quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
For those of you who are concerned about your cholesterol, what measures do you take to control it?

With rare exceptions for sit-down restaurants, I exclusively eat food I prepare for myself. You either have to cook it or eat it raw. It makes you eat healthier because you don't go nuts with oil and cheese, and it makes you eat less because you want to avoid doing so much prep work.

And if you can: 100 pushups, 100 squats, 100 situps, 10 kilometers a day.

quote:

Originally posted by ammodotcom:
And if you can: 100 pushups, 100 squats, 100 situps, 10 kilometers a day.

Make that 100 pushups, 100 squats, 100 situps, 10 kilometers a decade.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
You've given me an idea- ice cream on a bun...

... breaded and deep-fried.


.

Atorvastatin (lipitor).

quote:

Originally posted by TigerDore:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
You've given me an idea- ice cream on a bun...

... breaded and deep-fried.

I just started taking Atorvastatin a few months ago after my bloodwork finally done me wrong. My cholesterol numbers were borderline for years and I’ve been lousy at exercising and diet. I’ve always enjoyed foods that are bad for me like pasta, fatty steak, pork, sausage, ribs etc and when I‘d eat a salad it’d be covered in Bleu cheese dressing.

These past three months we’ve been substituting zoodles that we make from zucchini for pasta, our own home made Bleu cheese dressing from non-fat Greek yogurt and crumbled Bleu cheese, chicken sausages instead of pork and lean cuts of beef like flank steak instead of porterhouse or t-bone.

I’ve lost 13 pounds in 3 months and I got a call from my doctors office yesterday saying that my bloodwork results from yesterday morning were greatly improved.

The science behind any causal connection between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol as well as between blood cholesterol and heart disease is not that different than the science behind global warming. It has become dogma and now there is so much money riding on it that alternative views are not tolerated.

I had high cholesterol and the doc put me on statins. I didn't really question it. But my cholesterol came down naturally when I was eating basically a SE Asian diet (because my girlfriend was Vietnamese). Fresh meat, fresh vegetables, low carbs (I didn't each much rice) and low dairy (esp. cheese). I lost weight without really trying, was back to my college graduation weight at age 44, and my cholesterol was below 200 without drugs. Asians also have no problem eating pure animal fat, such was pork belly cubes that are basically alternating layers of meat and fat. We are trained to cut off all the fat, which is hard to do with chopsticks (I've tried because I don't like the consistency of pure fat).

The push to eliminate cholesterol from our diets came after Eisenhower's heart attack. Trans fats were invented to allow margarine and other vegetable oil based substations for animal fats. This stuff was pushed on Americans, but after a few decades we found that trans fats cause your body to produce more cholesterol.

Cholesterol sticks to arterial walls yes, but the mechanism is not due simply to blood cholesterol level, since arteries are smooth on the inside. It takes irritation and inflammation of the arterial walls to provide a place for the cholesterol to stick. And evidence is showing the inflammation is caused by excess sugar transport via insulin. High sugar diets, including refined sugar, corn syrup, and simple carbs create blood sugar spike, overproduction of insulin, then a blood sugar crash, and release of stored sugar in the liver to compensate. One researcher realized this in the 70's and tried to draw attention to it, but was destroyed by the established "cholesterol is bad" scientists. So badly that no one tried it again until recently. Now, if you already have cholesterol build up in your arteries, then limiting blood cholesterol has value because you already have developed places for it to "stick".

Humans eating plenty of meat, dairy, eggs, and other cholesterol laden foods did not have the incidence of diabetes and heart disease (or obesity) Americans have today. All of these things, plus complex carbs, occur naturally and have been consumed by humans for thousands of years. High concentrations of refined sugar and simple carbs do not naturally occur and historically did not exist in most people's diets until relatively recently. One exception is the potato, but rice and grains are complex carbs unless refined into simple carbs. But the "experts" told us for decades to eat less meat and more grains, which for most Americans are simple carbs.

Diets high in simple carbs and sugar are the real problem causing obesity, heat disease, and diabetes. Low carb diets have some success because they reduce the intake of sugar. Having spent a lot of time in Asia I can attest to the relative lack of sugar in the diet. 90% pure dark chocolate is common, and 99% pure is available. Not much sugar and quite bitter. Also the lack of cheese does considerably reduce calorie intake since cheese is extremely dense in calories - too many calories will cause weight gain if your body doesn't need it. This is one reason Asians tend to be thin, and obesity is uncommon. Trust me, after a few weeks in Asia, returning to the US and getting off the plane into the terminal is a shock. Almost everyone is fat. But, obesity is on the rise in Asia due to the expansion of American foods into their diet.

Crestor and COQ10 let me eat the meats. I could eat cardboard and yard clippings and my genetics would still leave my cholesterol high.

quote:

Originally posted by TigerDore:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
You've given me an idea- ice cream on a bun...

... breaded and deep-fried.


.

OOOOOHHHHHH you just reminded me. ICE CREAM TEMPURA at a good Asian restaurant........

Having trouble Statin causing aches and sore muscles? Co q 10 might help. I take 600 mg a day and no problem with the statin I take.

Just say "No" to fatty foods. Eat all the fish, pork, and lean beef you want. Crunchy fresh fruit and veggies.

No bacon, fries, chips, sodas, candy. Walk a couple of hours a day (audio books are your friend).

https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Ric...h%2Caps%2C210&sr=8-2

https://www.amazon.com/Lies-My...TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Dr Robert C Atkins Lecturing At The USDA Great Nutrition Debate, 2000

Para - I understand that you don’t want to be a vegetarian. I don’t blame you. But this is how my doctor explained it to me. He said that “the easiest way to keep cholesterol out of your body is to not ingest it in the first place”. I am allergic to statins. I went totally vegan about four years ago. My cholesterol dropped by 60 points in the first 30 days. For the past year or so I’ve been taking a twice monthly injection called Repatha. Works incredibly well, but it is very expensive. Most insurance companies won’t cover it unless you have multiple cholesterol/heart issues. If one were to pay for it out of pocket it would cost around $15,000/year, but my overall cholesterol number is now less than 100. I really recommend going totally vegan. It works and there are no side effects (except a harder time finding things to eat). Sorry if some of this has been covered in prior posts, but I honestly didn’t read all of them in detail. Hope this helps.

Less than 35 percent of the cholesterol the body uses comes from dietary sources. Heart attack wasn't even a medical diagnosis at the turn of the 20th century. What changed? Nearly every processed food product manufactured today contains a combination of only 3 items; sugar, processed grains, and highly oxidative seed (vegetable) oils. The diet-heart hypothesis needs to die a traitor's death. Cholesterol is protective in the later years of life and every "study" linking it to CVD is associative at best and harmful at worst. Statins make a lot of money for companies who couldn't care less about health. One only needs to hear from individuals who have adopted a Proper Human Diet and DE-PRESCRIBED off medications. I am continually astounded when I hear discussions regarding a diet (vegan) primary based on the only macronutrient (carbohydrates) not required in the human diet.