Cholesterol high despite healthy diet - what now??

Jean I'm actually proving that what you said must be right as it's now a family joke that I have borderline cholesterol and sugar despite doing what I do and borderline low levels of salt!

I have often quoted Michael Pollen, but his two mantras have always struck me as the best approach to what your eat.
1) Eat well, not too much, most of it plants
2) If it is made from a plant eat it, if it is made in a plant don't.

It works.

bluesky Then we can just as well carry on doing whatever we like doing, eating whatever we like eating, as what's dangerous today becomes the life saver of tomorrow

I wouldn’t draw that conclusion.
What the quoted passage is saying is that current advice is based on poorly designed research projects from 30 years ago, and that new research is conducted differently, and more rigorously, and comes to different conclusions
Not only did the ‘various health organisations’ (of which the NHS is one) and big pharma champion the data from 30 years ago, much more damagingly, so did the big food producers.
Googling ‘high fructose corn syrup’ would be an interesting start, if you want to know more.

jura You put too much trust in doctors. Some are excellent others are inadequate or have strong prejudices.

A friend of mine died of liver cancer after being prescribed statins when he had a medical condition that meant that these drugs should not be prescribed because he was already at a high risk of developing this disease and statins increased this risk. The doctors failed to diagnose the condition, despite him presenting with clear symptoms. By the time the problem was finally diagnosed, he had been on statins for several years and his liver cancer was identified at much the same time.

Then we can just as well carry on doing whatever we like doing, eating whatever we like eating, as what's dangerous today becomes the life saver of tomorrow. As a lifelong dedicated low fat, low salt, low sugar vegetarian, I am feeling disillusioned and despondent right now!

This is from Dr Malcolm Kendrick’s latest blog:

“The biggest recent study on the impact of diet and heart health was the PURE study. Which was reported thus, last year:

‘Findings from this large, epidemiological cohort study involving 135,335 individuals aged 35 to 70 years from 18 low-, middle- and high-income countries (across North America, Europe, South America, the Middle East, South Asia, China, South East Asia and Africa) suggest that high carbohydrate intake increases total mortality, while high fat intake is associated with a lower risk of total mortality and has no association with the risk of myocardial infarction or cardiovascular disease-related mortality.

Furthermore, a higher saturated fat intake appeared to be associated with a 21% lower risk of stroke. Why might these results be in such contrast with current dietary advice? “The conclusion that low fat intake is protective is based on a few very old studies with questionable methodology,” explains Professor Salim Yusuf (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada), senior investigator for the PURE study. “The problem is that poorly designed studies performed 25–30 years ago were accepted and championed by various health organisations when, in fact, there are several recent studies using better methods, which show that a higher fat intake has a neutral effect,” he continues, citing the example of the Women’s Health Initiative trial conducted by the National Institutes of Health in 49,000 women that showed no benefit of a low-fat diet on heart disease, stroke or cardiovascular disease.’ “

Oh and when I tried LCHF my cholesterol was seriously high. Apparently it doesn't always work if you have an hereditary condition

I was diagnosed with high cholesterol about 5 years ago. I've tried various statins at various doses as the more usually prescribed ones aren't strong enough. I now take Rosuvastatin, aka the last resort statin, as it the strongest but most effective. I'm still slightly high but not enough for the next step which is treated at hospital

Forgot to say I rarely eat any type of processed food.
Cook from fresh.
Check out products for low fat sugar and salt.
The thing is companies cut out fat but increase the sugar content.
I was prediabetic but have been normal for 4 years now.

I had high cholestral.
Cut out red meat, cheese, changed oil to rapeseed, don't eat any food with high cholestral content.
Have white egg ommlets no yolk, don't eat liver or prawns etc.

I am down to 4.2 from 6.5

I was on statins for a while and it affected my memory, never again. I would rather help myself than ever take Statins.
Best of luck it is not easy.

What janeainsworth said. I've been LCHF for 3 years now, and feel much better for it. The High fat is a bit of a misnomer, but simply means eating plenty of healthy natural fats, so I eat olive oil, butter and cream, but not too excess. New thinking does indeed consider that CVD and diabetes are caused by carbs (sugar) and not fat.

Thanks Jean and Anja will look it up! It could very well be too many carbs have caused my problems!

bluesky I think ‘high fat’ in the LCHF diet is a bit of a misnomer. I think it just means not low-fat.
You’re right in that there’s a natural limit to the amount of fat we eat - anything that’s too greasy or oily to most people is unpalatable.
But a certain amount of fat is needed to make things taste nice. Think of mashed potatoes with nothing added to them, versus mashed potatoes with milk and butter added to them.
Many things which are sold as ‘low-fat’ , like salad dressings, have sugar added to give them flavour, instead of fat.

The important thing is lowering carbohydrate. Eating more fruit and veg and less bread, cake, white rice etc.

I agree with anja, google it and read some articles. There’s now a body of opinion that it’s excessive carbohydrate and not excessive fat intake that contributes to CVD as well as type 2 diabetes.

That’s the thinking behind the LCHF diet.

'Complete' should read comfortable. There should be an edit button on here?!

I'm with Rowantree on this. I wouldn't feel complete eating fats, in fact I would not be able to digest them!

I'm trying to get my head round the idea of LCHF diets. Just sounds counter-intuitive to me when there is so much evidence that a mediterranean diet rich in veg, fish and a little of the good fats (olive oil) is beneficial. I eat as natural a diet as I can with food as un-processed as possible, plenty of veg and though I limit refined carbs there are nutrients, including fibre, we need from unrefined carbs which you'll miss out on, surely? But it's horses for courses. I'm sure there will always be debates on which way of eating is healthiest. I will continue to look at the evidence either way!

It’s very complicated BlueSky and not for everyone. Best is you consult Google and read a wide variety of articles.

I don't understand how a high fat diet can lower cholesterol?

I'm with you Boadicea, Low Carb/ High Fat.
I started the Zoe Harcombe way of eating six weeks ago and without hardly any exercise have lost over a stone and lowered my cholesterol.
My Son has lost 19lbs in 35 days.
Everything has to be natural food, no processed, no low fat spreads, in fact no low fat anything.
You are encouraged to eat butter on all your vegetables, eat fat on meat, pour cream into your homemade soups.
It's very healthy and satisfying and because you can eat all the delicious natural foods, very easy to stick to.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/health-47933345 A link to the item mentioned by Gonegirl

[Dr Stephen Weng]said: "We have to develop better ways to understand differences between patients and how we can tailor more effective treatment for those millions of patients who are simply blanket-prescribed statins."

??What that man said.

But, anyone taking statins, don't stop without consulting your doc!

Well, they said on the news this morning that statins don't work properly for 51% of the people given them.

I've just ordered H&B soft chews, 3 to 6 chews to be taken after meals as I find it very difficult to swallow the normal plant sterol pills as they are enormous! Wonder if anybody has tried them yet I think they are fairly new.

jura2 well, I would definitely discuss pros and cons of statins with my GP. And I want another blood test in 3 months' time, so we'll see what he says. Thus far, in brief discussions after previous cholesterol tests, none of them has advised taking them and I coudn't disagree.
Is mainlining on soya yogurt and soya milk going to have the same effect as drinking a Benecol? The latter aren't cheap and I'm having the former on a regular basis anyway.

NB: I was joking about mainlining on the stuff...

Low carb high fat diet has lowered my cholesterol markedly, especially dramatic in trigycerides. Nearing 70, with a strong family history of heart issues/stroke, I took statins for years with no improvement n cholesterol readings. I'm very happy on my delicious LCHF diet, combined with the 16/8 two-meals-a-day routine.