View Full Version : Cholesterol tips?
Bulldozer
10-08-07, 3:25 pm
Hey fellas, I am 22 and have high cholesterol. I am on medication for it to bring it down. basically my good cholesterol levels are very good, but my bad cholesterol levels are high. so I am looking for some advice on meal plans to cut the bad levels down. I dont really eat junk all that often and try to eat as clean as possible. if anyone has the similiar problem or has any advice that would be awsome. thanks guys and keep training hard.
I hate to say this, but try to eat as little red meat as possible and stick to sea food and chicken. Thats about all I can tell you. If you ask your doctor, he maybe able to get you in contact with a health nutritionist.
loiacanoa
10-08-07, 7:05 pm
have some oatmeal. it lowers the bad cholesterol
im in the same boat. Take omega 3 fish oil and eat oatmeal. I still eat red meat but not daily. I do eat eggs everyday, ive heard many different verdicts on the cholesterol in eggs. Some seafood is reallyt high in chol. and also check out your whey protein cholesterol content, some brands are as high as 80 mg per serving.
joe-yamma
10-08-07, 10:27 pm
just keep an eye on what you're eating. cholesterol is everywhere.
mine is very high too, but even watching my diet strictly doesn't decrease it. i'm on lipitor.
i'd second what the other guys said... eat clean, fish, chicken, lean meats. fiber - oatmeal, whole grains, etc. also fish oil, omega's, etc. i take a combo that i got from sam's club. softgels containing fish oil, flaxseed oil, borage oil, etc to get the whole spectrum.
good luck man.
I'd avoid too many egg yolks as well. And in addition to whats been said lots of fruits and vegetables too.
Oh and beef is not the only red meat that will make you grow. Might cost more but look into buffalo meat. Its just as high as beef in protein but almost half the fat and cholesterol. Obviously discuss it with your doctor first.
rev8ball
10-09-07, 12:42 pm
Hey fellas, I am 22 and have high cholesterol. I am on medication for it to bring it down. basically my good cholesterol levels are very good, but my bad cholesterol levels are high. so I am looking for some advice on meal plans to cut the bad levels down. I dont really eat junk all that often and try to eat as clean as possible. if anyone has the similiar problem or has any advice that would be awsome. thanks guys and keep training hard.
Get a referral from your Doc for an RD that specializes in Sports Nutrition (yes, they DO exist!). That is gonna be your best, and safest, bet.
Good luck.......
Bulldozer
10-12-07, 10:01 am
Thanks fellas, I appreciate you guys taking time to help me out. I will use your advice. once again thanks for your time.
Ronnie Chop
10-12-07, 10:46 am
Cheerios and two glasses of red wine a week...
worked for my girlfriend
Polish Prince
02-11-08, 8:00 pm
Get a referral from your Doc for an RD that specializes in Sports Nutrition (yes, they DO exist!). That is gonna be your best, and safest, bet.
Good luck.......
what is an RD?
my cousin and i have high cholesterol and he only had 3 months to get rid of it. he ran a shit load every day and ate clean and it went way down.
my doctor gave me 6 months to lower mine. i was at a diffferent doctor the other day and he told me along wish taking fish oil everyday the only true way to get rid/lower cholesterol is by doing cardio.
in short:
eat clean (oatmeal and tuna is great)
take fish oil
do cardio (atleast half hour a day, make sure to keep a good sweat going)
bobbymart
02-11-08, 8:45 pm
Rd = Registerd Dietician
gflash77
02-11-08, 9:34 pm
when you eat eggs, take out the yolk. They raise both HDL (which sounds like ur ok with) and LDL levels (not good). Intense exercise helps bring cholesterol down. Is your condition hereditary, by chance?
Big Wides
02-11-08, 9:51 pm
I had this problem for a while, and until this year (LDL was 135) had high cholesterol.....your best bet is what rev8ball suggested.....however increase your fiber intake it helps a lot.....also nicain helps out as well.....the biggest factor for helping mine decrease was getting my cardiovascular conditioning up, working on it consistantly will help get your levels down. Lets see, I also had more EFAs in my diet, avoided foods that even smelt the least bit fried (shocking)......but see your Dr and go with what they suggest
XIronAcesX
03-02-08, 2:41 am
Hey fellas, I am 22 and have high cholesterol. I am on medication for it to bring it down. basically my good cholesterol levels are very good, but my bad cholesterol levels are high. so I am looking for some advice on meal plans to cut the bad levels down. I dont really eat junk all that often and try to eat as clean as possible. if anyone has the similiar problem or has any advice that would be awsome. thanks guys and keep training hard.
Bulldozer this might help you out bro.
LDL Cholesterol:
"Bad" Cholesterol, or Bad Science?
http://www.jpands.org/vol10no3/colpo.pdf
There are many myths about cholesterol.
First of all, it is now being accepted that elevated
LDL levels are not totally to blame for atherosclerosis.
A study was just finished, and it showed that even
though people were taking statin drugs to lower LDL
they were still getting blockages.
Eating cholesterol will not elevate LDL, LDL is merely
a carrier for cholesterol into your tissues while HDL
takes it to you liver to be excreted from your body.
So the real culprit for atherosclerosis is INFLAMMATION.
If you want to test that get a C-Reactive Protein blood
test (CRP).
Many older doctors do not accept this and hand out
statins like candy.
My advice would be to eat healthy, do not overdo
SATURATED FATS, those are the culprits for increaing
your LDL, especially hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated
oils and fats (in many protein bars, almost all processed food,
and a lot of fried foods - even if it says 0 trans fat, its still
there)
Second, eat plenty of anti-inflammatory agents in your diet
like fatty fish (salmon, herring), nuts (walnuts, almonds),
flaxseed, and seasonings like turmeric, garlic, and ginger.
Third do plenty of cardiovascular work to get your blood flowing
through your body- stagnant blood = blood more likely to clot up.
cornfed86
03-03-08, 2:14 pm
i'm still in school studying to become an RD specializing in sports nutrition so obviously a real RD would be able to give you more information than me, but try and get as much fiber as you can, as well as omega 3's and 6's. saturated and trans fat will raise your cholesterol levels more so than actual cholesterol found in food. one whole egg contains 211mg of cholesterol. shrimp is even higher, but these won't harm you as much as fatty red meat and pork. some poultry, like duck, is higher in fat as well so avoid that. also, plant sterols help to cleanse your blood stream of any bad parts of a lipid profile. Smart Balance makes a plant sterol drink. how are your triglycerides?
i'm still in school studying to become an RD specializing in sports nutrition so obviously a real RD would be able to give you more information than me, but try and get as much fiber as you can, as well as omega 3's and 6's. saturated and trans fat will raise your cholesterol levels more so than actual cholesterol found in food. one whole egg contains 211mg of cholesterol. shrimp is even higher, but these won't harm you as much as fatty red meat and pork. some poultry, like duck, is higher in fat as well so avoid that. also, plant sterols help to cleanse your blood stream of any bad parts of a lipid profile. Smart Balance makes a plant sterol drink. how are your triglycerides?
This is good advice. I too am majoring in Nutrition and agree with everything here.
Your liver produces 1000mg cholesterol a day so to add certain food on top of that could cause damage. Avoid egg yolks, liver, shrimp, saturated fats. Eat oats, salmon, veggies, soy and even cheerios like someone said. And take in as many anti oxidants as you can. They prevent the oxidation of cells which is what causes the plaque buildup in your arteries.
Good luck brother, keep us posted on your improvement.
Renji007
03-03-08, 4:46 pm
Clean up your diet a bit, maybe not so much red meat eh? Also you can do running and Omega 3 with oatmeal. All of that and some Animal pak with weight training and you'll be fine in a few months.
Now I've seen a few posts in this topic saying to eliminate egg yolks.
Is this all Eggs? Because they have been finding in the past few years that eggs from chickens fed vegetarian diets and allowed to roam free contain a much healthier fat & cholesterol profile.
I read a few articles a while back that said that chickens in battery cages produce eggs with harmful fat & cholesterol profiles. This was mainly due to their diets, an absence of sun light, and the size of their living quarters. The researchers then contrasted the eggs from chickens that were allowed to roam free and fed better diets with the ones raised in battery cages. The results were very drastic.
Since Bulldozer is trying to lower his cholesterol as a whole I agree he should probably avoid yolks. However for the other members reading this who are concerned with cholesterol from a general health perspective, are eggs yolks from free roaming chickens really as bad as "yolks" in general are being made out to be?
Since I have been eating 5-6 whole eggs from free roaming - vegetarian fed chickens every other day, I've never put on more quality mass and seen strength increases in such a short period of time in the 5 years I've been lifting.
XIronAcesX
03-04-08, 3:10 am
There are many myths about cholesterol.
First of all, it is now being accepted that elevated
LDL levels are not totally to blame for atherosclerosis.
A study was just finished, and it showed that even
though people were taking statin drugs to lower LDL
they were still getting blockages.
Eating cholesterol will not elevate LDL, LDL is merely
a carrier for cholesterol into your tissues while HDL
takes it to you liver to be excreted from your body.
So the real culprit for atherosclerosis is INFLAMMATION.
If you want to test that get a C-Reactive Protein blood
test (CRP).
Many older doctors do not accept this and hand out
statins like candy.
My advice would be to eat healthy, do not overdo
SATURATED FATS, those are the culprits for increaing
your LDL, especially hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated
oils and fats (in many protein bars, almost all processed food,
and a lot of fried foods - even if it says 0 trans fat, its still
there)
Second, eat plenty of anti-inflammatory agents in your diet
like fatty fish (salmon, herring), nuts (walnuts, almonds),
flaxseed, and seasonings like turmeric, garlic, and ginger.
Third do plenty of cardiovascular work to get your blood flowing
through your body- stagnant blood = blood more likely to clot up.
I agree with most of you guys; you all have some good points there. V23 did point that old doctors do hand out statin drugs like candy. I am also majoring in nutrition. There were a few things that I didn't agree. Such as removing the Egg yolk from the egg and only eating the egg whites.The Egg yolk is the most nutritious part of the egg. Egg yolk it self contains Vitamin A,D and E. The yolk also contains more manganese, copper, Phosphorus, Iodine, Iron,calcium and zinc than the egg white it self. A lot of people are afraid of eating the egg yolk because concerns of high cholesterol. Recent studys show that the human body does not absorb much cholesterol from the egg yolk. The BV(Biological Value) of a whole Egg is 100 percent; removing the Egg yolk the BV lowers down to almost 88 percent. Why would you want to remove the egg yolk?. Another thing I would like to point out is about red meat. Red meat is not always entirely high in fat. There are choices like, eye of round and flank. Eye of round is nearly as lean as skinless chicken and it has more vitamins too. Those are what the big boys eat when it comes to mass.
You do not need to avoid egg yolks as long as your cholesterol
metabolism is working well.
Some people have a genetic deficiency in part or the whole
gene that encodes for enzymes which get rid of excess cholesterol.
It doesnt seem like he has that problem.
Also whats his HDL- The more HDL you have the more excess
cholesterol will be removed from your body.
Try to get you HDL up!!!!!!!!!!! Because the ratio of LDL to HDL
is much more important than the level of LDL by itself.
Dont stop eating yolks. Lower Saturated fat. No one understands
this because doctors dont educate properly. Cant wait till Im practicing.
XIronAcesX
03-04-08, 2:25 pm
^
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^
^
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he's got it down.
cornfed86
03-04-08, 9:30 pm
no egg yolks should not be avoided by someone with high cholesterol. the bioavailability of the cholesterol in the yolk is low, but is enough so that you are getting enough of the fat soluable vitamins, plus the cholesterol your body does absorb will help keep your hormones at a healthy level. i was saying that foods high in saturated or trans fat will end up harming your chol levels far more than whole eggs. and i would avoided fast digesting, starchy carbs if your triglycerides are high, like mashed potatoes with no skin, bleached white rice, and white flour.
Bulldozer
03-08-08, 1:39 pm
Hey fellas, I have not been on in a while and I checked my thread and saw the new posts. thanks for the new tips, I really appreciate it. I didnt have insurance for a while so I hadnt been back to the doctor, I have a different job now with insurance so I will be getting another test shortly. I will update you guys on my levels. Thanks again for the information and help.
I don't think it was mentioned, but the reason oats work so well for lowering cholesterol is they have a decent amount of soluble fiber. Keep you eye on food labels and look for foods that offer at least 3g of soluble fiber per serving. Oat bran cereal has helped members of my family to significantly improve their numbers.
joe-yamma
03-09-08, 12:52 am
XIronAcesX and V23 - great posts guys!!!
everytime i read about someone just eating egg whites without the yolks, it make me cringe a little. people taking one of the only "whole" foods around and splitting it up. i was reading some stuff about Vince Gironda back in the day and he advocated eating whole eggs (as fresh as possible), and also believed that you body can't properly digest protein (like in the egg white) with out some fat (like in the egg yolk).
i've tried to eat just egg whites in the past and my body has a real hard time w/ them... throw some yolks in there and voila, proper digestion.
i also think that red meat gets a bad rep too. i eat lean cuts of beef and lean ground beef and my cholesterol is the lowest it's ever been. also, it's damn hard to gain on nothing but poultry and fish.
i think that some of things that have contributed to my chol going down (and me feeling better overall are):
- cutting back on processed foods
- more whole grains. if you're using "whole grain" bread, check the label...
if it says "high fructose corn syrup" in the ingredients list, put it back on the shelf!
oatmeal is excellent, but there are lots of sources of whole grains and fiber out there in the supermarket nowadays.
- omega fa's... 3's & 6's primarily... i take one with fish/flax/borage (Animal Omega will help here too)
- eating foods with "good" fats...
natty pb, almonds, other nuts, etc are my friends.