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For the past few years, our diet has been focusing more and more on produce that I grow on my land.
With my Dw's occasional baking we go through about 10-pounds of sugar each year. [we still have a couple bags of sugar that we bought on sale years ago]
Most of her baking has been in conjunction with testing new recipes where she substitutes dried-bean flour for wheat flour. [she presents a workshop at our annual self-sufficiency fair]
Our salt consumption is at about 1 pound every 4 years. [I bought this salt we have in the house now in 2004]
We shifted to poultry once a week, fish once a week and the rest is mostly veggies, no fried foods, back in 1995 [2 years before moving to Italy].
While in Italy we ended up swearing off all red meat, all dairy, any oils outside of grapeseed oil [it became clear that olive oil spikes my cholesterol numbers. In fact among the group of us, olive oil seemed to be the biggest single factor in increased cholesterol. The nutritionist had a stack of studies that had been done about how olive oil does that, it may be slightly less bad for you as compared to corn oil, but that is far far removed from being 'good' ]. And of course all pre-processed corporate-marketed foods.
Also fruit juice is completely forbidden as it spikes triglycerides.
btw.
A low-carbohydrate, low-protein, no-refined-sugar, no-salt diet results mostly in the veggies you can grow in your backyard.
A diet with a significant amount of carbs, no matter what kind, can send TG levels very high. Once your body has stored all of the carbs it can, it start converting glucose into TG.
My husband was prescribed cholesterol meds the last time he went in for a physical. Doc said his bad cholesterol was too high.
Hubby didn't want to start taking meds. He didn't want to depend on a pill for staying healthy. He didn't like the idea of paying for meds every month. He saw this as a huge sign. He took action.
He started walking every day during his lunch break at work. Sometimes we would walk after dinner, too. He started small and has worked his way up to longer distances. He just started jogging recently. We're doing couch25k together. He is drinking more water, and cutting out unhealthy foods. He only eats meat once a week now, and he does fresh veggie juice every day (a blend of kale, spinach, parsley, cilantro, carrot, celery, cucumber, ginger, lemon, apple).
A few weeks later after his physical he went back to the doc. Doc checked his cholesterol and said, "Hey, looks like the meds are really working!" Hubby told the doc he never even filled the prescription. Doc was amazed. Hubby had lost lots of weight, too!
My deceased husband always had high cholesterol. It averaged 230. His doctor prescibed meds to bring it down. It took the meds, his cholesterol moved up to over 300. It appeared that his body was working to make up for the cholesterol that the meds were extracting. He stopped taking the meds, and poof, back down to the 230 range it went.
He died at age 78, of cancer, no heart related disease, go figure.
Our salt consumption is at about 1 pound every 4 years. [I bought this salt we have in the house now in 2004]
While in Italy we ended up swearing off all red meat, all dairy, any oils outside of grapeseed oil [it became clear that olive oil spikes my cholesterol numbers. In fact among the group of us, olive oil seemed to be the biggest single factor in increased cholesterol. The nutritionist had a stack of studies that had been done about how olive oil does that, it may be slightly less bad for you as compared to corn oil, but that is far far removed from being 'good' ]. And of course all pre-processed corporate-marketed foods.
Also fruit juice is completely forbidden as it spikes triglycerides.
fruit juice does indeed spike triglycerides, even 100% natural pure fruit juice. 100% of fructose goes through the liver. And the liver can only handle so much. That's why anywhere from 20% to 50% of the fructose you consume gets repackaged as triglycerides and pushed back out into your blood. This is not good.
But... grapeseed oil is way too high in polyunsaturated omega6 fat. You need some polys, even O6, but I wouldn't seek out rich sources of it intentionally, as most people are getting enough in their daily diet by default. And Olive Oil is leagues better than corn oil. Corn oil is naaaaaasty stuff. I mean, heck, you can even look at the Wiki page for that. Look at the "Production" section. Yummy!
EVOO, on the other hand, is pure and unprocessed, and is rich in antioxidants and other compounds. It's not the BEST oil, but it's nowhere near corn oil. I still sometimes drizzle extra virgin olive oil on my salads. I would consider EVOO a good oil. I would ignore whatever your Nutritionist told you about it spiking cholesterol. That's not even relevant.
Regarding salt, we need salt. Salt has been unfairly blamed for all kinds of stuff. But if you stick to low sodium foods, you actually may not be getting enough salt!! Personally, I use pure sea salt. Table salt is processed metals. Just have a look at the ingredients. It's fake.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pawporri
Smart move on the juices. When you read labels and see 32 grams of sugar per cup of juice, it wakes you up. The other surprise for me was 13-16 grams in milk, so I switched to rice milk, tastes the same, but you have to find the kind that is sugar free. I try to stay at 15 grams of sugar a day Take supplemental calcium to replace loss in no milk.
Breads are another surprise sugar package. Really surprised after label checks at how many breads use so much sugar when it is really not necessary. Dry cereals are real culprits, too.
Pawporri - milk sugar is lactose. If you're gonna drink milk, drink farm fresh, whole, organic milk from cows fed on grass and treated well. I would not recommend 2% homogenized ultra pasteurized. that's the worst of all combos, and the most common. The fats in milk are good for you. I drink it RAW, because I live in CA and my local Henry's sells fresh raw milk from a local grass fed organic operation called Organic Pastures, but many people cannot do that because fear mongering and lunacy of ignorant people have made it illegal in most states.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dollydo
My deceased husband always had high cholesterol. It averaged 230. His doctor prescibed meds to bring it down. It took the meds, his cholesterol moved up to over 300. It appeared that his body was working to make up for the cholesterol that the meds were extracting. He stopped taking the meds, and poof, back down to the 230 range it went.
He died at age 78, of cancer, no heart related disease, go figure.
Dollydo,
Your story makes perfect sense to me. No need to go figure. Our bodies make cholesterol on purpose. It's there for a reason. They are transporters of ALL kinds of things. Cholesterol is more for protection and healthy living than anything. It has been unfairly demonized. Cholesterol DOES NOT ever cause heart disease. It can't! Cholesterol is the victim in heart disease. It is only when cholesterol is oxidized that creates macrophage foam cells. Oxidation and inflammation. Bam!
Statins confuse the body. The body does not know what to do with that. This explains the wide variety of reponses people have to statins.
Count me among the non-compliant. I suppose I should worry about it but I don't. I do know that when I've watched the statin commercials with care, that the fine print at the bottom said that this drug doesn't actually prevent heart disease! My mother took it for awhile and got so she couldn't walk b/c the muscles in her feet and legs atrophied so badly. She also got very confused, with alzheimer's symptoms, though it's possible that she was getting alz at that time anyway. Same happened with a cousin--he started taking statins and he also started showing symptoms of alz at the same time he started the drug.
So. . . we have a drug that doesn't actually claim to prevent heart disease, and it makes your muscles atrophy so that you can't exercise, which prevents heart disease, btw. Added to that is the possibility that it's really not good for your brain and may bring on alz symptoms sooner than you would have had them--mind you, that's just conjecture, but I talked to many people who made the same observation in their family. I can't think of one good reason to take it other than to lower a number that may or may not be dangerous, since there seems to be little correlation between high cholesterol in women and heart disease. I am much more worried about inflammation. Count me among the non-compliant.
Good call. There is a reason for the connection to Alz. People who are ApoE4 have a much higher chance of getting Alz (something like 15x higher probability). ApoE4 is genetic. So if the next thought of logic is... well then what about people who are not ApoE4 and take statins, and get Alz? Well, it is likely because the statins are screwing with the LDL receptor activity, just as ApoE4 does.
And that's why the other possible negative with ApoE4 is for cardiovascular health. If LDL receptor activity is low or being downregulated (could be a number of factors), your LDL will remain in the blood longer, which leaves it open for hgiher risk of oxidating. HDL will also, unfortunately be low. This will skew your HDL/LDL ratio and it is believed that this is not a good thing overall for cardiovascular health, primarily because one who has these factors working against them in this way will likely have a higher count of small dense pattern B LDL particles. That's the variation of LDL that is more at risk for oxidation, which is a REAL and legitimate concern.
Where does this all connect to Alz? Well, the statins are probably causing the same issue that is found in people who are geneticly ApoE4.
As I have said in many other threads, statins are unnatural. Cholesterol lowering drugs are NOT a good idea. Cholesterol is not an enemy. HDL and even LDL is present in the blood because they serve as transporters. In many cases, statins lower cholesterol by lowering inflammation. That can serve as a good thing, but the catch 22 is that it seriously alters the other pathways and biomechanics of cholesterol. It has been shown over and over and over that statin drugs have severe side effects in many people. And these companies can come out with studies all day long, all decade long, all century long 'proving' that they save lives, but there are major major flaws in their so called proof.
1. We don't know for sure that the person who's life was 'saved' by the statin would have had an incident anyway because their interpretation that they were 'at risk' is heavily flawed.
2. Even with cold hard data that statins lowers cholesterol, this does NOTHING to prove the appropriate effectiveness of lowering mortality. In fact, in my opinion, it may indicate that statins are causing significant harm by lowering cholesertol in otherwise healthy people. The lipid hypothesis is very incorrect. Yet the drug companies march on with their experimental statin trials on humans, justifying their profits with flawed data, lies, and false conclusions, because they 'have to'.
As I stated at the very top, good call on saying no to cholesterol lowering meds.
My husband won't take them. He was diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia when he was 22. He has taken on and off over the years, but every time he takes them for a while he gets muscle aches; says like he feels like an old man (he's 48). He told me last week he's not taking them anymore. Can't say that I blame him. A few years ago he was in the doctor's office, in the exam room, and as the doctor was getting ready to come into the room a pharmaceutical rep stopped her and he heard the drug rep talking to her about a specific statin drug. I'm not sure whether doctors get a kickback from it, but if so it's reprehensible.
I had read something online a couple of years ago written by a doctor who said that statins do lower the cholesterol level in the blood but there is no proof that it does anything to lessen the occurrence of heart attack or stroke even with the lower level of cholesterol.
My husband won't take them. He was diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia when he was 22. He has taken on and off over the years, but every time he takes them for a while he gets muscle aches; says like he feels like an old man (he's 48). He told me last week he's not taking them anymore. Can't say that I blame him. A few years ago he was in the doctor's office, in the exam room, and as the doctor was getting ready to come into the room a pharmaceutical rep stopped her and he heard the drug rep talking to her about a specific statin drug. I'm not sure whether doctors get a kickback from it, but if so it's reprehensible.
I had read something online a couple of years ago written by a doctor who said that statins do lower the cholesterol level in the blood but there is no proof that it does anything to lessen the occurrence of heart attack or stroke even with the lower level of cholesterol.
Yes, and if you watch the statin commercials carefully, they will even tell you that themselves. Watch close or you'll miss it.
I'm pretty sure the docs do get a kickback from it and if I can locate the article I'll get a link up here.
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]. And of course all pre-processed corporate-marketed foods.
