Cholesterol: cue the violins

[Pipp]

I already do all of the above, except it's not a monastery

I crochet my own yoghurt too...does this mean I'm safe ?

Has anyone else tried taking plant sterol tablets as an alternative to statins or Benecol type products ? I did, purely as an experiment to see if they did make any difference to cholesterol following the GP's insistence that mine was higher than it should be (but still within "normal" parameters ) and that I SHOULD continue with statins despite horrific side effects which they seem to believe were all in my mind anyway. For me, they did work, but having established that they did and showed the GP that my hippy ways worked, I stopped as I'm not at all convinced that my cholesterol needed adjusting in the first place.

Signy

Quite right. Doctors controlled by pharmaceutical companies as usual.

 

[noblehead]

Reference the Benecol drinks and exercise.

There was a member on last year who reported they'd reduced their cholesterol levels by drinking a Benecol drink everyday and eating 3 cloves of garlic (raw ). Garlic is well known for reducing harmful cholesterol levels (Google).

Exercise is well known for reducing cholesterol levels and I was only chatting about this last year when I had my diabetes review, again it's well documented on the web for anyone that wants to take a look.

 

[Pipp]

Reference the Benecol drinks and exercise.

There was a member on last year who reported they'd reduced their cholesterol levels by drinking a Benecol drink everyday and eating 3 cloves of garlic (raw ). Garlic is well known for reducing harmful cholesterol levels (Google).

Exercise is well known for reducing cholesterol levels and I was only chatting about this last year when I had my diabetes review, again it's well documented on the web for anyone that wants to take a look.

Yes, I also take one kwai garlic tablet a day. Much more sociable than raw garlic.

 

[noblehead]

Yes, I also take one kwai garlic tablet a day. Much more sociable than raw garlic.

I was taking a Kwai garlic tablet up until 2 years ago, I stopped to see what difference it would make and it didn't make any, that said I use a lot of garlic in cooking so that might be the reason why.

 

[SJC]

We get through nearly two bulbs of garlic a week!!

 

[noblehead]

We get through nearly two bulbs of garlic a week!!

I can beat that, on a Friday night we sometimes make a home-made curry and I make my own garlic butter to make garlic bread, I use two bulbs to make it nice and garlicky

I don't know if you have a Lidl near you but they sell garlic in a basket of about 12 bulbs, the bulbs are unusual as they peel just like an onion and don't have the individual cloves like normal garlic does, it makes it much easier for chopping or grating.

 

[SJC]

I can beat that, on a Friday night we sometimes make a home-made curry and I make my own garlic butter to make garlic bread, I use two bulbs to make it nice and garlicky

I don't know if you have a Lidl near you but they sell garlic in a basket of about 12 bulbs, the bulbs are unusual as they peel just like an onion and don't have the individual cloves like normal garlic does, it makes it much easier for chopping or grating.

How strange. No cloves? Where does it come from?

 

[Bluetit1802]

Does garlic bread count?

 

[carty]

I love the lidl garlic I think it is a Chinese variety but not sure We roast the bulbs whole on the BBQ and it tastes like garlicy toffee I havnt tried roasting in the oven but it should work in the same way ,and I have never seen a vampire
CAROL

 

[Heathenlass]

Signy? Do I use low fat or high fat yarn and can I get it off eBay? lol

High fat only, for sure Himalayan Mountain Blue Yak if you can get it - otherwise, use goat




Signy

 

[AnnieC]

I can beat that, on a Friday night we sometimes make a home-made curry and I make my own garlic butter to make garlic bread, I use two bulbs to make it nice and garlicky

I don't know if you have a Lidl near you but they sell garlic in a basket of about 12 bulbs, the bulbs are unusual as they peel just like an onion and don't have the individual cloves like normal garlic does, it makes it much easier for chopping or grating.

I will look out for that next time I am in Lidl I love garlic and use it in practically everything

 

[peacetrain]

High fat only, for sure Himalayan Mountain Blue Yak if you can get it - otherwise, use goat
Signy[/]QUOTE

Have you tried knitting with waterproof KaYaK yarn ? Fantastic for walking in the rain!






Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[peacetrain]

I recommended Greens jelly crystals to a member here and I can't find the thread. It might have been mrs Vimes but not sure. Anyway, I've just realised it has carbs in it - not sugarfree! Sorry :-(. Although I don't think they have as much as ordinary jelly.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[SJC]

High fat only, for sure Himalayan Mountain Blue Yak if you can get it - otherwise, use goat




Signy

Gotcha! Thanks.

 

[noblehead]

How strange. No cloves? Where does it come from?

Says on the label Origin China.

As we know garlic is part of the onion family and they really are just like little onions, much more convenient to use than peeling the skin on individual cloves. Lidl don't always stock them and have only just recently got them back in, they must be seasonal as they have been absent from the store for months.

 

[SJC]

Says on the label Origin China.

As we know garlic is part of the onion family and they really are just like little onions, much more convenient to use than peeling the skin on individual cloves. Lidl don't always stock them and have only just recently got them back in, they must be seasonal as they have been absent from the store for months.

Thanks. Will try pick some up next week. I love garlic!

 

[AnnieC]

Says on the label Origin China.

As we know garlic is part of the onion family and they really are just like little onions, much more convenient to use than peeling the skin on individual cloves. Lidl don't always stock them and have only just recently got them back in, they must be seasonal as they have been absent from the store for months.

I find that a lot with Lidl they will have something for weeks then don't have it again. I used to get my celeriac there but have not been able to get it there for over a month now...did get the garlic though

 

[mpe]

Haven't I read on here somewhere that there is no direct relationship between fat in food and blood cholesterol?

The idea that there should be is utterly daft in the first place. Apart from both both being lipids (thus needing to be carried in the blood via lipoproteins) they have very little in common.
If people really must insist of calling all lipids "fats" then they need to always call actual fats something else. e.g. "triglycerides". Refering only to fats in lipoproteins as "triglycerides" just adds to more confusion to a subject which really needs some clarity. (Mammalian lipoprotein transport is complex enough without introducing fantasy biochemistry to the mix.)
There's no direct relationship with dietary fat and haemoglobin or blood sugar either. Though there can be a fairly direct relationship between dietary sugars and fat in ApoB100 lipoproteins. (Especially in people who are "insulin resistant".)

 

[mpe]

Peacetrain stay on the cheese eggs and cream. Fat in your diet does not cause increased cholesterol in your blood. Losing body fat causes elevated triglycerides, so it's a symptom of a Good Thing.

"Body fat" and "triglycerides" are the same thing. Calling it something different depending on if it's in a cell or a lipoprotein makes very little sense.

The lipid ratios that matter are worsened by eating carbs, not eating fats. VLDL increases, which are the worst kind, are entirely caused by excessive carbs. VLDL is created when the body has too many carbs and has to try to convert carbs to fat for storage.

VLDL-100 is produced by the liver to deliver the products of hepatic lipogenesis into the blood. One of the reasons for this would be to remove excess sugars from the blood another would be if there is insufficient fat in the diet. So the so called "healthy diet" can be a problem on two counts here.
There is also VLDL-48 produced by the small intestine which will contain dietary fat along with dietary and "recycled" cholesterol. Another form of lipoprotein, chylomicrons, are also produced by the digestive system to carry lipids adsorbed by the small intestine.
VLDL produced by the liver can become IDL and/or LDL, that produced by the small intestine cannot.
What appears to actually matter with LDL is if they are pattern A or pattern B. The troublesome type, pattern B, actually does have a different ratio of fat (triglycerides) to cholesterol. AFAIK there isn't a ratio test just for LDL. Hence fasting tests are needed to avoid chylomicrons and VLDL-48 completley confusing the issue.

 

[mpe]

All the reading I've done over the past 2 years has convinced me of two things: (1) it's called the lipid "hypothesis" for a
reason - if they'd been able to prove it, it wouldn't be a hypothesis any more

They actual way you "prove" anything in science is trying very hard to disprove it and failing. A process called "falsification". Problems arise when either attempts at falsification are weak (even absent) or attempts are made to "confirm". Frequently when this happens those responsible are reluctant to admit that they are doing "psuedoscience". (In the case of medical science there is even a specific term, quackery, for this.)

and (2) higher cholesterol is protective for women as they age.

Women tend to have higher cholesterol levels than men anyway. Also people's cholesterol levels tend to go up as they age.

Although doctors won't ever tell you, low cholesterol is very risky - especially for cancer. If I have to choose between cancer and heart attack, I know which one I prefer.

Low cholesterol is also a risk factor for a heart attack. Something which makes a nonsense of the whole idea of satins as a drug to prevent heart attacks. Even the minority of people who could potentially benefit from them are likely to be overdosed to the point of still being at high risk.