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High cholesterol

A

aqualung

Well-Known Member
Messages
695
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Firstly I must apologise for only posting and participating in the forum every 3/4 months. Having got my Hba1c to non prediabetic levels I watch what I eat and tend to forget about the forum.

Secondly I posted a few months back about my mid morning snack and what I could do about not eating before I went to work. I got lots of good advice and I took it all on board but in my usual fashion I forgot to post and report back. I stopped the berries and cream but replaced it with more scrambled egg, cheese, butter and cream.

I have just had my cholesterol tested and it has gone up again. I know high cholesterol is not necessarily bad but I feel I show reduce my fats to see if the cholesterol goes down. What can I eat if I reduce my fats?
 
Dietary cholesterol accounts for just 15% of total body cholesterol so even if you cut out every scrap of fat from your diet you would still have cholesterol because the other 85% is made by the body. And you would be hungrier.
 
And to add to what @Guzzler has said.. if you cut out the dietary cholesterol your liver will probably just up it's production anyway to cover the imbalance.
 
As with aqualung, apologies from myself too as its been several weeks since I last visited the forum looking for answers.

I was diagnosed with T2D in June and shortly after that I started out on a high fat low carb diet. This has worked very well with over a stone of weight lost and my BG levels within normal range.

I had my first clinic check up last week and although everything is fine with my weight and BG, my cholesterol levels are slightly elevated.

I was wondering if anyone here has had a similar experience and if they have managed to get things back to normal by adjusting the fat content of their high fat low carb diet.

Any advice would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance
 

You need to give it more time. Your body has to adjust. It is known that weight loss such as yours can cause a rise in cholesterol initially in some people. I personally wouldn't be concerned at this stage. and would wait until my next test. It also depends very much on which of your lipids have deteriorated.
 
Thanks Bluetit1802,

My next check up is in six months time so as you've suggested I'll give my body more time to adjust.
I'm still losing about a pound in weight each week and my target is 16st. I've not had any issues with
my cholesterol levels previously to being diagnosed last June, so the sudden change in my diet and
associated weight loss could be the cause. I'll watch more closely what I eat in the meantime and see
how things go after my next set of blood tests.
 
Bluetit1802 here are my cholesterol levels:

cholesterol level. 7.4
Triglycerides. 1.50
HDL. 1.6
Cholesterol/HDL ratio. 4.6
LDL. 5.1
Lipoprotein 5.8
 
aqualung said:
Bluetit1802 here are my cholesterol levels:

cholesterol level. 7.4
Triglycerides. 1.50
HDL. 1.6
Cholesterol/HDL ratio. 4.6
LDL. 5.1
Lipoprotein 5.8
Click to expand...

It's only the LDL that is high (not sure what the lipoprotein 5.8 is. I thought the HDL and LDL were lipoproteins). Trigs and HDL are fine, in fact HDL is very good.

It is thought the ratio of trigs and HDL is the important one. This should be under 0.87mmol/l to be ideal. Yours is 0.9 so not far out.

The usual advice for high LDL is to eat as much omega 3 and antioxidants as you can:
dark chocolate, avocado, 1 glass red wine, black and green tea, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, salmon, sardines, mackerel, tuna, olive oil, beans and lentils, berries, seeds (especially flax and chia). If you eat Lidl High Protein rolls, they are full of omega 3.
 
Thanks for your reply bluetit. I am going to cut down on my dairy, especially cheese as I probably eat more than I should, and increase my omega 3 intake. I eat quite a few things on the list you gave and I do eat the lidl roll but could increase the fish and seeds. I also read that low vitamin d levels are a reason for high cholesterol and I do have a tendency to have low vitamin d so am going to get some supplements.
 
I just Googled the Lidl high protein rolls and got this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/lidl-bakery-high-protein-roll-100g-262422020 which makes them sound to me unacceptably high in carbs. Am I missing something?
 
Alexandra100 said:
I just Googled the Lidl high protein rolls and got this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/lidl-bakery-high-protein-roll-100g-262422020 which makes them sound to me unacceptably high in carbs. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Yes, you are missing something. Each roll has just under or around 9g carbs. They are very, very dense, and very, very filling. I can only manage half of one at a time with other food and I'm full. Some lucky people manage a whole one if they just want a sandwich. They do absolutely nothing to my levels. I slice mine in half and toast half, then spread liberally with butter and eat it with my lunch time salads or fry ups. The rest are frozen.
 
The lidl rolls are very filling and I can only eat half at a time. I buy a few and freeze them as I have found they go mouldy fairly quickly

Bluetit the GP will probably tell me to wait 2/3 months before I get my cholesterol retested. I was supposed to see the GP to discuss the results but my son had a really bad headache the night before so I gave him my appointment. I didn't find out till I took him in and asked for the results. I'm not sure what the GP could have told me anyway!
 
Well that does sound tempting. But somehow I suspect they would affect my levels, which are not anywhere as low as I would like without any grains at all.
 
Alexandra100 said:
Well that does sound tempting. But somehow I suspect they would affect my levels, which are not anywhere as low as I would like without any grains at all.
Click to expand...

There are a lot of members on this forum that eat them and report there is no significant rise in levels. They are stuffed full of goodness. If you do a search of the forum you will find lots of threads about them.
 
aqualung said:
Bluetit1802 here are my cholesterol levels:

cholesterol level. 7.4
Triglycerides. 1.50
HDL. 1.6
Cholesterol/HDL ratio. 4.6
LDL. 5.1
Lipoprotein 5.8
Click to expand...

For comparison.

LDL _____________________________ 4.10 _________Satisfactory. No further action.
HDL ____________________________ 1.83 _________Satisfactory. No further action. (Above high reference limit.)
Triglycerides ____________________ 1.51 _________Normal. No further action.
Total cholesterol ________________ 6.62 _________Abnormal (action required notes that I have a review booked).
Cholesterol/HDL ratio ___________ 3.62 _________Satisfactory. No further action. (Part of HDL report.)

(pinched from another of my posts)

Apart from the higher LDL your numbers seem similar to mine. Ideally the Cholesterol/HDL ratio should be 4 or below but you aren't far off.

I've been in full time nutritional ketosis since January so you may be running higher cholesterol long term but given your BG results I would suggest that the (currently under serious review) perceived risks of running higher cholesterol are as nothing compared to the enormous benefits of good BG control.
 
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