How did you successfully lower your cholesterol?

[bookworm1982]

Sorry I know this isn't exactly chatty but thought I would reach more people. My cholesterol is a bit high and I wondered if anyone had any tips on how to lower it? I've obviously googled this but I just wanted some actual advice from those that have lowered it successfully. Thank you!

MIL had an 'eye stroke' and lost sight in one eye but won't take statins or bp meds which is a worry. Some people can be really against meds.

I think bp tends to increase with age though, unsure if that is the same for cholesterol or not

Popping back onto the thread to say my cholesterol came down from 6.5 to 5.5 in six months by implementing the changes I said earlier. The main differences are more oats and pulses, more fibre, a daily omega 3 and a garlic supplement and a few nuts every day for a snack. I've stopped the Benecol drinks for now and will get re tested in another 6 months at which point I can add them back in if I feel I need to.

Cashews? I didn’t know cashews and Brazil nuts had any effect .

Some of the advice I have said has said eggs aren’t good for diabetes. I don’t understand why. I assume the cholesterol is bad too. It’s just so confusing .

Cheese is high in fat and bananas are high in sugar! I already have oats with berries and Greek yoghurt with a few nuts for breakfast.

Supposedly. I read it somewhere, oats and nuts are good. I think it could have been the BHF website. My doctor gave me a link to it in any case.

I guess it depends on your individual needs.

I have osteoporosis so need some calcium ontop of yogurt and milk. 50% of women will experience a fracture at some point in their lives.

I get it in other non dairy ways too on other days.

Each cheese has a variety of lactobacillus bacteria which are good for you gut.

likewise bananas have silica and a number of other good things so I’m not stopping them.

The biggest difference to cholesterol seems to be in the amount of fibre you eat. Stop looking at sugar. It’s fibre that matters. Bananas have 5.5g fibre. No way I’m giving that up.

Try and get to above 30g of fibre a day. If you can get to 40 or 50g per day you will see a good drop in your cholesterol.

All the websites I checked say bananas are ok and a good choice for lowering cholesterol and it’s because of the fibre and potassium.

I’m thinking of sugar from the blood sugar angle but I eat quite a lot of fibre anyway.

Pub Med is your friend, to discover all the things you ever wanted to know about food and how it can help you health-wise.

It was there I discovered a way to stabilise my osteoporosis with prunes.

Food is amazing 🤩

I understand. I used to think this way too. I did the Zoe Nutrition program but have gone back to eating more the way I used to.

I am thinking about the Zoe programme and would like to know more about how effective you found it?

it depends what you want to do it for.

I had a couple of chronic long term autoimmune illnesses I wanted to see if it could help.

I wasn’t using it to lose weight or particularly eat better as I already ate really pretty well and weight stable/happy. I was using it to look inside and analyse my microbiome.

im pretty unusual in that sense. It’s not what most people maybe come to Zoe for.

in the end I think I am am not the right person to judge.

I found it an interesting experience but in the end I didn’t quite gel with the diet long term.

I think I probably have the MTHFR gene and need different food.

or perhaps I was already too compromised.

I don’t know. I think I overdid nuts and pulses/beans.

I didn’t eat enough red meat, which I need for ferritin.

I think in the end I had too much omega 6 (olive oil, nuts etc) and not enough omega 3. This was inflammatory for me. But it’s not for everyone.

zoe frowns on pork, red meat and offal. Even lean good stuff. But I need it.

it also frowns on pasta, brown bread, potatoes. Yet I need and do pretty well on quick release carbs. I have a high metabolism. My blood glucose is good.

i feel much better with some of these.

i found the point scoring system zealous. Some people treat it like a religion.

that said it has taught me a lot about blood sugar, fat and protein.

I’ve gone deeper into my personal needs and it’s been cerulean helpful as a starting point.

id recommend it yes, but keep grounded and remember even when it says it’s personalised, it’s not. Not really. There’s nothing that accounts for genetics. And their parameters for what is a healthy microbiome are quite narrow and still in flux. It’s very early days.

Artichoke supplement.

Intense cardio exercise helps a lot.

Could you link to it please?

@Thoughtsareswirling you can buy the supplement online at Amazon or most health food shops. My doctor recommended it to me.

Not really. You're wanting to lower your cholesterol, not your blood sugar.

I swapped 'white' carbs for higher fibre, ate more oily fish, porridge/oats and upped my fruit and veg intake.

I have been using gluocommanan capsules and read they can help

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/glucomannan

They used to say that eggs were bad for cholesterol because eggs have cholesterol in them, but now they say it's saturated fat that leads to high cholesterol levels not cholesterol that is actually in the food, so eggs are OK.