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

[Blackdog]

I found out over the Christmas holidays my Cholesterol levels were in double figures My fault entirely, I was eating all the stuff we all love, but not enough of the healthy stuff.

I now eat more fruit than I thought existed and try not to give in to the lazy, tasty things. I have also discovered there is more to fish than Tuna and fried Cod, it's great!

Oh, and I've lost almost a stone in weight too

[Diane1715]

Hello and thanks for your response. I will try putting some lentils in with rice and see how we get on although I think we will need a supplement for omega 3 as Andrew wont eat any oily fish. We have been doing really well all things considered, I think as long as I can manage some variety and exercise a bit more frequently we will crack it
Di x

[Diane1715]

Double figures??? Jesus I thought Andrews was bad, I darent get mine checked as our diets are practically the same - including portion sizes and I never could open a bottle of red without finishing it. I once bought a box of wine with the intention of just having a couple of glasses on an evening..................I wasnt a pretty sight ha ha!!!!!

[KIDSTYPIKE]

Some people produce excess Cholesterol irregardless of their diet. My wife recently found that she had high levels but on questioning about diet the doctor was puzzled . She doesn't eat any read meat, no eggs or milk and only the occassional piece of cheese.
Anyway it is under control now.
Dave

[Meta menardi]

Good luck with this, I think the biggest step forward is probably finding out about it. It seems to be a complex subject, I think lots of us are just starting to learn more.

[stripee]

Originally Posted by Billy Wobble Dagger

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

don't see why a small malteeser meal nowand again is a problem! I love sweet things, and oven chips. It's difficult to be strong, but it pays off in the end. My father's family all had heart attacks in their 60s, 70s. Not a good life after one of those, or a stroke. And I had severe illness when young due to circulation. Now my cholestrol is 2.3 and hopefully will stay low.
Goat milk and cheese has cholestrol which more easily absorbed by the body and has less bad effects. There are skimmed goat milks available.
And it can be nice and interesting food, but just a matter of adjusting, and limiting some of the culprits. The BBC online has some good ideas for vegetable recipes and other types of low fat food.
Unfortunately, cholestrol in food is a fairly small part of the amount stored in the liver, and as has been said above, there is a type of high cholestrol which is familial, and has nothing to do with diet.

[badgerwatcher]

I thought it didn't count if you ate cheese whilst standing at the fridge!
I try not to eat it. I eat loads of vegetable curries and vegetable chillis, the beans in the chilli are supposed to be very good for you.
Oily fish make pretty good fishcakes if you don't like oily fish. Sainsbury's do bags of salmon pieces for the freezer which work out quite inexpensive.

[Garden Carpet]

If that chap who started on a market stall and now has shops all over east anglia is to be believed... 10 macadamia nuts a day will help to reduce cholesterol. Brazil nuts are good for depression.. and parsley.. eaten in handfuls from the plant is good for high blood pressure. So a salad of parsley and nuts should sort out anything and everything that ails.

jaki

[Diane1715]

Ive just spent over half an hour on the bbc website - got some good ideas, thanks for that
Di

[Pythia]

There's a lot of controversy about cholesterol and a lot of doubt as to whether it causes heart attacks or not. We have done a lot of research into this because just over 4 years ago my husband had a major heart attack and was put on Lipitor. He had terrible side-effects, some of which are permanent. We began researching and came to the conclusion that it is something that makes mega £££s for the pharmaceutical companies. My husband was only on Lipitor for 4 months and stopped them despite scare tactics from his doctor and the hospital. He never looked back. He is on no medication whatsoever. Just a simple change in diet and lifestyle was all that was needed.

Food-wise it benefited us all as we are much more adventurous in our cooking. Great anti-cholesterol foods include garlic, tomatoes and the humble pea. All veg are good. Eat as much as you like. A good book is Healing Foods by Nicola Graimes. This gives you every veg, fruit and herb and what the beneficial effects are.

It's pointless trying to cut out things you like from your diet. We still eat meat, cheese etc. but do it in a balanced way.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to put a link to another site so I will understand if the mods remove this but it is a mine of information and keeps you well-informed of the ongoing latest studies regarding the cholesterol debate.

http://www.freewebs.com/stopped_our_statins/

This link is the forum where many people share support and information. It is also a very friendly site which is now world-wide.

Stopped_Our_Statins : Stopped Our Statins

You have to join as a member to access it but it is well worth joining.

I hope this is of some use to you.

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by KIDSTYPIKE

Some people produce excess Cholesterol irregardless of their diet. My wife recently found that she had high levels but on questioning about diet the doctor was puzzled . She doesn't eat any read meat, no eggs or milk and only the occassional piece of cheese.
Anyway it is under control now.
Dave

There is a genetic element to hypercholesterolaemia - some people with double dose of the hc gene will produce cholesterol whatever they eat. For most other people it's a matter of reducing dietary fats - anyone eating/drinking eggs-bacon for breakfast, unskimmed milk several times a day, fatty meat and chips for dinner with a creamy nightcap will get raised cholesterol and therefore probably atheroma and likely coronaries.

There has long been debate about the meaning of cholesterol (and other lipid) levels in the blood - but it's probably safest to minimise fatty intake.

[kielder]

My mum was told she had high cholesterol, but she does eat healthily, and exercises every day one way or another, yet my aunt who is very overweight doesn't have a high cholesterol!

[coasty]

I have a paperback the " Berio Olive Oil Low Cholesterol Cookbook" if you can find a copy its got some excellent recipes,,,,,

[dottie30]

oats lower cholesterol and beetroot.Also try the likes of benecol