Can you help me reduce my cholesterol

[scruffanddodge]

Spoke with my GP today. I don’t have high cholesterol but I am at the very upper level or where I should be. I have another blood test in 3 months and I have been asked to look at my diet. Here is what is normal for me and I would really appreciate any help or tips you can give.

Breakfast
scrambled egg made with butter and a pinch of salt. Butter and salt to go so may just do boiled egg now?
Low fat Greek yoghurt with berries and honey
Beans on whole meal toast.

Lunch
homemade soup with oatcakes. Sometimes a cup a soup.
roast meat such as chicken or Turkey or ham or hummus or tuna with a pitta bread or oatcakes
cucumber and celery with low fat mayo to dip
2 low fat baby bell cheeses.
Apple
Protein yoghurt
Quavers or mini cheddars

Dinner
We used to do Hello Fresh so have their recipe cards. Our favourites include
Chicken thigh
Chicken breast
Pork Loin
pork mince
lamb mince
all these come with seasonings such as garlic, soy, kejap manis, ginger, tomato etc
Served with veg or salad, potatoes or pasta.

quite often do a roast chicken on a Sunday with homemade gravy, veg and roast potatoes made with olive oil. Sometimes, we are lazy and it’s frozen pizza or nachos.

We don’t do pudding. If I have anything it’s in the summer months so strawberries or raspberries. I do sometimes have a magnum.

I do like crisps. These are my downfall and I know they have to go.

not a fan of chocolate but if I am bored I will have some with a coffee. Occasionally a biscuit.

Alcohol wise, a bottle of wine will last Friday, Saturday and possibly a small glass left on a Sunday. I will likely have a gin or a Friday, 2 on a Saturday and sometimes split a bottle of cava with DH on a Sunday afternoon.

I understand porridge is a good breakfast. I can’t do it. I had a horrendous experience as a child with porridge made with off milk. I’ll leave that sorry but I am sure you can imagine.

I was in a similar situation and last year went on a low dose statin, which dropped my levels beautifully. One thing many people don't understand about cholesterol is that it's not all from diet, your body makes it in the liver. You can have none in your diet and still have high levels. It's a necessary chemical building block for many hormones, so too low is a problem too.

I've had no side effects at all from the statin (5mg of Crestor/Rosuvastatin) and am so pleased I started it and can stop worrying about every bite I eat.

Your diet sounds good tbh maybe you should look at adding in some cholesterol lowering foods rather than cutting out a load of stuff?

Get rid of:

Beans on whole meal toast.
oatcakes
cup a soup
pitta bread or oatcakes
low fat mayo
quavers or mini cheddars
frozen pizza or nachos
crisps
biscuits

they’re all processed and full of junk oils like Rapeseed, canola and sunflower.

Inflammation raises cholesterol. Cholesterol is not the problem, inflammation is.

Your diet seems quite decent but there's no omega 3. Do you eat oily fish at all?

I think ditching the crisps alone will make a big difference (depending on how much we're talking). How many packs do you have a week?

I've just been told I have 6 months to reduce mine.

My plan is to lose weight as this can help considerably.

I've cut out the butter and full fat yoghurt and fried food.

Upped the quantity of oats and almonds I eat, both help to reduce cholesterol.

Exercise (brisk walk/cycling) every day.

Your diet sounds fine, so maybe incorporate more oats (breakfast?) and get some regular exercise.

In a month I've lost 5lbs, and my resting heart rate is averaging 4 points lower.

Good luck with it.

Thank you. What do you suggest I eat? You’ve pretty much elicited most of my diet which I did expect so I suppose I need some ideas on what to eat?

Probably one a day on average. If I am honest with myself probably two if I am bored or having a drink so they are going to go. Including the quavers and mini cheddars.

No. Sometimes salmon but I am the only one that likes it and I don’t want to go down the route of cooking different meals for us all.

I was advised to look at this info:

www.heartuk.org.uk/ultimate-cholesterol-lowering-plan/uclp-menopause

Apparently lots of soya products are good.

HDL/LDL ratio is important too look at your blood results and see if this is recorded. Oily fish, porridge oats etc all help to balance out this ratio. It’s not just all about the total serum cholesterol it’s more complicated than that.

Everything LadyCamp says - cholesterol being high is due to inflammation - check out Dr Eric Berg on YT. The man is a genius

Chronic inflammation is just one of many causes of unhealthy lipid levels.

www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/things-that-impact-cholesterol

Buy Benecol drinks or supermarket equivalent.

Drink soya milk instead of dairy or almond milk (preferably light soya).

Give up meat and go vegetarian.

Lose any excess weight wherever possible.

Stress can increase cholesterol also so try to stay away from it if possible.

A whole food plant based diet is recommended:

https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/cholesterol/

Thank you for responding. I'll check out those links and information given.

What is your cholesterol level OP out of interest? GP's seem to vary so much on what they regard as normal

How's your thyroid? One of the symptoms of an underactive thyroid is high cholesterol and the guidelines actually say that thyroid function should be checked, and if necessary corrected, before statins are given.

You asked PP what should you eat if you eliminate the things they mention. I'd say, loads of veg. E.g. hummus with lots of veg instead of pitta/oat cakes - carrots, peppers, cucumber, celery. Big salad for lunch most days, with tofu or if you want to keep eating meat then cold meats/tuna/other fish.

Dinner same idea, veggie things like chilli beans, lentil stew, sweet potato or pumpkin cakes with another two or three veg on the side not potatoes or pasta.

I had similar news from the nurse when I had my 40something check up and I know full well it's my love of cheese and wine that's my issue but the masses of veg is helping. I make way more veg curries than I ever thought I would like, to get lots of tasty flavours. E.g. last night we had dhal, mushroom korma with plant fake cream, spinach, roast cauliflower. Also helps when I make enough to have leftovers for lunch.

Alcohol wise, a bottle of wine will last Friday, Saturday and possibly a small glass left on a Sunday. I will likely have a gin or a Friday, 2 on a Saturday and sometimes split a bottle of cava with DH on a Sunday afternoon.

Reduce your alcohol.
www.heartuk.org.uk/low-cholesterol-foods/alcohol

Here's some sensible, evidence based advice from the experts:

www.bda.uk.com/resource/cholesterol.html

Was about to say the same. 2 packs a day is a huge amount of salt and fat. Same with cheddars. Also lose the eggs.

My DH had high cholesterol diagnosed earlier this year after a check up. His GP said not to bother messing about with diet (as his diet isn't "bad" anyway) but basically said he'd have to eat salad leaves and nothing else to get it down to an acceptable level. He just put him straight on statins which have worked a treat and no side effects.

Obviously if it's only on the high end of normal diet changes may help. My DH was quite high apparently.

I can’t remember what he said but I have emailed my surgery to ask for a copy.

It’s not 2 bags every day. Probably at the weekend yes though.

I’ve read a bit this morning on the subject. There is no evidence that eggs cause high cholesterol.