High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol…but not husband

mel_wilbanks

It has been awhile since I have been on MyFitnessPal. I have been dealing with high blood pressure and higher cholesterol for 6 years along with menopause. Add 10 lbs since then and was told that my cholesterol was so high I will need to go on statins. He is giving me until April 1 to see if it is something I can start bringing down myself. I like to cook….with all the fat, cream, butter, cheese and bacon. We have dinner parties every other week and I cook every single night for me and my husband….we eat the same but his blood pressure and cholesterol is fine. 🤨 I don’t do fast food but I don’t watch ingredients or calories either.
That is changing. I am giving up red meat, sugar, cheese, alcohol …except the occasional glass of red wine, chips and dip. Are there any books or articles with food or recipes that you suggest? As I said I like to cook and this week made a salmon vegetable bowl and a green curry vegetable bowl. Then last night we had salmon and pesto pasta with a mixture of sautéed vegetables as a side and I put very little pasta on my plate and mainly ate the vegetables and salmon. I don’t do breakfast often, just coffee. I cut that only one cup and incorporated green tea throughout the day. I welcome any healthy meals with flavor if you have them.
And I hope to report back that my cholesterol is going down on April 1st. (No fooling) 😊

sollyn23l2

Look up Mediterranean recipes. You'll find a lot online. It's very low red meat, lots of vegetables. I lowered my cholesterol by just cutting out red meat and increasing veg. I still eat fish and chicken (in moderate amounts). Switch from butter to olive oil. Some people will try to tell you not to worry about saturated fat. I strongly believe they're wrong. Good for you for giving it a try!!!

kshama2001

I love test driving cookbooks from my library. I see my library system has a bunch of low cholesterol cookbooks, as well as Mediterranean diet cookbooks.

You didn’t mention increasing exercise. That will help too. Simply losing weight can also lower your cholesterol and blood pressure.

https://www.healthline.com/health/high-cholesterol/how-long-does-it-take-to-lower

https://newsroom.heart.org/news/shedding-pounds-may-benefit-your-heart-even-if-some-weight-is-regained

AnnPT77

Not wanting to go on a statin was part of what finally got me to commit to weight loss. I tried various eating changes, and saw only minimal impact . . . but I was already eating a range of healthy foods, just way too much and too many treats. I agree that exercise can matter, but I was already doing a good lot of that, too.

If the added 10 pounds is all that you have available to lose to be at a healthy weight, it may not work this way for you, but for me, my formerly-high cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure dropped in to the normal range part way through weight loss (coincidentally around the point when I was around the border between overweight BMI and normal BMI), and they've stayed normal for 9+ years since as I stay at a healthy weight. My doctor recently called my cholesterol levels "phenomenal".

For me, the weight loss was about the only change in play, though proportions of some things changed in my eating. I didn't absolutely cut out anything. Obviously, I cut down on some.

I think some of the things you mention cutting out may help somewhat with cholesterol, but I have to say I didn't cut out all of those. I haven't had red meat since 1974, and probably reduced sugar and alcohol, but as 50 years an ovo-lacto vegetarian, didn't cut out cheese. Oddly enough, carbs (especially refined carbs and sugar) have some impact on blood lipids, and I did somewhat reduce pasta, bread, rice, and that sort of thing, but more because those aren't super wonderful foods to me. It's absolutely true that it's a good idea to eliminate trans fats, including food products labeled as having hydrogenated oils but showing zero in the trans fats (because in the US, anything under half a gram of trans fat can be labeled as zero, but even half-grams aren't good, and they add up.)

But I'm rambling.

Here's a point I do want to bring up: For me, I usually get more benefits via nutrition when I focus more on what to bring into my eating, rather than what to eliminate. In the case of cholesterol and triglycerides, IMO that would be adding veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, cold-water fatty fish (I know they're beneficial even though I don't eat them), whole grains, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, more omega-3 fat sources (most people eat a lot of omega-6, not enough omega-3 to balance), high-fiber foods, and that sort of thing. For me, with a calorie goal, focusing on adding in what I truly need tends to automatically drive out things that aren't as beneficial. YMMV, though.

Some people have a genetic predisposition to high cholesterol (familial hypercholesterolemia). I don't want to be grim, but I've known some for whom no dietary or exercise intervention was enough, and those people still ended up taking a statin. If you have no one in your genetic line who's slim and has high cholesterol, though, I think there's a decent chance you can reach your goal with eating/activity changes, and even those with genetic predispositions can improve their situation that way.

Best wishes!