high cholesterol

[Linda/NE]

I just found out today that my Cholesterol is high and I was told to watch my diet. The nurse told me to stay away from fried foods (which I rarely eat anyway). I googled some information on foods to avoid and good foods to eat.

Every site I found recommended eating fruits and vegetables. With my hiatel hernia I can't eat them, especially fresh fruits.

anyone else dealing with high cholesterol? What foods are okay/good to eat? (I'm into just basic type foods nothing too fancy.)
Advice would be appreciated. thanks!!

[angie r]

The nutritionist. What you eat can raise and lower cholesterol. Limit red meat and dairy with saturated fat and reduce unhealthy trans fats. Drink 1% or skim milk and eat no more than three egg yolks a week. Shoot for 10-20 grams of soluble fiber a day from fruits, veggies, whole grains, and black or kidney beans, all of which help reduce cholesterol. Eat more nuts, fatty fish and monounsaturated fats.


This is what Dr. Oz said. Exercise 30 minutes a day helps too.

[AnnW]

you can't eat any fruit or veggie? how are you getting enough vitamins and nutrition?
lots of fish, whole wheat, chicken, turkey. no red meat.
exercise!!!
you may have to take meds if you can't do it by diet.

[littlesista06]

Dh has been dealing with this. Excercise is a must... sorry! :(

Red wine or even grape juice is good to raise your good cholesterol levels.
Cheeses and fatty foods are out (unless you go fat free and that kinda chees is NOT NORMAL. lol). Chicken and lean meats are in. Pasta and rice are staples here along with soups.
Uh... lean lunch meats i.e. turkey, turkey pastrami...
I'm trying to think of what he eats. He also watches the saturated fat in foods and stays away from anything over like, 3g.

We do lots of veggies though...

He's on meds for it and hates it. It's hard to find one that he can tolerate the side affects. :(
He's been taking fish oil and I think that's for cholesterol - who knows.

Sorry my thoughts are sorta scattered. If I come up with more ideas, I'll let you know. A low cholesterol cookbook would be very helpful. :)

[Amy]

I heard oatmeal is good too.

[AnnW]

Sista, I was on Vytorin. didn't have any side effects.

Oatmeal is good too, but can't add alot of sugar or milk!

[Diane]

I heard oatmeal is good too.

I didn't know that until I saw it on a commercial the other day. I was kind of surprised, who would have thought... oatmeal. :)

[littlesista06]

Yup, dh eats it totally plain. ICK!

I'm not sure what he's on now but he's had all sorts of problems with others.
(flushing of the skin, muscle aches, etc.)

Glad you haven't!

[Linda/NE]

you can't eat any fruit or veggie? how are you getting enough vitamins and nutrition?
lots .

I can have limited fruits and veggies. Fresh ones though are pretty much out. Cooked veggies are okay in little amounts. Fruits are just too acidy. I LOVE canned pears & mixed fruits but it doesn't take very much to upset my stomach. Strawberries (fresh or otherwise) are just plain EVIL!! I believe they suggest 5 servings of Fruits and veggies a day (does that sound right) I know I can't tolerate even half that much.

[Linda/NE]

Dh has been dealing with this. Excercise is a must... sorry! :(

Red wine or even grape juice is good to raise your good cholesterol levels.
Cheeses and fatty foods are out (unless you go fat free and that kinda chees is NOT NORMAL. lol). Chicken and lean meats are in. Pasta and rice are staples here along with soups.
Uh... lean lunch meats i.e. turkey, turkey pastrami...
I'm trying to think of what he eats. He also watches the saturated fat in foods and stays away from anything over like, 3g.

We do lots of veggies though...

He's on meds for it and hates it. It's hard to find one that he can tolerate the side affects. :(
He's been taking fish oil and I think that's for cholesterol - who knows.

Sorry my thoughts are sorta scattered. If I come up with more ideas, I'll let you know. A low cholesterol cookbook would be very helpful. :)

Okay let's see here... cheeses are out?? I don't do milk cause of lactose intolerance--I can do limited cheese though. (don't think I can live without pizza :()

chicken I can handle, but sometimes it upsets my stomach too.

Okay so when reading labels on foods what should I be looking for/at? Does the cholesterol amount mean anything or should I just be looking at the saturated and trans fat? If so on the cholesterol what number should I be wanting to keep it below?

I may just call up the clinic again and request some more specific guidelines.

Okay so what kind of exercise can I be doing in the dead of winter with no gym or exercise facilities to work out in? (I think the hospital does have facilities but I don't know if you have to have a membership to use it) Dh has his ideas, of course. :newwink:

thanks for the info!

[AnnW]

get an exercise video tape. there are tons of them. makes it very easy to exercise at home!

look for the amount of sodium on the label (ask your doc what it should be under) make sure there are no transfats. limit saturated fats.

can you eat fruit/veggies in small amounts? then eat it in small amounts during the day. chop up a bunch of veggies and keep them in the fridge. add a handful to a salad or stir fry a few. have a couple of carrots with some low fat ranch dip with your sandwich. make a smoothie using yogurt and frozen blueberries. mid day have a few more carrots. can you eat apples? maybe slice one up and eat it throughout the day. you can eat pizza, just not every day and order it veggie with half the amount of cheese on it.
eating oatmeal every am has found to be really helpful.
will you eat fish? that hardly has any cholesterol.

[AnnW]

Yup, dh eats it totally plain. ICK!

I'm not sure what he's on now but he's had all sorts of problems with others.
(flushing of the skin, muscle aches, etc.)

Glad you haven't!
wow! bless his heart. i had problems with the bp med i was on, broke out in a rash and itched all over.

[littlesista06]

It wouldn't let me post this last night for some reason:

It's very confusing, at least to me it is. And I'm the one who needs to be studying it and knowing it as well as dh does if I'm going to keep him alive.
Mom gave us a good book called Eater's Choice A Food Lover's Guide to Lower Cholesterol.

Here are some points I can pull out now:
Gotta watch the fat. Stay away from saturated fats. It raises the cholesterol levels as well as the LDL level.
Monounsaturated fat is your friend. It can lower your LDL (bad cholest.) and raise your HDL (good cholest). The best source of monounsat. is olive oil. Rachael Ray has it right EVOO! Extra virgin olive oil in everything. LOL

The advice our book says is 'focus on saturated fat, not cholesterol'.
Sat. fat is the most potent determinant of blood cholesterol levels. It's twice as effective in raising blood cholest. as polyunsaturated fat is in lowering it.
(polyunsaturated fat lowers blood LDL levels and to a much lesser extent, HDL levels too.)

So if you were to go cold turkey, and not monitor your saturated fat levels, here's what you'd eat:
fish, white meat turkey, chicken w/out skin, loads of veggies and fruits, bread made w/out hydrogenated oils, oatmeal, rice, pasta, skim milk, low fat yogurt, and cottage cheese, tub margarine and olive, safflower, sunflower or corn oil, etc.

It means you would not eat:
red meat, beef, veal, pork, ham, and cold cuts. No whole milk dairy like, cheese, sour cream, whole milk, buttter, ice cream, 2/% milk. No commercial packaged foods or baked goods. And other products made with palm oil, palm kernnel oil, coconut oil, hydrogenated veg. oil, cocoa butter or lard. ICK

[AnnW]

. No commercial packaged foods or baked goods. And other products made with palm oil, palm kernnel oil, coconut oil, hydrogenated veg. oil, cocoa butter or lard. ICK
that's the really scary thing..when you start reading labels and see how much transfats and hydrogenated oils are in stuff!!!!

[Linda/NE]

Thanks for the info. It is amazing how much junk is in the food you buy.

Not eat red meat?? 8o That will be hard to do. I do eat fish, chicken and turkey so that's workable.

I can eat small amounts of canned fruit. Apples, bananas,--no.

I found some other info online. In one place it said that medium risk levels were in the 200 (244 maybe). Mine is only 144 so it's not as bad as I feared.
Talked with my mom today. She deals with it too and she said exercise would make a big difference.

Once decent weather gets here and I'm back to daily walks with our special needs boy, it will definitely help.

Thanks again for all the info!!

[vea29]

Thanks for the info. It is amazing how much junk is in the food you buy.

Not eat red meat?? 8o That will be hard to do. I do eat fish, chicken and turkey so that's workable.

I can eat small amounts of canned fruit. Apples, bananas,--no.

I found some other info online. In one place it said that medium risk levels were in the 200 (244 maybe). Mine is only 144 so it's not as bad as I feared.
Talked with my mom today. She deals with it too and she said exercise would make a big difference.

Once decent weather gets here and I'm back to daily walks with our special needs boy, it will definitely help.

Thanks again for all the info!!
Your cholestoral was 144? I thought that's good. Mine was barely 200 years ago and I just cut out fried foods etc. and it went down. dbf is taking fish oil pills to rise his good cholestoral.

We drink simply smart milk by hood....Low fat but definately doesn't taste like it...I'm drinking the 1% which they say tastes like whole....don't know about that but it's as good as 2%.

[Mickey]

Lots of great advice!

Linda, why don't you don't get your hiatal hernia repaired?

I'm surprised that pizza sauce doesn't bother you--or fatty foods and beef. I agree with what Ann said, though--if you can eat a little at a time (of fruits and veggies), then have them ready so you can grab a bit here and there throughout the day--you can definitely get in 5 servings that way. I do this with protein...I can't eat enough of it at a meal or one sitting to get enough into my body (since my gastric bypass), so I hard boil eggs and eat only the whites (toss the yolks) throughout the day.

I'm thinking 144 is incorrect (maybe it's 244?). Or maybe 144 is just your LDL cholesterol? I'd call and ask your doctor's office about that. Here's a chart:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol-levels/CL00001

Tons of info here (and lots of links to even more info):
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol/CL99999

My bil tried to control his cholesterol with diet and exercise (the guy is very thin and would pick cheese off of pizza, never eat anything with any fat in it at all, and he eat lots of fiber), but he just couldn't do it with diet and exercise alone and he ended up on medication (AND he still eats that way and exercises). I think it was pure genetics for him.

[Linda/NE]

Lots of great advice!

Linda, why don't you don't get your hiatal hernia repaired?

I'm surprised that pizza sauce doesn't bother you--or fatty foods and beef. I agree with what Ann said, though--if you can eat a little at a time (of fruits and veggies), then have them ready so you can grab a bit here and there throughout the day--you can definitely get in 5 servings that way. I do this with protein...I can't eat enough of it at a meal or one sitting to get enough into my body (since my gastric bypass), so I hard boil eggs and eat only the whites (toss the yolks) throughout the day.

I'm thinking 144 is incorrect (maybe it's 244?). Or maybe 144 is just your LDL cholesterol? I'd call and ask your doctor's office about that. Here's a chart:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol-levels/CL00001

Tons of info here (and lots of links to even more info):
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol/CL99999

My bil tried to control his cholesterol with diet and exercise (the guy is very thin and would pick cheese off of pizza, never eat anything with any fat in it at all, and he eat lots of fiber), but he just couldn't do it with diet and exercise alone and he ended up on medication (AND he still eats that way and exercises). I think it was pure genetics for him.

Getting the hernia repaired would mean surgery which I don't have insurance to cover.

I'm not sure why I'm not bothered by pizza sauce. If anything it's the cheese that gets me on pizza. Beef, unless it's a really fatty cut, has never bothered me. I grill all the meat I meat anyway. The only fried food I really eat is chicken maybe once a week. I don't usually eat hamburger based dishes (where you brown the hamburger first) anyway. I don't like spaghetti, chilli, goolash either.

I'm sure the 144 is right because I remember she said they like it at 100 or lower. The chart I looked at may be the wrong kind of cholesterol though. We got a flyer in our paper last week concerning February being Heart Healthy month. In that it said something about ideal cholesterol being 100 or less. Of course, the paper got thrown out already (the ONE time the kids pick up stuff off the floor and throw it away.!)

I think I'm just doomed to have these kind of problems. My dad has the same kind of hernia (I guess it's an inherited thing.) Plus he, his parents and his siblings have all had heart related problems. With my moms parents having diabetes and cancer I suppose I'm in a high risk catergory for everything!

Thanks for the links. I will look at them.

[AnnW]

I think I'm just doomed to have these kind of problems. My dad has the same kind of hernia (I guess it's an inherited thing.) Plus he, his parents and his siblings have all had heart related problems. With my moms parents having diabetes and cancer I suppose I'm in a high risk catergory for everything!

.
Then you must watch yourself!!! don't blow off these risk factors cause you don't want to make lifestyle changes. obviously your diet isn't helping your cholesterol. yes, some people just have high cholesterol after they make all the necessary changes in their diet, but so far, it sounds like you are just rationalizing your diet and haven't changed anything. you owe it to your kids to make every possible change you can.

[Linda/NE]

Then you must watch yourself!!! don't blow off these risk factors cause you don't want to make lifestyle changes. obviously your diet isn't helping your cholesterol. yes, some people just have high cholesterol after they make all the necessary changes in their diet, but so far, it sounds like you are just rationalizing your diet and haven't changed anything. you owe it to your kids to make every possible change you can.

I really don't think I'm rationalizing my diet so I don't have to change anything. If anything maybe I'm scared to...
I really feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place. It's not that I don't like or want to eat these foods, I can't. To help with the high cholesterol I need to eat more fruits and vegetables and the like. I eat these foods and it upsets my stomach and I'm miserable. It's like a vicious cycle what's good for one condition, upsets the other. What I can handle for one condition is bad for the other.

Believe me if I could eat more of these foods I would. I'm really getting bored and tired of having so few food choices.