ckworksalot's Journal, 21 December 2015

Have yet to get my blood work with all the Christmas hustle and bustle. I did take the time to review my cholesterol intake over the last month. Other than limiting my animal protein, I had not really paid too close of attention till this morning. To my surprise, most days are zero cholesterol intake! Big difference from my former daily average of 200 mg per day (which was below USDA recommendation on 300 mg or less per day). The days that I did register cholesterol intake? Popcorn days (30 mg chol for a tbsp. of butter); sushi or fish days. The highest intake was a 118 mg day... way below USDA recommendation. So I think I will lay off butter and fish this week, continue plant based protein intake, and hope to purge the cholesterol remnants from my system... then get my blood work. 

Good Luck! - You are doing well with your plan. 

Finally went and got blood work yesterday after 2 months of reducing my animal protein intake. Daily cholesterol intake in the previous 3 months averaged 192 mg; dropped that to an average of 52 mg in December and January... A 73% reduction in cholesterol intake! Reduced my daily protein intake by more than 50%, down to about 70 g per day over the last 3 months... and lost 3 lbs! So... needless to say, I was disappointed when Total cholesterol came back at 215 today... just 9 lower than it was in late October! LDL was 142 (down from 145 in late Oct). What the ???? The only non plant based protein I consumed over the last 2 months was seafood, and mostly in the form of sushi/nigiri... but is was the primary source of any cholesterol I did consume. Most days were zero cholesterol intake, so those few high chl intake days (around 200 mg) were averaged out with ALOT of zero intake days. I guess I have one more thing to try nutritionally... go vegetarian? I do have some days of 30-50 mg chl intake that are attributed to butter intake with popcorn (real butter). I suppose I could review my totals and see how they would change had I not had the butter. There is still some good news. HDL was steller at 55 (down from 57), as were triglycerides at 91 (down from 108); all liver functions were excellent (normal) and HDL/LDL ratio is 3.9, below the max of 4.5 recommended. Any cholesterol EXPERTS out there care to offer an educated opinion of my options (please, no "I-read-an-article" experts)? 

Wow! 

Consuming cholesterol and blood cholesterol levels are weakly correlated and the idea of them being highly correlated had been debunked many years ago.. remember the times where eggs are a no no because they are high in cholesterol? I am no expert and I cannot link any articles or studies right now but I am sure that little drop of cholesterol is because you lost 3 lbs. And also think about it; what if your HDL went up by 20 and LDL went down by 20? overall cholesterol is the same but you are in a better place. In my opinion looking at them separately and watching that trend is more important. Best of luck, sir.. 

Thanks Sabribertg,. Trying desparately to avoid the statin my doc is pushing