High Cholesterol

Question
I just received my test results and it shows my total as: 318, my Good Choles as: 38, my bad choles as: 239.  

I am beginning a riding regiment and will be adjusting my diet.  Can you recommend a place I can find a list of foods that are recommend, not just a list of what I can't have?

Answer
Craig,

It is estimated that there are around 10,000 NEW food items in grocery stores EACH YEAR.  It would be impossible to create a list of good and bad foods.  Sorry.

When it comes to eating healthfully, you really need to do some homework and learn what MAKES a food good or bad.

First, saturated fats (animal fats) and trans-fatty acids (margarine & fried foods) stimulate your body to make more cholesterol.  Our bodies make, depending on our genetics, about 85-95% of the cholesterol in our systems.  This means that our diet can change our cholesterol levels by about 5-15%.  Dietary cholesterol, the cholesterol in eggs, red meat and shrimp, etc., has less effect on our cholesterol than saturated fats and trans-fatty acids.

Here is a general list of good and bad;

Good:
fruits & vegetables
lean meats
low-fat dairy products (all the calcium, much less fat)
unsaturated fats (olive oil, canola oil, nuts, fish)
fish - deserves to be on the list twice!
WHOLE grains - lots of fiber is the key here
foods without added sugars
fruits & vegetables (again, on the list twice!)

Bad:
fatty meats
whole milk dairy products
baked goods (baked with lots of margarine & processed grains)
foods with added sugars

You can get more info from:

American Dietetic Association (ADA)
http://www.eatright.org/Public/NutritionInformation/92.cfm

American Heart Association
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3014862

There is one (almost) guarantee about your cholesterol levels; you will almost certainly not be able to get it down to "desirable" levels through diet alone.  Many studies with thousands of people over many years have demonstrated that the best diet yields about a 10-15% reduction in total cholesterol and an 8-10% reduction in LDL.  This would leave your LDL still over 200, and you should probably be at 130 or less.  

To check your overall risk of cardiovascular disease (heart attack & stroke), go here:
http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/atpiii/calculator.asp?usertype=prof

Change your cholesterol level from 318 to 180 (and your HDL from 38 to 45) and see what it does to your risk.

For more information on many cholesterol-related topics, you can go here:  www.lipid-clinic.com

Craig, if lowering cholesterol were as easy as following a list of good foods, then cardiovascular disease would not be the number one killer in the U.S.

Best of luck.

Todd

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