Can high cholesterol be reduced through diet?

[PalmTreeCocktail]

My mother has high cholesterol. It's 5.8. This was identified a few years ago from a blood test. She refused to take medication and she was asked to manage it through diet. She wanted to do it through the diet.

I found all this bizarre how the GP never referred her to a dietician. My mother wanted me to check online for her about lowering cholesterol through the diet.

My mother seems to be doing a lot of the right things.
She doesn't smoke. She doesn't drink. She walks daily.

Her diet is not varied.

Typically:
Breakfast is weetabix, with flaxseed and milk. Toast. She likes brown soda bread toasted or brown bread. She uses Flora spread. Tea.

Lunch might be a scone with Flora or two boiled eggs and tuna and soda bread.

I don't know what she has for dinner. I think maybe beans and potatoes.

Other foods in her diet include - bananas and tomatoes and biscuits and sweets.

Her diet is not very varied at all, in my opinion. When I researched this before for her I recommended to her to change her milk from full fat milk to low fat milk but all she did was make excuses about the change.

She's really not taking any of this seriously and she's very set in her ways too and habits and what she eats. She doesn't usually like trying new things. I suggested more fruit and vegetables but she won't do that.

This has been going on for so long now and she's still in the same place as she was since about 2019 with raised cholesterol.

I'm actually sick of helping her at this stage. She's getting me to research online but she won't ever take any of this seriously and all she will do is complain and make excuses and staying her ways. I am also fuming at the GPs in that she is supposed to manage this through her diet yet they never referred her to a dietitian to do it.

She seems to be doing a lot of good things like no drinking and smoking and walking daily and no takeaways and no greasy foods or pizzas. So she is doing a lot of good things. I know her diet is limited and not varied. Would that be causing the cholesterol to be high?

How can cholesterol be lowered through diet?

5.8 is not really high. Flora Proactiv taste the same as normal Flora but not a hardship.

OP I feel your pain. My MIL was the same about her type 2 diabetes - endless conversation about what she could do and should do and might do, but absolutely zero action. It drives you mad. I think she liked the fuss and the attention and had no interest in actually changing anything

As someone said upthread, drop the rope. Stop running yourself ragged with all this research and just don't engage with the discussion about her health. I know this is easier said than done, believe me

5.8 is not high. Read 'The Great Cholesterol Con' by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick. There are other books saying the same thing.

The problem here is that your mum has refused to learn how to use a computer and that you have allowed her to make this your problem.

I totally agree.

She could buy a book or get one from the library.

My doctor advises to follow a Mediterranean diet with oily fish. I eat reasonably well but don't want to eat oily fish each week so have omega supplements instead as advised by the doctor. It's easier to have the omega than try to have a lot of fish.

5.8 is not high and whilst it can be managed by a better diet, it would be ridiculous for a gp to make a referral to a dietician in this case.

My dad had to go on a low cholesterol diet in the 1990s and some of the things I remember him being told he should avoid were sausages (processed meats), eggs - 2 a week max, prawns and liquorice.

Your mum's diet is awful and very limited. Maybe push her to avoid certain foods rather than telling her what she should be eating - it's always easier to choose between 'I shouldn't be eating this' and 'I've no idea what I should be eating'.

Current NHS advice is to avoid

• meat pies, sausages and fatty meat
• butter, lard and ghee
• cream and hard cheese, like cheddar
• cakes and biscuits
• food that contains coconut oil or palm oil

Add sweets, eggs and shellfish to the list and that's a really explicit list of foods she should avoid.

How old is old?

what is her ratio of good to bad cholesterol? This is important

there are many foods to eat to change your cholesterol, raspberries, black tea etc seek out the foods to add

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/cholesterol/art-20045192

https://www.heartuk.org.uk/cholesterol/understanding-your-cholesterol-test-results- the good cholesterol is ok being high, it’s the bad one to reduce - so you need to know the ratio

What a boring diet. But not that bad (ie not full of fried food).

I would think increasing roughage would help - even buying oatmeal biscuits and whole meal bread might help. Maybe she should take a multivitamin as she eats little fruit and veg.

im sure you can buy her a book that advises on diet.

Isn't it now believed that eggs, shellfish and other foods with cholesterol in them are OK? The problem is with the body making too much cholesterol, not how much cholesterol you eat.

Just adding, FWIW, my husband and both parents have been on statins for years with no obvious side effects.

That list is from the current nhs Web page. Everything in moderation, sure, and yes I know there are good/bad cholesterol foods, but foods on that list have lots of the bad type. Surely you can agree that we should all be thinking about the amount of pies, processed food and full fat anything we eat, never mind OP's mum who's been told she should be reducing her cholesterol through diet?

The bullet point list is from the NHS, yes. You said to add sweets, eggs and shellfish to the list of foods she should avoid. My point is that's outdated advice for eggs and shellfish, not that it sounds as if OP's mum eats them anyway. My big concern for OP's mum would be the lack of fruit and veg in her diet, but if she's reached middle/old age without acquiring a taste for them, it might be a bit late now. Would she eat soup, maybe?

I had total serum cholesterol 8. Now 5 months later I'm 4.6. Changed diet but not drastically. Reduced saturated fats ie no cheddar, now more fish veg nuts,no more pork steaks, less bacon, Changed to Skimmed milk, overnight oats with almond milk, chia seeds frozen raspberries and blueberries. 1 benecol yoghurt drink in the evening. A little exercise. I'm 68 and not frail. doc still wants me on attorvastin. Even though no health issues. Npblood pressure good. resting 62bpm. Why?