Cholesterol

LaMist

Hi all!
This is my frist day of tracking my food, though I've had an account open, but did not keep up. Tracking food is a challenge for me, but it's become increasingly clear, that despite my best efforts, I am still doing something wrong.
I am currently on a path to lowering my bad cholesterol, I am at 200 and have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic. All of my other numbers are fine and I am at 130lbs and work out 5 to 6 times a week. I've made many changes to my diet but realized that I do not read labels and consequently was fueling my body with lots of fat!
I hope to go down to 125 or 120 (unless I look and feel unhealthy), but most importanlty I hope that in 3 months, when I return for my labs, I will see a drop in my LDLs and pre-diabetic range.
Tips, advice and friend requests are humbly accepted!

Healthy from the INSIDE OUT!

bhb301

Good Luck, steer away from as much processed foods as you can, fruit and vegs are your friends

allroundthesun

Welcome, and good luck!

-- Juliet

NoAdditives

Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and low fat dairy, drink plenty of water. Avoid processed foods and refined sugar as much as possible.

nathanellsworth

Cholesterol comes from most any type of dairy product.
I eat an egg and cheese sandwich... prepared at home... every morning. While this doesn't put me over my limit for cholesterol it still provides 2/3 of all the cholesterol i need in a day. 210mg!!

Just be careful to avoid that stuff in order to lower your cholesterol. You can change around the view settings in your food diary to show your cholesterol instead of just your calories, fat, protein and carbs.

Hope this helps!!

EpiGaiaRepens

Cholesterol comes exclusively from animal products. My advice: go vegan. Give up all animal products. Period. I'll tell you why I say this- there is a condition by which your own body can produce too much cholesterol and for this you would need treatement. One surefire way to know if you have this condition is to eliminate all animal products from your diet and if you have high cholesterol on your next labs, your food isn't the problem. And if its lower? Well, then, Mission Accomplished!!!

EpiGaiaRepens

...or you could at least try being vegan until your labs are done again.

Enigmatica

Need to steer away from saturated fats specifically - replace them with mono-unsaturated fats as often as possible. Raw salt-free walnuts, almonds, avocados, and olive oil are good sources. You want to boost your HDL because it will help lower the LDL. Sugars lead to high triglycerides. I've been following the health tips emailed out by realage.com for about 3 years and have ended up with excellent cholesterol levels. It takes some work (and changes!) but it's worth it.

LaMist

HI!
Thanks, will do. I don't eat out much and I do eat a lot of fruits, veggies and grains. However, from time to time I would indulge in processed items and sugary treats, and I guess it's been enough to affect my cholesterol, plus being predisposed does not help either. Perhaps, my mental tracking of "a little here and there" has turned out to be more indulging than I'd like to admit.
I will now see it for myself and via tracking can manage what I cosume more effectively. BTW: how does one know how much cholesterol is "good" enough or within nutritional level? Is it whatever, I get in my calculations?

JennLifts

Just keep sat fats low low

LaMist

I actually tried the vegetarian route (but cheated 4 times)...this was my most recent effort. My labs showed an increase in HDLs and all my other numbers leveled off, I even went dow 1/2 point on the pre-diabetic range. However, my LDLs went up! I could've cried because I did not know what else to do.
Once I kicked the pity party out, I went online and did more research, what may be common knowledge for many, was an eye opener for me. I needed to start tracking what I ate, because I was still doing something wrong and my body was not liking it. I believe that the culprit is in the "whole" dairy items. I went out and stocked up on fat free items.
I will continue to practice caution with my meat intake, but decreasing its consumption was not enough....
Vegan, may yield me better results, but eliminating dairy from my diet may set me up for failure.

Great advice!

LaMist

Yup, that's my focus now.
Thanks

LaMist

Will do!
Thanks much

LaMist

Awesome, yep my HDLs are superb but the LDLs have gone up....most def. the saturated fats are the culprit.
thanks

Enigmatica

HI!
Thanks, will do. I don't eat out much and I do eat a lot of fruits, veggies and grains. However, from time to time I would indulge in processed items and sugary treats, and I guess it's been enough to affect my cholesterol, plus being predisposed does not help either. Perhaps, my mental tracking of "a little here and there" has turned out to be more indulging than I'd like to admit.
I will now see it for myself and via tracking can manage what I cosume more effectively. BTW: how does one know how much cholesterol is "good" enough or within nutritional level? Is it whatever, I get in my calculations?

The settings on the site are probably "good enough" for the average healthy person. But if your body creates more cholesterol than average, based on your diet, you'll need to work with your doctor and probably will need to be retested several times to determine what levels will work for YOU as an individual. Some people absorb "dietary cholesterol" from foods and need to be careful of that, while others don't. Some people have more of a problem with saturated fats (or certain types of saturated fats - usually animal based) than others. The good thing is that the blood tests can help you figure out where you need to be to do everything possible for the best health in the future.

MinnieInMaine

The science on these things is always changing so your best best is to get professional advice from your doctor and a nutritionist.

That said, the tips I've always heard are to cut down on your saturated fats, especially those from animal products, increase your cardio activity, increase your intake of fresh fruits and veggies, especially green things like kale and broccoli, eat more whole grains.

Good luck!