High cholesterol diet help.

[ApolloandDaphne]

I have had a blood screen done at a private GP. Everything is fine except my cholesterol is high. This is the kick up the arse i need to eat better and deal with it, hopefully losing weight along the way.

I need to know what sort of diet i need and i can see an overwhelming amount of info when i Google. Can anyone help me cut through all this information and point me in the direction to an easy to follow, cholesterol lowering diet?

Any other advice also welcome. Thanks

Many people find a low carb/keto diet can improve cholesterol. You can go a long way to improve things without even going that far though. Reducing processes food and empty calories in your diet will make a big difference so anything with added sugar, anything with more then a few ingredients or ingredients names you don't recognise. Eat cleaner basically, simple ingredients cooked from scratch. Lots of vegetables especially non-starchy ones. Reduce processed carbs like bread and pasta, keep natural fats.

I'm sure lots of people will recommend a low fat diet but fat is really important for your health.

Ultimately your body will work in a different way to anyone else's and so will need to find what works for your own biology.

Thank you. That is very helpful. Cutting out processed food would be a good start i think.

I am in the same boat - diagnosed with high cholesterol which is not uncommon in people whose thyroid is knackered too. GP wanted to put me straight on a statin but I said I would prefer to try lifestyle changes too. Am about 2 months into my new regime and have lost a stone.

I have cut out cheese and butter entirely, also red meat and pastry products and things like chips. I have semi-skimmed milk in my coffee and low fat / zero fat yoghurt. I am seriously minimising my consumption of cake, biscuits and chocolate, which is harder than the cheese.

I am trying to eat more oily fish like salmon (2 portions a week), avocados, eggs, oats. I am never hungry in the morning so around 12.30 I have "brunch" of overnight oats made with the low fat yoghurt with berries and a spoonful of honey. That keeps me going to 6pm ish when I have dinner. And try not to snack in the evening. I am eating baked rice crackers rather than crisps as snacks. Also drinking a small bottle of the Asda own cholesterol-lowering yoghurt drink each day.

Remains to be seen whether this has had enough of an effect on my cholesterol, need to book a blood test mid-January. But as DH said, losing a stone has to have positive effects.

I also don't buy into the demonisation of carbs. Yes swap white bread for wholemeal, or choose bran flakes or oats rather than white toast. And yes to eating plenty of fruit/veg. Swap the butter for olive oil spread etc.

Did your GP not give any advice?

Thank you @CoatOfArms and well done on losing a stone. I am waiting for other blood tests before i go back and see the GP but i am keen to avoid drugs too. I think losing cheese will pain me the most but it will need to go. Christmas is not exactly the best time to be embarking on this. Earlier i was looking at luscious trifle recipes, now i am thinking maybe not!

I haven't been back to the GP yet. She said in her email to me that we would discuss it on my next appointment.

It's really saturated fats you need to avoid - red meat, full fat dairy, sausages, burgers, pastry, cakes. All the good stuff. 😪

And eat more of the "good fats" like oily fish, olive oil, avocado.

I found the official NHS guidance useful. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/high-cholesterol/how-to-lower-your-cholesterol/ Also stop smoking, stop drinking alcohol, try to do moderate exercise. I know what you mean about a wake up call, I was so so shocked to be told this was an issue for me - and the only issue as my sugar levels are fine as is my blood pressure.

DH has just cut his from 8.7 to 5.4 through diet over 6 months.
He cut out:
Chocolate ( a big weakness with a hell of a lot of saturated fat)
Anything with palm oil like bought biscuits and cakes.
Fatty meat like sausages, bacon, pies.
Butter
Cheese
Pastry ( apart from pastry I make with olive oil)
Full fat milk and yoghurt
Coconut milk
He ate oats everyday with a plant sterol yogurt drink.
Changed to peanut butter on toast
I made muffins and cakes with oil instead of butter, even found a good pastry recipe. Got his chocolate fix from fat reduced cocoa powder.
Small amount of high protein low calorie cheese And homemade pizza with lower fat mozzarella for treat.
More soya- Alpro soya puddings and tofu.
Less red meat, turkey, chicken , low fat mince, venison steak for a treat .
We've always eaten quite a lot of veg and pulses and olive oil so his good to bad cholesterol ratio wasn't as bad as you'd expect he just had bad snacking habits on top of reasonably healthy meals ( never bought takeaways, too expensive!)
Oh also switched to filter coffee from espresso as that has something in itt that raises cholesterol apparently!
He's lucky that I've always cooked from scratch and like experimenting.

Thank you @Wbeezer. That is a great list. I can make most of these changes fairly simply i think. I like lots of the cholesterol friendly foods and the melas i cook tend to be healthy. It is the snacks that i need to cut out. The main thing i was seeing the GP for was tiredness/lethargy and pains in my hips/legs. I don't know if high cholesterol might be a contributory factor but its worth trying to lower it.

And this is why science wins. It’s proven so you don’t need to “buy in”. You follow double blind randomised controlled trials that show it works.

Keto/low carb will do it OP.

Did they test your thyroid?? The tiredness, and muscle aches, coupled with your high cholesterol, is screaming underactive thyroid at me.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/underactive-thyroid-hypothyroidism/symptoms/

Definitely make the lifestyle changes to address your cholesterol. But if your thyroid is wonky you will need medication for that too.

@Wbeezer low cholesterol is not the aim 🫣

A heathy cholesterol profile is. HDL to Triglyceride ratio is the best indicator of risk.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3899519/

Yes that was tested for. Apparently there was one borderline result in my thyroid tests but my TSH was normal which means all is fine I believe.

Yes, I realise that, the nurse was supposed to send him the detailed results to see what his LDL/ HDL ratio is now but she hasn't, will chase it up, but when you have a total cholesterol of nearly 9 and you eat too much chocolate, cheese and butter ( and need to lose a stone) I think cutting down on foods that raise LDL and Triglycerides is a pretty sensible thing to do?
His ratio before going on the diet was OK but not in the ideal range, I'm hoping it's even better now..

Did your GP mention lowering your stress and anxiety levels? High levels of cortisol may contribute to high cholesterol.

I have no particular stress in my life and i don't suffer from anxiety. My life is generally lovely.

I have gone back and looked at the results again and it seems that the HDL/LDL ratio comes out as normal. Does this make it less of an issue?