Good v. Bad Cholesterol

rbkise

Will my settings allow me to differentiate between HDL and LDL cholesterol intake?

Lietchi

In MFP you can only track dietary cholesterol as a general category. HDL and LDL blood values are what matter. Dietary cholesterol, most sources would say, is not what you should be paying attention to.

MFP does allow you to track saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat intake, which IMHO is more important than dietary cholesterol.

AnnPT77

No, but that's not really a problem. The HDL/LDL don't arrive that way from food. HDL/LDL are more the things your body does as part of processing foods you eat. Some foods do help raise HDL or lower LDL, but it's not really because of the type of cholesterol that's in them.

Also, cholesterol in your food isn't necessarily directly linked to cholesterol in your blood tests. It's more complicated than that. Other food choices influence blood cholesterol level. That does include the fat types you eat (saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, Omega-3, Omega-6 . . .). But it also includes carbohydrate intake (not just the gross amount of carbs, but differences between getting the carbs from, say, a sweetened refined-flour cereal vs. from beans or an apple). That's partly because of other stuff in the foods (or not) like fiber, vitamins, minerals, beneficial phytochemicals. On top of that, exercise influences blood cholesterol level.

Suggestion: Plan on eating at least 80% of calories from less processed foods (meat, fish, whole grain, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds), lose weight if overweight, avoid alcohol (especially if more than very moderate), get some exercise. All of that will help your blood cholesterol.

Best wishes!

neanderthin

Couldn't have said that any better. Cheers!

kshama2001

I'm going to quote myself from a recent thread, where I quote myself from another cholesterol thread. We've had a lot of these lately!

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You really need to see a doctor who will explain things better. If 181 is your TOTAL cholesterol, you're fine. If it's your LDL cholesterol, yes, it's high.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/lipid-panel#:~:text=These are the adult ranges,130 to 159 mg/dL

Your doctor should have explained this and your options. And if you wanted to attempt to change this through diet and lifestyle, your doctor should have referred you to a registered dietitian (if you are in the US.) For now, swap out one of the things tracked in your food diary for Fiber and make sure you meet or exceed it every day. (If you are currently quite low on fiber, add it gradually or you'll be sorry

It's actually soluble fiber that is most beneficial. (The other type of fiber is called insoluble.) Since MFP doesn't differentiate, see below for good sources of soluble fiber.

I'm going to quote myself from a recent thread:

I've read (and it worked for a friend) it's not AVOIDING foods that is helpful, but ADDING foods:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/11-foods-that-lower-cholesterol

1. Oats. An easy first step to lowering your cholesterol is having a bowl of oatmeal or cold oat-based cereal like Cheerios for breakfast. It gives you 1 to 2 grams of soluble fiber. Add a banana or some strawberries for another half-gram. Current nutrition guidelines recommend getting 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day, with at least 5 to 10 grams coming from soluble fiber. (The average American gets about half that amount.)

2. Barley and other whole grains. Like oats and oat bran, barley and other whole grains can help lower the risk of heart disease, mainly via the soluble fiber they deliver.

3. Beans. Beans are especially rich in soluble fiber. They also take a while for the body to digest, meaning you feel full for longer after a meal. That's one reason beans are a useful food for folks trying to lose weight. With so many choices — from navy and kidney beans to lentils, garbanzos, black-eyed peas, and beyond — and so many ways to prepare them, beans are a very versatile food.

4. Eggplant and okra. These two low-calorie vegetables are good sources of soluble fiber.

5. Nuts. A bushel of studies shows that eating almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and other nuts is good for the heart. Eating 2 ounces of nuts a day can slightly lower LDL, on the order of 5%. Nuts have additional nutrients that protect the heart in other ways.

6. Vegetable oils. Using liquid vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower, safflower, and others in place of butter, lard, or shortening when cooking or at the table helps lower LDL.

7. Apples, grapes, strawberries, citrus fruits. These fruits are rich in pectin, a type of soluble fiber that lowers LDL.

8. Foods fortified with sterols and stanols. Sterols and stanols extracted from plants gum up the body's ability to absorb cholesterol from food. Companies are adding them to foods ranging from margarine and granola bars to orange juice and chocolate. They're also available as supplements. Getting 2 grams of plant sterols or stanols a day can lower LDL cholesterol by about 10%.

9. Soy. Eating soybeans and foods made from them, like tofu and soy milk, was once touted as a powerful way to lower cholesterol. Analyses show that the effect is more modest — consuming 25 grams of soy protein a day (10 ounces of tofu or 2 1/2 cups of soy milk) can lower LDL by 5% to 6%.

10. Fatty fish. Eating fish two or three times a week can lower LDL in two ways: by replacing meat, which has LDL-boosting saturated fats, and by delivering LDL-lowering omega-3 fats. Omega-3s reduce triglycerides in the bloodstream and also protect the heart by helping prevent the onset of abnormal heart rhythms.

11. Fiber supplements. Supplements offer the least appealing way to get soluble fiber. Two teaspoons a day of psyllium, which is found in Metamucil and other bulk-forming laxatives, provide about 4 grams of soluble fiber.

Here's the discussion:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10901481/not-pleased-by-my-total-cholesterol/p1

kshama2001

neanderthin wrote: »

Couldn't have said that any better. Cheers!

You had some good additional lifestyle points in the other thread:

neanderthin wrote: »

wendymoreland3796 wrote: »

Dietary cholesterol does not really translate into serum body cholesterol levels.. it is a lot more complex than that. You would be better off at eliminating most ultra processed foods and keeping simple carbohydrates low. High levels of dietary saturated fat may be linked to higher cholesterol but some studies question this theory. Weight loss and exercise definitely can help. Keeping blood sugar levels low also helps. For many it’s genetic cause.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34796724/
Dietary Fatty Acids, Macronutrient Substitutions, Food Sources and Incidence of Coronary Heart Disease: Findings From the EPIC-CVD Case-Cohort Study Across Nine European Countries

Conclusions This observational study found no strong associations of total fatty acids, SFAs, monounsaturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, with incident CHD. By contrast, we found associations of SFAs with CHD in opposite directions dependent on the food source. These findings should be further confirmed, but support public health recommendations to consider food sources alongside the macronutrients they contain, and suggest the importance of the overall food matrix.

Association of carbohydrate and saturated fat intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality in Australian women
https://heart.bmj.com/content/108/12/932

Conclusions In middle-aged Australian women, moderate carbohydrate intake (41.0%–44.3% of TEI) was associated with the lowest risk of CVD, without an effect on total mortality. Increasing saturated fat intake was not associated with CVD or mortality and instead correlated with lower rates of diabetes, hypertension and obesity

Nutrition for the Japanese elderly
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1407826/

The present paper examines the relationship of nutritional status to further life expectancy and health status in the Japanese elderly based on 3 epidemiological studies. 1. Nutrient intakes in 94 Japanese centenarians investigated between 1972 and 1973 showed a higher proportion of animal protein to total proteins than in contemporary average Japanese. 2. High intakes of milk and fats and oils had favorable effects on 10-year (1976-1986) survivorship in 422 urban residents aged 69-71. The survivors revealed a longitudinal increase in intakes of animal foods such as eggs, milk, fish and meat over the 10 years. 3. Nutrient intakes were compared, based on 24-hour dietary records, between a sample from Okinawa Prefecture where life expectancies at birth and 65 were the longest in Japan, and a sample from Akita Prefecture where the life expectancies were much shorter. Intakes of Ca, Fe, vitamins A, B1, B2, C, and the proportion of energy from proteins and fats were significantly higher in the former than in the latter. Intakes of carbohydrates and NaCl were lower.

From the journal of the American College of Cardiology: Saturated Fats and Health: A Reassessment and Proposal for Food-Based Recommendations: JACC State-of-the-Art Review
https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109720356874?via%3Dihub

Highlights
•The U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend the restriction of SFA intake to <10% of calories to reduce CVD.

•Different SFAs have different biologic effects, which are further modified by the food matrix and the carbohydrate content of the diet.

•Several foods relatively rich in SFAs, such as whole-fat dairy, dark chocolate, and unprocessed meat, are not associated with increased CVD or diabetes risk.

•There is no robust evidence that current population-wide arbitrary upper limits on saturated fat consumption in the United States will prevent CVD or reduce mortality.

The recommendation to limit dietary saturated fatty acid (SFA) intake has persisted despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Most recent meta-analyses of randomized trials and observational studies found no beneficial effects of reducing SFA intake on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and total mortality, and instead found protective effects against stroke. Although SFAs increase low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, in most individuals, this is not due to increasing levels of small, dense LDL particles, but rather larger LDL particles, which are much less strongly related to CVD risk. It is also apparent that the health effects of foods cannot be predicted by their content in any nutrient group without considering the overall macronutrient distribution. Whole-fat dairy, unprocessed meat, and dark chocolate are SFA-rich foods with a complex matrix that are not associated with increased risk of CVD. The totality of available evidence does not support further limiting the intake of such foods.

Reducing ultra processed foods by way of any alternative diet whether it be vegetarian, Mediterranean, low carb or ketogenic generally do adopt this basic tenant of health and along with a good routine of regular exercise and good sleep as well lowering the inflammatory factors (blood markers) that are associated and the actual cause of decreased heart health and ultra processed foods. imo.