High cholesterol and gallstones - fed up

lindens

In Feb I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and given a low dose of tablets to sort this, I also had high colesterol reading (5.7 but the "bad reading" was too high). Last week I had a bad attack and had a scan and have one large gallstone, am waiting to go back to doctors to see what to do about that. I was 40 this year and healthwise everything has gone down hill fast this year.
I am including strawberries, raspberries, walnuts, apricots and broccolli in my weekly meal plan and eating soya milk on cereal (fruit n fibre).
BUT i am craving the odd bacon roll and I like making ( and eating :rotfl: ) home made cakes. Can I really not eat those again? Can I make "healthy" cakes and eat them?
Fed up today

sorry moan over

frivolous_fay

I'm not a dietician... but do you have any egg-free recipes?
(I"m thinking of Delia's Viennese tartlets... mmm... although I don't know the cholestorol implications of the other ingredients!)

Fen1

From friends and relatives experiences, try avoiding dairy altogether as dairy can really aggravate the gall bladder. So no milk, butter ( use vegan marg in your baking), cream, and the worst culprit - cheese.

Fen1

Hey frivolous! Another Coxy fan!

JennyW_2

If you want to get your cholesterol down - in particularl your LDL (which is the "bad" cholesterol), then you'll need to really study your diet. A switch to soya milk for everything is good, and you'll need to cut right down on pastries, cakes and animal fatty foods, eating beans and lentils are good for you as they have cholesterol absorbing properties. You'll be able to find loads of stuff on the internet about diet.

noonesperfect

Items that include solulable (sp) fibre such as oats, apples and oranges can help with your cholesterol. As another poster said pulses and lentils are good, as is wholemeal bread.
If you can try and lose a little weight as that can help. Bit more walking too, not in high winds or hills if you're got hypertention I would have thought though.
Keep away from any fat that solidifies when cold.
You could use olive oil spread and rapeseed oil in baking. Weekend treat perhaps?
Make bacon butties a monthly (or less) treat and make sure the bacon is as lean as poss and grilled! The salt isn't good for your BP either, sorry.

FriendlyJ

Hiya I have just read in the paper that they have just done a study on bad cholesterol & a promising find is tomato ketchup or tomato juice - you have to eat an ounce a day of ketchup or 3/4 pint of tomato juice. The study showed a marked difference, think it was in yesterdays or wed Express.
J

Reluctant_spender

FriendlyJ wrote: »

3/4 pint of tomato juice. The study showed a marked difference, think it was in yesterdays or wed Express.
J

Would the addition of vodka alter the results :rolleyes:

kandyfloss

My husband was found to have High Colesterol a few years ago.6.4 His Dr told him he needed to change his diet to bring it down.He cut out all pies and pasties and started eating Benacole butter as it contained statins?that had been found to bring the levels down.Even though the spread was expensive at the time we bought it and we both started having it on our bread so that we didn't have two lots of spread on the go.

When hubby went back for his Cholesterol checkup and I had my yearly fasting test.His Cholesterol levels went down to 5.2 and mine went from 5.2 down to 4.7 and hubby had also lost twelve pounds in weight.

We still eat these spreads,though now we have Flora Proactive as it worked out cheaper.My levels have gone down to 4.4 since,but hubby who hates needles refuses to go and have a checkup despite being asked plenty of times by the practise nurse,so we have no idea as to what his levels are.

Trying these spreads might help you in the long run.Good Luck with whatever you choose to do

keelykat

Hi, I am also on low dosage meds for my blood pressure-but my last lot of blood tests came back fine (cholesterol was good etc) just waiting for this years tests to come back now. But for my blood pressure-i am taking omega fish oil capsules and odourless garlic tablets as recomended by my nurse and doctor. Just by eating more healthily for my blood pressure has helped me loose weight and feel loads better. However i know my BP is stress related, as they cant come up with any other reasons why it goes up sometimes...weights fine, i eat healthily, do regular excersise etc and the blood tests came back fine.

Eat oily fish-if you can, and cut down on red meat. I also try not to eat pastries/cakes too often, and white bread etc. I started making my own soups and cooking from scratch. Well its helping my OH too, hes loosing weight aswell!

You need to make changes that you can stick to, but dont go doing anything silly!

keely.

sandy2_2

Read this somewhere the other day, might even have been on MSE
'A medical research centre has discovered that celery contains a substance that lowers blood pressure, which- when tested on animals - decreased their b.p. by 12 - 14 percent. This study was inspired by the father of one of the researchers who, after eating two stalks of celery each day for a week, found his blood pressure had dropped from 158 over 96 to 118 over 82. I believe that it also takes more calories to digest celery than there are in the celery itself. '