animal fats worked for me. I tried the low carb thing and it made it much worse in my case.
I think everyone needs to find out what works for them. Best way is to start with a baseline - decide on some changes for a month or two, then get retested. I went for the pretty drastic change in one go (cut out all meat, dairy except no-fat, eggs etc.) and it worked. Progressively improved over the last year as well.2 -
Mine was really high too.
All I did was cut back on high fatty foods like processed cheese,snacks & sweets.
I read a lot of research papers & they basically pointed to high fatty foods turns in to high cholesterol numbers. I still eat eggs 3 to 4x per week, lean meats,fish & low in fat dairy products & it worked for me. I read over & over again that eggs really don't cause your cholesterol numbers to go up, it was a common misconception that is still lingering in peoples perceptions today.2 -
Some people just have genetic high cholesterol but lifestyle factors you can control:
Exercise - more exercise lowers cholesterol
Eat good fats - High good cholesterol offsets the bad
Lose body fat - less fat in your body, less cholesterol floating around
Eat more fiber
Eat less sugar
If you are fat, simply losing weight may help a lot.0 -
SingingSingleTracker wrote: »SingingSingleTracker wrote: »Need to know what to do with my earing habits that's easy to understand to lower cholesterol. ..please explain mono and saturated fats...
Lose weight. Any visceral fat contributes.
Cinnamon every day. One apple with red skin every day. Carrots every day. Red beets every day. Fish Oil every day. Red Yeast every day. Oatmeal as often as possible. Red wine every day. Nuts every day. Garlic every day. Olive oil every day. Dark chocolate every day 72% minimum - 80's even better. Spinach every day. Avocado as often as possible. Beans every day. Black or green tea every day. Salmon of fatty fish every day.
Get as much of those in your daily diet and you will be golden.
Trust me.
FWIW, I was doing much of what you suggest dietarily when I was fat, but subbing algae DHA for fish oil because I'm veg (ovo lacto). I was also very active (rowing, spin classes, more). Minor improvement in chol/tris at best. (I was trying to avoid a statin.)
Losing 60+ pounds? Result from Nov 2015 compared to Dec 2014 (in parentheses):
Cholesterol: 176 (230)
Triglycerides: 82 (193)
HDL: 65 (45)
LDL: 95 (146)
VLDL: 16 (39)
Chol/HDL ratio: 2.7 (5.1)
Those with genetic susceptibilities or metabolic complications may differ, but weight loss worked pretty well for me. No one's talking statins anymore. Still eating the good stuff, too, because it's what I like.
Congrats on getting your numbers down and being statin free. I've been statin free for 2 years now.
Notice the first sentence that I have highlighted in bold up above which was my 1st - and most important - suggestion to Rmiss.
Lose weight. Any visceral fat contributes.
Yes! Meant to be supporting, not disputing, you.
Just coming at it from the opposite angle: OP's phrasing made me concerned that she was looking for a dietary-composition solution - something I tried hard at for quite some time. But losing weight, as per your main suggestion, was way more effective, at least for me.
(edited to fix messed-up quotes. sigh.)0 -
You could try alternate day fasting. Side note: the association of high HDL with heart health is much more powerful than the association of lower LDL levels with heart health.
https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/fasting-lowers-cholesterol-fasting-16/0 -
You really need to talk to a doctor or a dietitian. One of the things that you have to realize is that your genetics are going to determine a lot of your cholesterol levels. Yes, what you will help put your genetics are going to determine a lot of the numbers.
Read an article one time in the New England Journal of Medicine. They monitored a town in new england for about 20 years to see the effects of diet on cholesterol. What the study found is that your genetics are going to determine it a lot. there were people who ate the worst things for them and they had low cholesterol levels and then they were people who were almost vegetarians who have high cholesterol levels. Also Eskimos who eat a lot of walrus fat and blubber have low cholesterol levels. Unfortunately as they become more modernized and started to eat normal food the cholesterol levels have increased.
At one point I weighed close to 300 pounds. Yet when the doctor ran my yearly physicals my good cholesterol levels were perfect my bad cholesterol levels were perfect triglycerides were perfect. He used to scratch his head when he looked at my blood work made no sense at all. Yet I worked with guys who are skinny who have very high cholesterol levels and are on meds.0
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