A BIG NO NO OR A BIG YES YES??

I found my cholesterol levels came down even though I was eating double cream and eggs and using heaps of best butter on asparagus and in my cauliflower mash. Sadly, the thing that made the difference was binning the bread :-(
Low carbs and high fat works for me ( when I'm being good) . Carbs + fats are a BIG no-no


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You'll be pleased to know that there is one ex-doctor who advocates eating butter to reduce the risk of heart disease. His name is Dwight Lundell.

http://www.sott.net/article/242516-Hear ... rt-disease


There is another doctor who questions the whole low cholesterol movement. His name is Dr. Kendrick. He says he has been unable to find the research which started the low cholesterol quest. There is a WHO graph which records the cholesterol level of people of 168 countries showing that more die early with low cholesterol.

This is an intriguing subject and gets better when you add fat to certain foods to lower the GI.

Never had so much fun without laughing.

Hi Q
My cholesterol at diagnosis of diabetes was 7.9 I refused statins and started to take a plant sterol called Lesterin I also lowered my carbs and as a skinny diabetic I eat lots of butter cheese and cream my chol is now around the 5 mark which is fine by me AND my GP :clap: I dont know whether it is the Lestrin the low carbs or a mixture of the 2 but it worked for me .If you decide to give Lestrin a go it is in Boots in the 3 for 2 range.Hope this helps
CAROL

Hi. If you Google the web you will realise that there is a wealth of conflicting knowledge about the effect of eating fats, the impact on cholesterol levels and the association between blood cholesterol, statins and risk of heart disease. My own opinion currently is that the pharmas have oversold the advantages of statins and that the body does need blood cholesterol as part of maintaining the body, heart etc. GPs are merely implementing what they have been told by the 'experts'. These same 'experts' have encouraged the high-carb diet 'as the body needs carbs' rubbish mantra. We now know this makes diabetes worse and contributes to obesity and heart disease. I therefore no longer take GP/NHS advice as necessarily evidence-based info. NICE stuff in general is evidence-based but not always. Statins do cause some people great harm (my wife for example). I have stopped mine, although I was not suffering any obvious issues myself, as the need for them to me was low priority.

Q007 said:

Firstly can I quickly say thank you to all those who respond to posts, my posts especially. The levels and depth of knowledge is outstanding and way beyond that of my GP, it's amazing and truly appreciated on my part. I've learned so much in just a week of being a member.

Im finding the change in diet so desperately hard, all the things I like have to go. I don't drink nor smoke so there's not much else left to bin. One weakness I've always had is butter, it's 1/4 inch thick on breads. I've long since switched to an olive oil based spread but still spread thickly. I mentioned this on a previously post and a member was kind enough to spot it and stated that keep the Anchor butter or whatever in as it slows down the digestive process and therefore releases sugars more slowly into the body, which is better for us diabetics. I've no reason at all to doubt his advice, but my cholesterol result has just crashed in at 7.3 and the doctors reached for the script pad and wanted to put me on statins, I refused as I'm quite versed on cardio vascular disease CVD and know the suffering and risks statins bring. GP, took the hump and said " fine, your risk"

Whilst I'm looking for other ways to drop HDL in cholesterol I have to recognise the fact diabetics are at an elevated risk of CVD, strokes etc so high cholesterol forms part of the equasion and I have ramp this down quickly. Do these spreads cause high HDL? if I go on a low carb diet will that pull down my cholesterol along with BG levels? Is it ok to carry on with this one food or does have to go?

I'm T2, no meds, HBA1C gone from 71, through 58 and just now at 43.

Looking forward to some ideas on what to focus on please,

With kind regards and wishes,

Q..

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You will have noticed that a lot of people say we are all individual, and so you could do worse than seeing what affects you before dumping everything you have known or loved. Fundamentally, the ways in which people deal with their diet is not actually that different. It's a matter of degrees. I reduced my portions which, in a sense, is low-carbing, since I have reduced everything, although I wouldn't instinctivelly call 250g per day low-carbing as thought of typically on this site. I think?? that low-carbing means below 100g per day or something like that. I am concerned about ensuring that my body as a whole is getting adequate nutrition which I find quite easy by eating a 'balanced' diet... you know a third of this, a third of that and a third of the other (metaphorically speaking!). I can't think of anything that I have stopped eating since diagnosis, apart from the booze (on and off).

I have eaten healthily (according to my own definition) since long before I was diagnosed. I had already managed to kick the habit of butter and similar spreads and either eat bread dry or use homemade mayo when I need a bit of 'lubrication'. I can't bear melted butter on jacket potatoes. The only time I use it is in cooking when it is necessary. I still have two unopened unsalted butter blocks from two months ago. Now, I find all spreads unpleasant and prefer to have a slice of dry bread or toast with homemade peanut butter or marmite (not homemade!!!) :crazy: . Call me mad or lucky ... who knows! :?:

Eat whole meal as the carbs are released slower than with white bread thus reducing the risks of spikes in blood sugar


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Q007 said:

SPARKY RICH; thank you very much, sorry to be a bit thick, but are you saying if I get my diet rid or tightly controlled of carbs (low carbs) my cholesterol should drop and so it's ok to keep the spreads in my diet? Got to get it right on this one haven't I, kind regards to you, Q..

Hi Q, daft as it sounds, it's what works for me. Heartbreaking as it is for me, I've had to say goodbye to bread (food of the Gods though it is )
SR
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Q007 said:

But, can I eat bread or is that full of carbs?

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Sorry to say that if it is shop bought bread then you would best not eat it.

I put it like that since many people have tried to re-invent the loaf using different ingredients and many claim success. I tried a few of them and didn't like them. I baked a conventional loaf to which I added one and a half ounces of lard in order to reduce the GI. That seemed to work quite well but it is work in progress. I only baked the one and intend to try variations on that theme.

I've found Hovis wholemeal seed sensations bread to have the lowest carb content in bread that I could find, with only 13.8g of carbs per slice and they're not flimsy slices either and lovely tasting bread.


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Hi Q007. Think of bread as way over 50% carb. Have multigrain of similar will slow-up absorption as will having it with fat e.g. butter. A balanced diet is a good start point for diet, but as diabetics by definition don't process carbs properly you need to reduce carbs in that balance. The one third this, one third business that has no real scientific basis so don't rely on it too much. As many of us would say 'Eat to your meter' and don't overreact to fat scare stories as carbs can also cause the body to deposit/store fat via the liver.

Burgen soya and linseed bread seems to be lowest carb I manage a couple of slices but test and see is the only way to find if it works for YOU
CAROL

mickey121 said:

Eat whole meal as the carbs are released slower than with white bread thus reducing the risks of spikes in blood sugar

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Sorry Mickey but wholemeal is no better than white bread in fact theres so little difference they are actually almost alike in every way except that wholemeal has a little more fibre in most cases.

For a lower GI bread you need to look at wholegrains as the grains are unprocessed so take longer to digest, that said you should still be cautious of all breads and test bg levels before and after eating them as that is the only way to know if you can tolerate that particular bread.

I can eat a two slice sandwich made from Burgen linseed and soya bread very well and have found that the small wholegrain bread from Sainsburys pretty good to as well as the multigrain rustic SMALL loaf from Tescos. But that means nothing to anyone else, we all need to test our own levels to see which breads we can or cant eat.

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Cholesterol.....there are arguments for and against the lowering of cholesterol, most cardiologists are of the opinion that a figure for total cholesterol of under 5 is desirable and under 4 is better for diabetics who are more at risk of heart and cardiac problems. I am lucky that I have never had high cholesterol so it is one aspect of diabetes that I have not had to concern myself with. Although if I did have high cholesterol I think I would try to lower it as statistically lower cholesterol is shown to be better for our health.

As for fat, I am of the opinion that we should limit the amount of fat in our diets as is recommended by the majority of the medical profession, that is to say dont avoid it but dont increase it either and to chose good fats over bad, there is just too much information pointing to an excess of saturated fats being bad for a variety of reasons including a range of cancers which I personally would like to avoid if at all possible. Red meat and other fats have always been found to be best eaten in moderation and I tend to agree with that thinking, others may think differently and believe otherwise and that is their prerogative but I would say that if you are undecided about increasing the fat in your diet to look at the Cancer research page first and see what they have to say about red meat and high fat diets.
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer- ... -nutrients