As you may remember, I recently mentioned that I scheduled a physical for my 42nd birthday. I learned a few interesting things about women’s health. Things went fine, but then I got my blood work profile in the mail and I have much more to learn about High Cholesterol. WHAT?!?! “I am a vegetarian that eats SO Healthy” I actually shouted out loud to the paper…”Seriously?” But it is true. My numbers are high and included in the bit of mail was a poor quality photocopy of Low Cholesterol Diet. There is a column labeled “Foods Allowed” and another labeled “Foods Restricted”. That’s it. That is my life now. But then as I am reading it I was shocked because out of all the foods on the Restricted list the only things I have (on occasion) are real butter in recipes, not directly on my food, sour cream and cheddar cheese maybe three times a week. Nothing excessive at all! Then I realized that I really had some learning to do. How can I have High Cholesterol and a Low Cholesterol diet? My actual numbers are:
Good = 11 on a Healthy Range of 5 – 40 (YAY!)
Bad = 156 on a Healthy Range of 0 – 99 (GAH!)
up to the surface and coagulating on top like cooled bacon grease!
- saturated oils,
- Butter,
- bacon,
- milk chocolate,
- fried foods,
- most meats (I am a vegeatarian anyway)
- anything made of or including creams,
- whole milk,
- donuts & pastries
- cheddar cheese.
Funny thing is that I rarely eat foods from this list of “bad” list and most everything but meats from the long good list of foods. (What is going on?)
I have been checking the labels of the foods I regularly eat and I do have a very low cholesterol diet.
But, then there is this one little thing on the handout too that I saw having to do with exercise.
It says at LEAST 30 minutes of vigorous exercise at LEAST 5 times a week.
(oh)
Since my knee surgery last April I have been unable to exercise any day of the week.
(Insert Sad Face here)
Amazingly, working out is the one true passion I have that makes me feel invincible. . .
sadly, I can not use my knee and am in chronic, daily pain. (UGH)
I also found out that high cholesterol runs in my family big time. This is a serious factor to consider when learning about and treating this problem. Genetics brings in another element so if/when I find a way to exercise regularly while eating right and my levels are still too high, I will most likely choose to go on a medication that will control my body in this aspect.
Until then I am going to make a doctor’s appointment to get my knee looked at again by a specialist and learn if there is ANY solution for me to have the ability to work out.
I will search the web for holistic alternatives to help lower my cholesterol.
Lianne
This exact thing happened to me! I’ve been a vegetarian who eats healthy my entire life, and I was practically vegan at the time that I tested high for cholesterol. They concluded that it was hereditary rather than diet focused, and put me on OTC niacin which helped TONS!
Deborah
I’ve done a lot of reading/listening to podcast interviews on cholesterol. My take is that the important thing is to have low triglycerides and high HDL (the so called good cholesterol). This gives a good “ratio”, which is supposed to be healthy.
When I was vegetarian (junk food vegetarian mostly. back when it was considered weird) I had a terrible hdl/tri ratio.
Since I’ve added in saturated fats (but no transfats!), my HDL (good cholesterol) has increased dramatically and my triglycerides have dropped to 43.
Cholesterol is produced by our livers, but as I understand it, it isn’t related to dietary cholesterol (eaten).
Sorry this is kind of a rambling reply!
Kristin Wheeler (@MamaLuvsBooks)
I always worry about this because it runs in my family. My mom has to take meds to keep her levels down! Eeek! Mine has always been pretty decent, but as I get older….who knows??