MFP Cholesterol Stats

FortWildernessLoopy
FortWildernessLoopy Posts: 62 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I am curious. My husband has high blood pressure and high cholesterol. When he's tracking his stats on here, is it tracking good cholesterol (which his is too low) or bad cholesterol (his is too high)? I'm not sure how to adjust our diets because it shows his goals are under each day for cholesterol, I'm just not sure if that's good or bad. Thank you.

Replies

  • FIT_Goat
    FIT_Goat Posts: 4,224 Member
    Dietary cholesterol has little to no relationship with blood cholesterol. You can't use the amount of cholesterol you eat to predict what is happening with the cholesterol in your blood (HDL/LDL).

    In short, that number is not going to help you.
  • FortWildernessLoopy
    FortWildernessLoopy Posts: 62 Member
    Thank you. I have always had low cholesterol but low "good cholesterol", too and my husband has high everything but the good stuff, lol. Wonder why the stat is even there :ohwell:
  • FIT_Goat
    FIT_Goat Posts: 4,224 Member
    The stat is there because some people like to watch dietary cholesterol. Some people are hyper-responders to it, and it will raise their blood cholesterol (but usually raises both without changing the ratio... so it's a wash). The official recommendations are to eat less than 300mg a day, but that's not really been shown to be helpful. If you'd like to eat less, the stat is there.

    Blood cholesterol is more about the balance of kinds of fats you eat as well as carbs (high carbs -- especially refined carbs -- raise triglycerides and that impacts the LDL, bad cholesterol). Basically, limit the refined carbs. Eat fats that raise the good cholesterol and/or lower the bad. Especially avoid trans-fats.
  • FortWildernessLoopy
    FortWildernessLoopy Posts: 62 Member
    So for good cholesterol (the kind we both lack) should I be looking at "good" fats like Avocado, nuts, etc? Willthtat effect the cholesterol our doctors are talking about? Sorry if it sounds ignorant, you can tell by how much I have to lose that I am truly clueless on this.

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