My pre-weight loss blood test...any ideas?

[plank]

To sum up my views quickly (again could be wrong)

BAD, processed carbs eg wheat flour (so bread and pasta), sugar ESP extracted FRUCOSE. Trans Fats. Food substitutes, eg margarine. Strange cooking oils.

OK(but not worth making a fuss about)most fruit, oats, rice, starchy veg, eg potato

GOOD, vegetables, esp green leafy(eg kale), fats (including SATURATED fats), low sugar fruits eg berrys. Salts, PsudoGrains(cookable seeds), eg quinoa, buckwheat. Protein rich food, espically whole eggs. Extra virgin and regular Olive oil (not light).

Be careful with using strange oils for cooking, some of them are probably better than olive oil, like coconut oil. but some are probably REALLY bad. I just stick with olive oil and butter...



Exercise, weights are better than long cardio sessions (although I do a lot of both!)

Edit: don't know if you are interested in new supplements but I'm a fan of a heaped tablespoon of glutamine and water on an empty stomach(and empty for 30 mins after) (so first thing in the morning for me). It helps me a lot with recovery, or at least I think so!

 

[Bill Gates]

To sum up my views quickly (again could be wrong)

BAD, processed carbs eg wheat flour (so bread and pasta), sugar ESP extracted FRUCOSE. Trans Fats. Food substitutes, eg margarine. Strange cooking oils.

OK(but not worth making a fuss about)most fruit, oats, rice, starchy veg, eg potato

GOOD, vegetables, esp green leafy(eg kale), fats (including SATURATED fats), low sugar fruits eg berrys. Salts, PsudoGrains(cookable seeds), eg quinoa, buckwheat. Protein rich food, espically whole eggs. Extra virgin and regular Olive oil (not light).

Be careful with using strange oils for cooking, some of them are probably better than olive oil, like coconut oil. but some are probably REALLY bad. I just stick with olive oil and butter...



Exercise, weights are better than long cardio sessions (although I do a lot of both!)

Edit: don't know if you are interested in new supplements but I'm a fan of a heaped tablespoon of glutamine and water on an empty stomach(and empty for 30 mins after) (so first thing in the morning for me). It helps me a lot with recovery, or at least I think so!

Red coloured vegetables are good to eat as they are antioxidant. My home made energy drink is 3/4 cranberry juice 1/4 water with lemon barley and 3 large spoons of honey.

 

[HobbesChoice]

What did you decide on Bill? Did you speak to the Dr about your results or did you decide to carry on anyway?

 

[Fab Foodie]

Do you think statins are actually bad for you? I haven't looked into it very much but was coming to the conclusion that;

at best they could have some benefits but didn't actually do anything to solve the problem (which I thought was is a build up of arterial plaque caused by oxidised cholesterol on irritated areas)

at worse they were a waste of time and money

Having said that I thought cholesterol was essential for membrane maintenance and creation so seems potentially harmful to try and limit production!

But like I said I didn't look into it too much, espically I don't think I would take them when they seem to be recommended based on bad tests!

Would be interesting to hear more.

Having suffered from 1 clogged artery that almost killed-me, I'm taking my statins as per the best available advice until something better come along...
I'm aware there are side effects, but being dead in your 40s is pretty unpleasant too.
Some of us are natural cholesterol overproducers and there's not so much that can be done.

 

[plank]

Just wondering if you read any of the links further up?

edit, I'm not having a go by the way. Just wondering

 

[Bill Gates]

What did you decide on Bill? Did you speak to the Dr about your results or did you decide to carry on anyway?

My cholesterol levels are better than normal. If they weren't then that would be a different story. My question is why does the medical profession want me to take statins to reduce my levels of cholesterol if they are OK?

I went back to the last blood test I had done (March 2008) and the figures included triglycerides. The figures were total cholesterol 6.6, tri 1.2, HDL 2.05 LDL 4.0, Ratio HDL/total 3.22.

Anything above 2mmol/L is considered a high level of triglycerides, yet mine were 1.2 (nearly half) and they were still pushing statins at me.

Ratio HDL/Total should be less than 5. Mine was 3.22.


This time around total 6.6, HDL 2.06, LDL 4.54, HDL/Total 3.2.

Not much changed from 2 years ago. They contacted me a year ago but I declined. To be honest I probably won't have any more blood tests done as they cause too much hassle, unless they identified mix of small and large particles of LDL. Large particles don't cause plaque build up but small particles do. The rest is academic. My diet is designed to produce large particles LDL (little or no bread, replace with oats)

 

[Bill Gates]

Having suffered from 1 clogged artery that almost killed-me, I'm taking my statins as per the best available advice until something better come along...
I'm aware there are side effects, but being dead in your 40s is pretty unpleasant too.
Some of us are natural cholesterol overproducers and there's not so much that can be done.

Got any figures pre statins and post statins?

 

[Fab Foodie]

Just wondering if you read any of the links further up?

edit, I'm not having a go by the way. Just wondering

Yeah, I'm aware. I know some suffer and some don't. Me and my cycle buddy are both on Statins and neither of us have a great issue with how we are feeling on them. Of course there may be some hidden issues, we don't know.

On my current regime I don't have too many issues, though we're experimenting (me and the Doc) with higher Simvastatin dosage and the first go at that didn't feel good. However there are a lot of external factors and when we're a bit calmed-down workwise I'll have another go.

Statins are not perfect, but at my current dosage they're OK. Higher might be an issue. Somehow though I need to shave a few points to get my Cholesterol levels down below 5.

I also take cod liver oil, though just a 1000mg/day and have oat breakfast and oat snack bars.

I'm also wary of reading stuff on the web too.

Doing nothing is not an option.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Got any figures pre statins and post statins?

have been in double figures once, now just about 5.5 on a good day. Have scraped below 5 when excercising a lot and really watching my diet. Also quit smoking. OK many factors have an effect. I can't say exectly hopw much the Statin contributes. ma

Simvastatin at Night and Ezetimibe in the morning, though we're questioning the value of the Ezetimibe because it's not diet related in the way that Cholesterol ingestion is the cause.

 

[plank]

what is "watching my diet"? I always read that to mean eating low fat and lots of wholegrain.

 

[Fab Foodie]

what is "watching my diet"?

...eating all the stuff that's supposed to aid cholesterol lowering, lots of fibre, fruit, veg, whole grains, oats, cooked tomatoes, nuts oily fish, red wine.... lots of red wine yadda yadda... it was costing a fortune in toilet paper. Ended-up going to the docs thinking I had a bowel disorder.

 

[plank]

the reason I was asking is because from what I have read up while trying to get more of a grip on what diet is doing to me in terms of training for sports most peoples idea of a healthy diet is backwards.

eg.
choosing low fat products which contains excessive sugar or sweeteners (and who knows what else?)
basing a diet on a large amount of processed and refined carbs (every meal!)
avoiding saturated fat and foods containing cholesterol (eg eggs)
eating massive amounts of fruit (fructose is no different to glucose, infact it may be worse)

I would guess your bowel problem was caused from excess sugar and gluten as I have the same problem and it seems very common.

In some of the above articles it mentions that cholesterol is not the root of the problem so taking drugs to lower cholesterol is not addressing the full issue.

Obviously you had a very real problem and so do many other people but I believe that a change of diet would prevent or improve a lot of these cases. There are a few more links further up this post that might be interesting to read for someone in your situation.

Like you said this is all information I have found on the internet so may not be true.

Anway I'm not going to talk about it anymore! good luck

 

[Fab Foodie]

the reason I was asking is because from what I have read up while trying to get more of a grip on what diet is doing to me in terms of training for sports most peoples idea of a healthy diet is backwards.

eg.
choosing low fat products which contains excessive sugar or sweeteners (and who knows what else?)
basing a diet on a large amount of processed and refined carbs (every meal!)
avoiding saturated fat and foods containing cholesterol (eg eggs)
eating massive amounts of fruit (fructose is no different to glucose, infact it may be worse)

I would guess your bowel problem was caused from excess sugar and gluten as I have the same problem and it seems very common.

In some of the above articles it mentions that cholesterol is not the root of the problem so taking drugs to lower cholesterol is not addressing the full issue.

Obviously you had a very real problem and so do many other people but I believe that a change of diet would prevent or improve a lot of these cases. There are a few more links further up this post that might be interesting to read for someone in your situation.

Like you said this is all information I have found on the internet so may not be true.

Anway I'm not going to talk about it anymore! good luck

No I think the bowel issues were due to to a change to too much fibre!
Fortunately I have quite a reasonable knowledge of food and its components and a working appreciation of Biochemistry too.

The problem with all these things is that they are very complex and highly multi-factorial, so there is no 'one-fits-all' solution. There are however a lot of things individuals can do to reduce the effects of Cholesterol and Statins have been clinically demonstrated to have a major effect on a wide range of sufferers. It's also a relatively cheap treatment and requires no other lifestyle changes to demonstrate a positive effect.
There are downsides, some will be affected more than others. Everybody is at liberty to make their own decision if they are not prepared to follow the Doctor's advice (and I accept that the medical profession does not know everything).

 

[ASC1951]

Be careful with using strange oils for cooking, some of them are probably better than olive oil, like coconut oil. but some are probably REALLY bad. I just stick with olive oil and butter...

Olive oil isn't the best for cooking - it smokes and cracks too easily. I use olive oil in salads but cook with cold pressed rapeseed oil, which has a light neutral taste as well as being one of the healthier oils.

I don't eat butter at all, but only because I don't have an off switch for it; same with cheese.

 

[ColinJ]

Olive oil isn't the best for cooking - it smokes and cracks too easily. I use olive oil in salads but cook with cold pressed rapeseed oil, which has a light neutral taste as well as being one of the healthier oils.

I'll have to give the rapeseed oil a go - I noticed that olive oil wasn't ideal for cooking.

I don't eat butter at all, but only because I don't have an off switch for it; same with cheese.

I won't have butter, cheese, bread, cake, biscuits or chocolate in the house because I'm the same as you - if I have easy access to any of those things, I wolf them down.

I use cottage cheese where I would otherwise use butter or cheese - in a baked potato for example.

I'd be quite happy to eat a cheese salad sandwich and/or a piece of cake at a cafe stop on a long bike ride or walk.