Ok. Now the fat gram count begins

[Sharron1]

Hba1c ok just need to work on lowering cholesterol a little. So back to number crunching. A little less cheese, peanut butter and of course the delicious almonds...

 

[trophywench]

No! Blood cholesterol is not affected by what fat you do or don't eat, Sharron. The only thing we eat which does affect the chol level in the blood, is carbohydrates.

However if you do eat pound and pounds of cheese every week, daily streaky bacon sandwiches and butter on all your veg then yes ok, that doesn't sound too healthy! LOL

 

[Jodee]

That will help if you are looking to lose some weight which in turn can help to lower cholesterol

Best wishes

 

[Eddy Edson]

Hba1c ok just need to work on lowering cholesterol a little. So back to number crunching. A little less cheese, peanut butter and of course the delicious almonds...

But do remember that it's only saturated fats which increase LDL, not poly- or mono-unsaturated, which you don't want to cut, probably.

Also, replacing sat fats with poly- or mon-unsaturated generally has only a modest impact, depending on how much you're cutting by: for every 1% of daily calories from sat fats replaced by unsaturated or carbs, figure something like 0.03 - 0.05 mmol/L reduction in LDL. So to get a 0.3 mmol/L reduction in LDL via this method, figure replacing something like 5% - 10% of yr daily calories from sat fats with something else.

(All fats are about 9 cals per g. If you're eating 2,000 cal per day, that means replacing 100 - 200 sat fat cals = about 11 - 22 sat fat g)

Another dietary thing you might try is upping fibre. This generally reduces LDL, maybe quite effectively, but it's pretty variable, I think.

I think every just about food has some combination of satfats, poly-unsatfats and mono-unsatfats, so if you're trying to optimise it's a juggling act. Eg:

- If you cut almonds you're cutting a small amount of satfats but a much larger amount of mono and poly. Probably not a good move. I eat a ton of them and they are loaded with other nutrients - one of the last things I'd ever cut.

- It works a bit better with peanuts, because they have a higher proportion of satfats, but they still have a lot more unsaturated. I eat quite a lot of them, partly because they are a pretty good source of protein, and they offer a pretty good protein/satfat trade-off compared to many other foods.

- Cheese has more satfats than unsaturated and it's one of the first things I cut when I was zapping my LDL. YMMV; depends how aggressive you want to be.

- Avocados - as for peanuts, higher satfats than eg almonds but still much less than unsatfats, and great load of other nutrients and fibre. You can take my avocado when you prise it out of my cold dead hand.

Hmmm. It's all a bit of a vortex, I suppose. Why not just take a statin if you want to crunch your LDL? It will almost certainly have a bigger impact than diet changes.

Anyway, this is a useful tool for juggling: www.cronometer.com

Me: Started with LDL = 3.2. I'm "high risk" so I wanted to bring it down as low as possible, probably more aggressively than you need to. I eat less than 6% cals from satfats, mainly plant based, and 70g+ of fibre. and I take the max dose of the strongest statin. My LDL is now 0.7, about as low as you can get it without moving on to newer stronger meds.

Of that reduction by 2.5, I estimate about 1.8 is due to statin and 0.7 to replacing satfats and increasing fibre.

 

[Wirrallass]

Hello Sharron
I'm in the same boat as yourself. I ordered these two books from Amazon, arrived Monday so I haven't had a chance to start reading them yet. Sometimes I find it easier to read a book as opposed to reading on line.

I keep 'Cut Your Cholesterol' in the bathroom so I can read it when I'm having a bath!🙄 and the 'Low-Cholesterol Cook Book' in the kitchen. Make sense🙂
Just thought you might be interested.

WL

 

[Sharron1]

No! Blood cholesterol is not affected by what fat you do or don't eat, Sharron. The only thing we eat which does affect the chol level in the blood, is carbohydrates.

However if you do eat pound and pounds of cheese every week, daily streaky bacon sandwiches and butter on all your veg then yes ok, that doesn't sound too healthy! LOL

Thanks. I didn't know that. God there is so much to learn!

 

[SueEK]

Hi Sharron, all my cholesterol results are now in the normal range. I cut carbs and increased fat. In fact I’ve increased my carbs a little and fat quite a lot as I’m one of the forums skinny T2s so need to keep my weight up so eating fat does not seem to have increased my cholesterol at all, quite the reverse.

 

[Tee G]

Hi @Sharron1 - Im similar to you (had a little hiccup a few years ago with LDL being too high) way before my diabetes arrived. But i took to power walking for 6 months 4 times a week (twice a day for 15 min each time) and managed to avoid statins!.......
However, now ive had this diabetes thrust upon me, and a complete overhaul to my diet, quite alien at times, eating foods containing little or no carbs and an increase in meats/cheeses. I am a bit worried at my next blood test (In April) as the Dr is also requesting a cholesterol check up too! EEEK....but i know I have tried to be good where the saturates are concerned and have tried to stick to healthy fats to replace the carbs to keep me fuller for longer. Things like avocado and nuts etc - I hope I got it right! Fingers crossed for both of us ! I will let you know the results I get. 😎

 

[Sharron1]

But do remember that it's only saturated fats which increase LDL, not poly- or mono-unsaturated, which you don't want to cut, probably.

Also, replacing sat fats with poly- or mon-unsaturated generally has only a modest impact, depending on how much you're cutting by: for every 1% of daily calories from sat fats replaced by unsaturated or carbs, figure something like 0.03 - 0.05 mmol/L reduction in LDL. So to get a 0.3 mmol/L reduction in LDL via this method, figure replacing something like 5% - 10% of yr daily calories from sat fats with something else.

(All fats are about 9 cals per g. If you're eating 2,000 cal per day, that means replacing 100 - 200 sat fat cals = about 11 - 22 sat fat g)

Another dietary thing you might try is upping fibre. This generally reduces LDL, maybe quite effectively, but it's pretty variable, I think.

I think every just about food has some combination of satfats, poly-unsatfats and mono-unsatfats, so if you're trying to optimise it's a juggling act. Eg:

- If you cut almonds you're cutting a small amount of satfats but a much larger amount of mono and poly. Probably not a good move. I eat a ton of them and they are loaded with other nutrients - one of the last things I'd ever cut.

- It works a bit better with peanuts, because they have a higher proportion of satfats, but they still have a lot more unsaturated. I eat quite a lot of them, partly because they are a pretty good source of protein, and they offer a pretty good protein/satfat trade-off compared to many other foods.

- Cheese has more satfats than unsaturated and it's one of the first things I cut when I was zapping my LDL. YMMV; depends how aggressive you want to be.

- Avocados - as for peanuts, higher satfats than eg almonds but still much less than unsatfats, and great load of other nutrients and fibre. You can take my avocado when you prise it out of my cold dead hand.

Hmmm. It's all a bit of a vortex, I suppose. Why not just take a statin if you want to crunch your LDL? It will almost certainly have a bigger impact than diet changes.

Anyway, this is a useful tool for juggling: www.cronometer.com

Me: Started with LDL = 3.2. I'm "high risk" so I wanted to bring it down as low as possible, probably more aggressively than you need to. I eat less than 6% cals from satfats, mainly plant based, and 70g+ of fibre. and I take the max dose of the strongest statin. My LDL is now 0.7, about as low as you can get it without moving on to newer stronger meds.

Of that reduction by 2.5, I estimate about 1.8 is due to statin and 0.7 to replacing satfats and increasing fibre.

Thanks. From your info I will ration the cheese but stick with the almonds, avocado and add some more grains to keep my chia seeds company. I only found out LDL was the 'bad' cholesterol yesterday.

 

[trophywench]

The correct balance between the various components of serum cholesterol is what you want to achieve.

Not just 'less LDL'.

 

[Sharron1]

Hi Sharron, all my cholesterol results are now in the normal range. I cut carbs and increased fat. In fact I’ve increased my carbs a little and fat quite a lot as I’m one of the forums skinny T2s so need to keep my weight up so eating fat does not seem to have increased my cholesterol at all, quite the reverse.

I am also a skinny one, which is why the almond and avocado feast is such a delight and pleasure

 

[Sharron1]

The correct balance between the various components of serum cholesterol is what you want to achieve.

Not just 'less LDL'.

My understanding is that it is the ratio thing between good and bad cholesterol.

 

[Sharron1]

I am also a skinny one, which is why the almond and avocado feast is such a delight and pleasure

The correct balance between the various components of serum cholesterol is what you want to achieve.

Not just 'less LDL'.

Ok another question please. The Hba1c blood test I had last week showed the cholestrol results. Is that the same test that is done for just a cholesterol test?

 

[Kaylz]

Ok another question please. The Hba1c blood test I had last week showed the cholestrol results. Is that the same test that is done for just a cholesterol test?

As part of your diabetes review you have full bloods done but yes it would be the same had it just been your cholesterol you were having done, if I'm understanding your question correctly xx

 

[Sharron1]

As part of your diabetes review you have full bloods done but yes it would be the same had it just been your cholesterol you were having done, if I'm understanding your question correctly xx

Thanks.I did wonder what the difference could be.

 

[Drummer]

I found an article on the BMJ Open site, which was removed, but fortunately I took a copy - if you read it you can see how heretical it is - but what if it is true and by reducing cholesterol, targetting LDL, we are shortening our lives?

cholesterol

Abstract from bmjopen.bmj.com

Lack of an association or an inverse association between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly: a systematic review



Objective It is well known that total cholesterol becomes less of a risk factor or not at all for all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality with increasing age, but as little is known as to whether low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), one component of total cholesterol, is associated with mortality in the elderly, we decided to investigate this issue.

Setting, participants and outcome measures We sought PubMed for cohort studies, where LDL-C had been investigated as a risk factor for all-cause and/or CV mortality in individuals ≥60 years from the general population.

Results We identified 19 cohort studies including 30 cohorts with a total of 68 094 elderly people, where all-cause mortality was recorded in 28 cohorts and CV mortality in 9 cohorts. Inverse association between all-cause mortality and LDL-C was seen in 16 cohorts (in 14 with statistical significance) representing 92% of the number of participants, where this association was recorded. In the rest, no association was found. In two cohorts, CV mortality was highest in the lowest LDL-C quartile and with statistical significance; in seven cohorts, no association was found.

Conclusions High LDL-C is inversely associated with mortality in most people over 60 years. This finding is inconsistent with the cholesterol hypothesis (ie, that cholesterol, particularly LDL-C, is inherently atherogenic). Since elderly people with high LDL-C live as long or longer than those with low LDL-C, our analysis provides reason to question the validity of the cholesterol hypothesis. Moreover, our study provides the rationale for a re-evaluation of guidelines recommending pharmacological reduction of LDL-C in the elderly as a component of cardiovascular disease prevention strategies.

 

[trophywench]

Yes Drummer! Also (unless this report is about the same research) in the US a tranche of research was done specifically on people living in retirement complexes - the sort of places eg McCartney & Stone offer for sale here in the UK, but being America theirs are usually bigger LOL so have more people living in them. Whilst all these places offer other things as well as apartments to reside within, none of them were either what we call nursing homes nor old folks homes - ie the folk weren't markedly unwell or incapable - and the older you got, the healthier a higher LDL level seemed to be. The most unwell ones were the ones with a lower level of it.