high cholesterol

lessonlearned

Just thought I'd mention that Aldi do a cholestrol reducing drink. Much cheaper than Benecol. Don't know how effective it is though. Tastes ok.

ShelBell

Hi all,

My hubby has high cholesterol. He also has a pot belly, and a horrendous history of heart problems in the family (dad had heart attack age 24).

Hubby smokes, drinks (weekends only), eats junk food and doesn't listen to me.

He thinks a meal without meat isn't a meal. He's not big on fish, or veggies. He doesn't exercise.

I've tried everything, begged him to change some of his lifestyle but he doesn't listen.

Beebop

Diagnosed with High Cholesterol myself 2 years ago - a real shock as I thought I ate pretty healthily then!!!!
Changed my lifestyle in the following ways and now it has dropped to low!!!
1) Make all my own food so I know what is going in it - ready meals etc are generally so bad for you.
2) Similar to above. Just think before you eat something "Is this processed?" If it is e.g. Crisps, biscuits etc then it likely to be high in saturated fat as this is what goes into all those foods we love to make them palatable.
2) Exercise - I think the single best thing I have done. Joined a gym and gone at it like a woman posessed! Dropped 2 dress sizes now and feel so good and healthy. Find something you like - walking / running / mountain climbing and go for it!
3) Olive oil. Pure magic, tastes great and you can get it reasonably priced in Lidl etc.
4) Cut down on alcohol - I found if I just cut down, not cut it out completely (that would be too hard ;o) it was less effort. Now it's got to the point whereby a couple of glasses of wine in a night out is all I want, whereas previously it could be a lot more......
5) I think (and please correct me if this is incorrect - it may have changed by now!) if a food has less than 4grams of saturated fat per 100g then you can count that as an OK food to eat. Time to start reading the back of those packets in the supermarket!
I'm sure with a few little changes your OH cholesterol will soon drop.
Good luck!

thriftmonster

We got dh's cholesterol down to a healthy range (he had it checked after his dad died of a heart attack) by:

1. Exercise, exercise and more exercise
2. Cutting out cheese, butter, marg, cream
3. Changing baking to things made with low fat yoghurt or oil in moderation (Mr BadExamples choc yoghurt cake for example)
4. Lots more fruit and veg
5. More pulses in things - I add a tin of beans to beef casserole and lentils to a chicken curry for example.

Our GP's comment was "I don't know what you've done but whatever it is, keep it up."

HTH

moanymoany

I've made my meusli. I had some Abel and Cole basic meusli - bought 20% off - and added

value oats to make it enough for a week.

1 heaped tablespoon of sultanas per day - 7 here.

50 grams of linseeds ground up. This is full of omega 3

I am going to buy some soya milk to have with it and I put a banana in it.

Thank you for the response, it is so nice to read the success stories and how they made it happen.

Penelope_Penguin

kerik4 wrote: »

This is the first time I've posted a thread so be gentle with me please...;) (I have searched the threads before posting and haven't found any others)

A quick title search gives a thread on reducing cholesterol I'll merge this one to it so that you can browse lots of ideas.

Penny. x

Chris25

vegetables from the onion family are good at lowering cholestrol. So are artichokes - just dont dip the leaves in butter

champys

Chris25 wrote: »

vegetables from the onion family are good at lowering cholestrol. So are artichokes - just dont dip the leaves in butter

Yes, artichokes - my DH has a similar problem and I have upped the frequency of artichokes on the menu. At first I thought this would be too extravagant, as they are never cheap (not even here in France), but then I found out that they are very reasonable if you buy them tinned. Even our Lidl has them. So now we have artichoke pasta bake, artichokes on HM pizza, cold artichokes added to salads, etc.
No need to add any butter if you use them that way.

Pennylane

A former neighbour had very high cholesterol and since she lives alone and only has to cook for herself, was able to follow the diet sheet given by her GP.

She never drinks alcohol anyway, but she followed the rest of it to the letter for well over a year and her cholesterol came down not one jot!!

She went on to wholemeal bread, limited eggs per week, avoided prawns and avocados, ate more oily fish, ate plenty of fruit & veg and cut out pastry, cakes etc. She also went on to Flora Pro-Activ. She was almost obsessional about what she ate and used to write out menus for the week and stuck to them 100%.

She did lose a bit of weight though.

baby_fuzz

diagnosed with high cholesterol (hereditary), and have been spending the last 3 months just eating only low fat - wholemeal everything. Was eating pretty healthily before, but I've decided to give it a real go to see if I can affect it - I've been cutting out as many saturated fats as possible and having cholestoerl reducing drinks. (due for another blood test soon, to see if change in diet has had any effect)

Only problem is, that I was skinny to start off with, and I just can't seem to keep weight on. Absolutely gorging myself on as many carbs as I can to make up for last calories, but I'm always starving, and I'm losing weight and feeling lethargic all the time. Perhaps I've got a fast metabolism?

Has anyone got any tips on how to maintain weight on a low fat/cholesterol reducing diet?