Feels like I'm being epicly trolled...

Options
drwaddy
drwaddy Posts: 50 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Cliffs -

- I went to the doctor to get blood work done...

- My sugars are perfectly healthy... I'm not at risk for diabetes... (Shocked) Especially since my mother has it.

- I have a vitamin D deficiency which isn't surprising I work in an office and spend most of my free time in doors. (Fixing that with a supplement)

- I have high cholesterol... Ok, no surprise there but more on that in a minute.

- Aside from that, I am within normal levels on everything else, my liver / kidneys etc are all healthy, pretty happy about it.

- My diet is high in sodium/cholesterol, and I take blood pressure medication to help with hypertension, I also work in a very stressful field, attempts at lowering sodium have been defeating as it seems to be in ridiculous levels in everything I would even consider eating. Now, I'm having to worry about cholesterol which happens to be in massive abundance of all the meats/eggs which I tend to stay close to in order to bring in the kind of protein my body needs...

- Egg whites seem like the only real option for lowering cholesterol, which I plan to incorporate, but they're no better on sodium than the ham / steak's I've been sticking with...

How on earth do people eat a truly balanced diet that is low in carbs, super high in protein, low in cholesterol and sodium and not overly high in fat!? Are they herbivores!?
«1

Replies

  • mommyrunning
    mommyrunning Posts: 495 Member
    Options
    What about a protein powder? Preplanning is helpful. I enter food into my food log ahead of time and play around with it until is as close to being balanced as possible picking out my meal plans for a few days at a time.
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
    Options
    Not sure where you are getting your sodium count for eggs from. By looking at a whole egg vs same amount of calories of ham, the ham had almost 9 times the sodium of the whole egg. Maybe it's the egg white products that are high in sodium?

    Might want to look in to eating whole eggs for protein - recent stuff I've read indicates that the cholesterol in eggs is not going to raise blood cholesterol.
  • MsPudding
    MsPudding Posts: 562 Member
    Options
    Cholesterol in food is not the same as cholesterol in the blood.
  • drwaddy
    drwaddy Posts: 50 Member
    Options
    I'm not following anything other than what MFP says on its diet look up stuff, I've seen some inaccuracies but I'm choosing to try and trust the system as much as possible since it's been working for the weight loss. As for the protein powder, I'm consuming at least one protein shake a day, I'm trying to avoid more than that since I was feeling burned out trying to make it through on like 6 of them a day for protein.
  • drwaddy
    drwaddy Posts: 50 Member
    Options
    Cholesterol in food is not the same as cholesterol in the blood.

    Oh, well now I feel silly... Think I need to spend some time on google then.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    Options
    It's my understanding that lipid levels aren't actually affected by the cholesterol eaten but by genetis and dietary saturated fats. Other ways you can help lower cholesterol is to eat more fiber (whole grain oats, leafy greens, etc), take fish oil (or eat more fatty fish and use other healthy oils in cooking) and do cardiovascular exercises.

    I eat tons of eggs and meat and while my cholesterol is borderline, my ratios are perfect andI have a genetic predisposition so it's not a big deal. Years past when I cleaned my diet up a couple months before having labs done, the numbers were perfect. My doc understands this thankfully and hasn't tried pushing meds on me since I started my healthier lifestyle.

    Here's a link to the AHA with all kinds of info about cholesterol. Happy reading!

    http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/CholestrolATH_UCM_001089_SubHomePage.jsp
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Options
    Personally I don't try to avoid carbs - that makes it one step easier. I do watch sodium, somewhat. Some days are better than others, and I try to offset by making sure to drink more water. (Work in progress.)
  • Four_Leaf_Clover
    Four_Leaf_Clover Posts: 332 Member
    Options
    Any kind of cured or deli meat is going to be high sodium - what about more chicken breast, fish, even lean pork
    Those will have a lot less sodium and still help with your protein intake.
  • MsPudding
    MsPudding Posts: 562 Member
    Options
    You're not being silly - it used to be said that foods that were high in cholesterol caused high blood cholesterol...and eggs became 'demon food' as a result. Luckily that was debunked some time ago.

    There's many causes of high cholesterol and, in fact, 'high' cholesterol in and of itself isn't bad because there's good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL), so it's really what your bad cholesterol count is...not your cholesterol count overall....that matters.

    Did your Doctor talk about the causes? Because genetics is a big one and there's not a lot you can do about that! My aunt suffers from high cholesterol and she's a non-smoking, teetotal vegan. I have low cholesterol and I eat a lot of so-called 'bad' saturated fats. I take after my Father who's the size of a house but, at 70, doesn't have high cholesterol.

    Other causes can be stress, smoking, lack of exercise, obesity and people with high blood pressure also often have high cholesterol.
  • alfiedn
    alfiedn Posts: 425 Member
    Options
    There is a product called "no salt." My grandmother uses it in place of salt because she has an ear disease and a low sodium diet helps. If you bake with it, it doesn't quite act like salt, but it tastes pretty similar on foods as a seasoning.

    You can get lots of great proteins from beans, lentils, etc. however, they can be a bit high carb, so be careful.
  • SandraJN
    SandraJN Posts: 304 Member
    Options
    I don't know how in-depth your blood testing was for blood glucose, so I will tell you my experience. My dad's family has diabetes throughout. I developed the large beach ball belly a few years ago and I started to have symptoms which were making me concerned. I would ask to have a glucose test and it always came back in the normal range.

    This year I went to a specialist who ordered more extensive testing, turns out I am seriously insulin resistant, which is a precursor to diabetes and is very debilitating. Insulin resistance generally isn't caught with a blood glucose test, so much insulin is being produced that the sugar count will come back normal.
  • cebreisch
    cebreisch Posts: 1,340 Member
    Options
    Focus on quality protein and that will help - and make sure you increase your fiber and water intake.

    Just some things that have helped me:
    *Use ground turkey in our chili and spaghetti; nobody can even tell
    *Light mozzarella string cheese
    *have chicken or turkey more than beef, but sometimes you do just gotta have a good piece of meat!!
    *protein powder shake mixes
    *chocolate protein bars (www.healthsmartfoods.com) (they have protein shake mixes too) - this one also helps with the fiber thing. Each bar has about 10 g of protein and about 10 g of fiber.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    Options
    Not sure where you are getting your sodium count for eggs from. By looking at a whole egg vs same amount of calories of ham, the ham had almost 9 times the sodium of the whole egg. Maybe it's the egg white products that are high in sodium?

    Might want to look in to eating whole eggs for protein - recent stuff I've read indicates that the cholesterol in eggs is not going to raise blood cholesterol.

    I have been hearing that too.

    What I do is scramble up an egg with one egg equivalent of Eggbeaters to cut the calories and fat a little but get all of the protein and flavor with more volume. I don't have to watch my cholesterol or sodium but I do try to keep the sodium under 2300 a day anyway.

    Large egg: 70 calories, 70 mg sodium, 185 mg cholesterol, 5 gr fat, 6 gr protein
    Eggbeaters (3Tbl = one egg): 25 calories, 90 mg sodium, 0 mg cholesterol, 0 gr fat, 5 gr protein
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    Options
    Any kind of cured or deli meat is going to be high sodium - what about more chicken breast, fish, even lean pork
    Those will have a lot less sodium and still help with your protein intake.

    I recently discovered Boars Head deli meats. They have a couple of no salt added (turkey breast and roast beef) and several reduced sodium. All are very tasty!

    I have also started making my own lunch meats by cooking a beef roast in my crock pot and slicing it or roasting a turkey breast in the oven and slicing it. Usually it is more than I will eat in a week so I freeze some instead of wasting it.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    Options
    If you have high cholesterol, you will want to incorporate much more fiber into your diet, like broccoli. In addition to some fats with the fiber.

    The details:

    The presence of fat in the duodenum (area immediately after the stomach), will cause your gall bladder to secrete stored bile. To emulsify the fats, making it easier to digest. Normally, once this is done, the gall bladder takes back the bile to use again later.

    However, if there is fiber present, the fiber actually soaks up the bile and drags it down and out of the system. So, the body needs to create more bile. One of the main ingredients in bile is cholesterol... which happens to be readily available in the blood stream! So, your body will simply take it from there. Ta da! Less cholesterol in your system.
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    Options
    I thought this type of plan did not have to be low in fat to work?
  • drwaddy
    drwaddy Posts: 50 Member
    Options
    I'm not trying to be low in fat, fat just happens to have a ton of calories associated with it. So, reducing fat makes it easier to hit my goals for the day.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    Options
    I'm not trying to be low in fat, fat just happens to have a ton of calories associated with it. So, reducing fat makes it easier to hit my goals for the day.

    Some fats are necessary. Fat is required for hormonal balance and some vitamin absorption. Additionally, as I mentioned in my above post, you'll need to ingest some fast in order to get bile released so fiber can clear it out.

    A little dressing (not the non-fat stuff) on a salad, peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat, and broccoli with cheese or ranch dressing are all wonderful ideas.
  • drwaddy
    drwaddy Posts: 50 Member
    Options
    I'm over my fat recommendation almost every single day, I'm just not going crazy with it, I get plenty of fat, no worries! 8 )
  • dmenchac
    dmenchac Posts: 447 Member
    Options
    Cholesterol in food is not the same as cholesterol in the blood.

    This exactly.

    And no reason to feel silly. Many people get this confused.

Categories