High Cholesterol!!

[Diane1715]

Hello,

Not sure if this is the right thread to be asking questions about cholesterol, not even sure if I spelt it right!!

My partner has had a medical and was told he has an alarming cholesterol level of 8.6!

Obviously we are now on a diet and get our fat behinds out for longer walks and more energetic activities, cycling and jogging etc.

I'm running out of ideas for things to cook for our evening meal. He has salad every day for lunch (bless him!!!) so I dont want to pile the green stuff up again at evening meal. I have cooked roast peppers/mushrooms/onions and have tried wholegrain wild rices which were nice alongside fish and chicken but I am running out of ideas and want more variety without resorting to side salads.
I had a sort of bean salad in a restaurant once that was very nice but cant find any recipes (plus I have never really cooked beans or lentils before) so any advice on that kind of food will be lapped up - literally.
I'm also thinking of trying a chicken with veg stock pot and putting lentils in to soak up the stock rather than having mashed potato laden with butter and milk............... again, any ideas would be much appreciated

Regards

The fat lass formally known as Di

[jennyb]

Di,

You don't have to live on salads to reduce cholestrol. Just reduce the saturated fats like fatty meat, cheese (hard to cut down in France!) and eggs. Change to skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, change from butter to an olive oil spread and use olive oil or sunflower oil in cooking.

I reduced my cholestrol from 5.1 to 4.4 by cutting out pepperoni pizza and limiting my bacon intake to once every couple of weeks.

Jenny

[Kayleigh]

Look on the weight watchers web site. They have low fat recipes. They also do books with lots of recipes for bbq, rice, pasta, spicy food, sea food, They are all very tasty and low in fat..

[ron1863]

Hi Diane,

You have probably checked up on cholesterol, but check this site out, it's got good information about diet and a link to healthy eating. I don't know if diet helps with everyone. My friend and his wife both had their's checked last year, he is very overweight and has a poor diet and loves cheese, while his wife is slim and watches what she eats and drinks. His level was below average while hers was sky high.

Cholesterol - high and low levels, causes and diet advice

[coasty]

I suffer with high cholestral,.... Just a couple of things seafood is ok but prawns are very bad,, Try and get on to a med style diet,, Olives etc and lots of fish and watch your red meat

[Diane1715]

Thanks to all who responded, the fact sheet is very useful. Its been a bit of a shocker really, 8.6 is pretty high, not sure if I dare get mine done as I drank too much red wine and ate what I wanted for too long. I got a new bike yesterday and we are really making a concerted effort to change our diet (although BBQ'd prawns last night!!! oops). We used to both be really fit but I suppose we both just got too comfortable.

[badgerwatcher]

I managed to bring my cholesterol back within safe limits, (can't remember figures) by eating herrings, salmon and mackeral instead of meat for a few weeks. I still eat more fish than meat now. I replaced salad dressings with relishes and pickles, and TRY not to eat too much cheese. And I stopped eating mashed potato, because I hate it without butter.
I had to do a complete rethink, as I was told to cut out salt too, so no Marmite. Aghhhhhh!

[Diane1715]

We had salmon the night before last and it was gorgeous, we tried sole but two biggish looking fish turned into a few piddly little fillets by the time we'd disected them - love fish but will buy ready filleted in future so that we know what portions we are getting. We are doing very well (although its only day 4 ha ha), havent felt any real hunger pangs. I tried porridge for breakfast - absolutely gross!!!! They say to cut out hard cheese, does that mean brie, camembert and other soft cheeses are ok???. Just off for a bike ride - weather is gorgeous today

[stripee]

Originally Posted by Diane1715

We had salmon the night before last and it was gorgeous, we tried sole but two biggish looking fish turned into a few piddly little fillets by the time we'd disected them - love fish but will buy ready filleted in future so that we know what portions we are getting. We are doing very well (although its only day 4 ha ha), havent felt any real hunger pangs. I tried porridge for breakfast - absolutely gross!!!! They say to cut out hard cheese, does that mean brie, camembert and other soft cheeses are ok???. Just off for a bike ride - weather is gorgeous today

Yes, alas, Diane, all the cheeses like brie are best limited. Another area it is good to limit is food in restaurants. Many menus contain large amounts of creamy sauces etc. Very sad if you live in France! But maybe stick to small lunch times meals.
The type of fats needed to reduce cholestrol are the Omega 3s. Most people eat too much of Omega 6, commonly found in sunflower, animal and palm. So monosaturates such as olive oil and organic rapeseed oils are preferable. So the fatty fishes such as mackerel, herring and sardine are the ones to buy. If you don't like these, then either take supplements, or flaxseed oil.

Try to have a couple of meatless meals a week too, such as a vegetable curry. I cook lentils in with the rice. If you were in UK you could buy frozen quorn (has some egg white in) or soya mince, which most of my meat eating friends find perfectly acceptable. Also soya milk, most continental supermarkets now sell this, is fine in mashed potato. Be very careful with margarines and butter, severely limit these. Dark choc instead of milk choc. If you change gradually over a few weeks then your body gets used to the different diet more easily.
And avoid the patisserie.

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

Originally Posted by stripee

Try to have a couple of meatless meals a week too,

Ooooh I read that as a couple of malteeser meals. I was looking forward to that, guess it's out of the question though?

BWD