Afraid of saturated fat and cholesterol?

Well, only 20% of our total cholesterol is dietary, so it makes sense than
changing eating habits won't impact total cholesterol greatly... 80% of it
is built directly by the liver. If a person has no genetic trait towards
builting excess cholesterol, it's unlikely that *any* diet will manage to
offset the cholesterol balance. Like, my girlfriend is in that case. She
takes the pill, she's still overweight, she had to stop exercising this
year... But her cholesterol level is still great - her HDL is high, her
total cholesterol is actually too low... I don't see the point of putting
everyone on a low cholesterol diet when for a bunch of people, diet has
nothing to do with their cholesterol values.
As for people with high cholesterol, I still think that you can have better
success with trying to work on these 80% of endogenous cholesterol. In my
own experience, I didn't make much dietetary changes to get my cholesterol
back to normal. The only changes were to remove most of the trans fats I was
eating - other fats remained the same. Other than that, it was mostly
exercising and losing weight. With a dietary only approach, I bet I would be
on statins by now...

Well, only 20% of our total cholesterol is dietary, so it makes sense than
changing eating habits won't impact total cholesterol greatly... 80% of it
is built directly by the liver. If a person has no genetic trait towards
builting excess cholesterol, it's unlikely that *any* diet will manage to
offset the cholesterol balance. Like, my girlfriend is in that case. She
takes the pill, she's still overweight, she had to stop exercising this
year... But her cholesterol level is still great - her HDL is high, her
total cholesterol is actually too low... I don't see the point of putting
everyone on a low cholesterol diet when for a bunch of people, diet has
nothing to do with their cholesterol values.
As for people with high cholesterol, I still think that you can have better
success with trying to work on these 80% of endogenous cholesterol. In my
own experience, I didn't make much dietetary changes to get my cholesterol
back to normal. The only changes were to remove most of the trans fats I was
eating - other fats remained the same. Other than that, it was mostly
exercising and losing weight. With a dietary only approach, I bet I would be
on statins by now...

Well, only 20% of our total cholesterol is dietary, so it makes sense than
changing eating habits won't impact total cholesterol greatly... 80% of it
is built directly by the liver. If a person has no genetic trait towards
builting excess cholesterol, it's unlikely that *any* diet will manage to
offset the cholesterol balance. Like, my girlfriend is in that case. She
takes the pill, she's still overweight, she had to stop exercising this
year... But her cholesterol level is still great - her HDL is high, her
total cholesterol is actually too low... I don't see the point of putting
everyone on a low cholesterol diet when for a bunch of people, diet has
nothing to do with their cholesterol values.
As for people with high cholesterol, I still think that you can have better
success with trying to work on these 80% of endogenous cholesterol. In my
own experience, I didn't make much dietetary changes to get my cholesterol
back to normal. The only changes were to remove most of the trans fats I was
eating - other fats remained the same. Other than that, it was mostly
exercising and losing weight. With a dietary only approach, I bet I would be
on statins by now...

"Ignoramus29819" wrote in message
...
So, is your cholesterol better now?

Mostly, yes, except for HDL which is still low (around 0.35g, but stable).
But LDL went from 1.8g down to 1g in 6 months. Triglycerids went from 3.3g
to 1.13g. According to my nutritionnist, HDL should take off last, since by
reducing total cholesterol and keeping HDL constant, I'm actually increasing
it in proportion, which is already a good point. Still not perfect results,
but they're improving. Besides, my glycemia was my main worry, not the
cholesterol, so this reduction is merely a nice side effect

"Ignoramus29819" wrote in message
...
So, is your cholesterol better now?

Mostly, yes, except for HDL which is still low (around 0.35g, but stable).
But LDL went from 1.8g down to 1g in 6 months. Triglycerids went from 3.3g
to 1.13g. According to my nutritionnist, HDL should take off last, since by
reducing total cholesterol and keeping HDL constant, I'm actually increasing
it in proportion, which is already a good point. Still not perfect results,
but they're improving. Besides, my glycemia was my main worry, not the
cholesterol, so this reduction is merely a nice side effect

"Ignoramus29819" wrote in message
...
Would it be proper to say that this is due to better control of your
blood sugar, or is your blood sugar still just as bad as before?

No, blood sugar was the most impressive. I was diagnosed with 1.79g/l
fasting glucose with an A1c at 8.1%. Then, I was started on Prandin, which I
took for almost three months (hated that stuff). Last results I had, my FG
is at 1.01g/l (I'm fairly constant around that value it seems, had three
labs in a row at that value), and my A1c was at 5.8% (45 days after stopping
the Prandin). I'm scheduled for another test, but I have had an informal
testing (using a meter, I don't have one) and results sound good. Random
evening glucose was at 1.01g/l. I also did an informal post prandial 2h
after an English brunch (scones, muffins, tart, marmalade... - that about as
highly glycemic as I will go without forcing myself), and it was at 1.01g/l
too. Hopefully, my next A1c should be a bit lower than the previous one.
Considering I don't eat in any special way (well, I *do* eat a bunch less
than before, but I'm not low carbing or anything), it's rather good results.
I did lose weight since the diagnostic, around 52lbs though. And I walk 6km
around 4-5 times a week, as fast as I can. I did build a lot of "walker"
muscles

My dad was recently officially diagnosed with diabetes.

Good luck to your dad! Everyone is different, so I hope he finds a way to
control his diabete.

"Ignoramus29819" wrote in message
...
Would it be proper to say that this is due to better control of your
blood sugar, or is your blood sugar still just as bad as before?

No, blood sugar was the most impressive. I was diagnosed with 1.79g/l
fasting glucose with an A1c at 8.1%. Then, I was started on Prandin, which I
took for almost three months (hated that stuff). Last results I had, my FG
is at 1.01g/l (I'm fairly constant around that value it seems, had three
labs in a row at that value), and my A1c was at 5.8% (45 days after stopping
the Prandin). I'm scheduled for another test, but I have had an informal
testing (using a meter, I don't have one) and results sound good. Random
evening glucose was at 1.01g/l. I also did an informal post prandial 2h
after an English brunch (scones, muffins, tart, marmalade... - that about as
highly glycemic as I will go without forcing myself), and it was at 1.01g/l
too. Hopefully, my next A1c should be a bit lower than the previous one.
Considering I don't eat in any special way (well, I *do* eat a bunch less
than before, but I'm not low carbing or anything), it's rather good results.
I did lose weight since the diagnostic, around 52lbs though. And I walk 6km
around 4-5 times a week, as fast as I can. I did build a lot of "walker"
muscles

My dad was recently officially diagnosed with diabetes.

Good luck to your dad! Everyone is different, so I hope he finds a way to
control his diabete.

"Ignoramus29819" wrote in message
...
I hope that he gets off his ass and does at least something.

Well, the problem is that sometimes the doctor makes the diet sound much
worse than it really is. I mean, he told me I had to lost 100lbs ASAP. That
I would have to give up all carbs and fats. That's a pretty frightening
picture. If I had listened to him, I would have gone for a proteidic diet,
and I would have probably given up by now. I don't know why doctors think
they have to scare you like that... I think that's a huge psychological
mistake. All they manage to do is make the task seem impossible to tackle.
The truth is that my FG was within the norm very quickly, probably thanks to
Prandin (at the minimum dose) but also to weight loss and walking. My
results were already improving with a mere 5% weight loss. I'm only halfway
to a normal weight, and things have really improved a bunch. Even the knee
aches have disappeared. And I still eat perfectly normally. Actually, I take
more pleasure in eating now than I used to, because I'm actually paying
attention to what I eat instead of swallowing it.
Your rather can achieve good results with a small weight loss, and simple
portion control. Or going low carb, since it seems this work for so many
people. That would still be a lot better than doing nothing at all. The key
is that he doesn't need to do anything drastic. Diabete seems rather
sensitive to even moderate weight loss. Likewise, he doesn't need to job
10km a day. My *walks* did me a whole lot of good.

"Ignoramus29819" wrote in message
...
I hope that he gets off his ass and does at least something.

Well, the problem is that sometimes the doctor makes the diet sound much
worse than it really is. I mean, he told me I had to lost 100lbs ASAP. That
I would have to give up all carbs and fats. That's a pretty frightening
picture. If I had listened to him, I would have gone for a proteidic diet,
and I would have probably given up by now. I don't know why doctors think
they have to scare you like that... I think that's a huge psychological
mistake. All they manage to do is make the task seem impossible to tackle.
The truth is that my FG was within the norm very quickly, probably thanks to
Prandin (at the minimum dose) but also to weight loss and walking. My
results were already improving with a mere 5% weight loss. I'm only halfway
to a normal weight, and things have really improved a bunch. Even the knee
aches have disappeared. And I still eat perfectly normally. Actually, I take
more pleasure in eating now than I used to, because I'm actually paying
attention to what I eat instead of swallowing it.
Your rather can achieve good results with a small weight loss, and simple
portion control. Or going low carb, since it seems this work for so many
people. That would still be a lot better than doing nothing at all. The key
is that he doesn't need to do anything drastic. Diabete seems rather
sensitive to even moderate weight loss. Likewise, he doesn't need to job
10km a day. My *walks* did me a whole lot of good.

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 at 16:23:23, Ignoramus29819
wrote:

Well, yes, getting a 20% calorie deficit, dropping most junk carbs,
and walking one hour a day would go quite far. He is not too averse to
walking, but again, many beautiful words can be said, but the key is
actually doing something every day.

Buy him a pet dog - then he'd *have* to walk it! Or persuade him to
commit to looking after a neighbour's dog while they are at work.
--
Annabel Smyth
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/index.html
Website updated 7 August 2004 - for a limited time, be bored by my holiday
snaps!