Anyone else watching salt and cholesterol??

HeidiCooksSupper wrote: »

You might want to read up on the latest information about the links between diet and serum cholesterol. Recent research is finding that cholesterol levels in food may have less to do with serum cholesterol than other dietary choices. It may be that controlling your intake of carbohydrates is more important than consumption of dietary cholesterol in controlling serum cholesterol.

Here's some links from science-based sources:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fats-full-story/
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/low-carbohydrate-diets/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-blog/new-cholesterol-guidelines/bgp-20127383

This. There are whole books on this subject if you (the OP) are interested.

jddnw wrote: »

And whatever you do, don't let your doctor start you on statin drugs until you have thoroughly researched the pros and cons of them. There are many cons.

Not only did I end up with the overall pains, weakness, and lethargy from statins, eventually I came down with shingles as a side effect. Statins can be very good for many people and they worked for me for awhile but keep aware of the side effects and if you get them talk to your doctor about going off statins ASAP.

Also, watch your vitamin D levels.

I also have high cholesterol, but have managed to get it down to around 210 with exercise and diet. Mine is also genetic, and yet, despite having high cholesterol, my parents and grandparents were normal weight and rather long-lived. I lost only one grandfather pre-age 60. Women in both sides of my family live past 90; my grandmother lived to 102 and had bacon, butter, and ice cream in her house until they hauled her off the the nursing home in her late 90s (due to brittle bones, not dementia or any cardio issues!). I have lots of issues with joint and muscle pain already, so I want to stay off statins, and doctors seem to just want to put you on a med as soon as you cross a certain threshhold, so I've tried to be careful.

However, after reading the recent study, I have relaxed about the proscriptions against eating eggs, and didn't see a huge difference in the numbers. My doctor says that eating things like baked goods which usually have sugar and some kind of hydrogenated fat, actually impacts cholesterol more than eggs, shellfish, and reasonable quantities of red meat. I also exercise a lot, so my HDL (good cholesterol) is high.

As people have said prior, cholesterol levels have little to do with your dietary cholesterol intake which is cool for lots of people who limited things like eggs in the past.

Cholesterol levels are really influenced by fat in your body, if you have a lot of extra fat caused by excess calorie intake/mostly carb intake, that is being made into the precursor that makes cholesterol. So if your LDL levels, VDLs decrease then your cholesterol levels should improve. I'd also like to point out that HDL, LDL, VDLs aren't cholesterol levels, they are lipoproteins so not the same thing as cholesterol.

Salt is another matter entirely, but if you generally cut out higher carb/calorie foods your salt intake decreases as well.