Eating Well vs. Eating Healthy

[Mottmott]

Is your kitchen finished? Did you post pics?  Did I miss it?

It's pretty much finished. Still got to do window casings, baseboards, etc. But that will have to wait until next year. Got to dig out some pine boards we cut and milled over in NH back around '51.

Wow, you started in '51! You beat me on "long-term" projects! I started my kitchen only 20 years ago. I'm in the midst of the 2nd stage which I began last fall and stopped in April when my son and his family came to stay with me. I'll finish it off when they are finally in their new house. I'm even considering replacing the countertop.

[Katherine]

also always remember to have cholesterol checked when you are in a fasting state - if your numbers are high, and you ate prior to the test, take the results with a grain of salt, and get re-tested when you are fasting.

My daughter, 20, had the flu and went to a doctor, who ran a panel of tests to see if she had mono. When she went back to find out her results, already feeling better, they wanted her to wait and talk to the doctor. It turns out a number of her results were a little outside the normal range, and they wanted to talk to her, to make sure she wasn't anorexic, and hadn't been starving herself for the past month.

Because her cholesterol was WAY off.

It was 87.

They're talking about studying her.

[Nick]

I'm even considering replacing the countertop.

Deciding on countertops is a bitch. I settled for a really bland, neutral color, formica. When I made that decision I told people, once it's laid down I'll forever wish I had more imagination - but if I pick something a little more far out - I could live to regret it. Come down every morning and look at that countertop that seemed so hip at the time - and nearly vomit. Like I say, countertops are a bitch. What I've got is really fucking bland, but I guess I can live with it.

[corvus]

Read The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov.

this guy seems to have some very extreme viewpoints. i'm always tempted to take any extreme opinion with a grain of salt, especially when it comes to my health!

Isn't the truth tempting as well? You should read the book and then let us know how you feel.

[tommy]

Read The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov.

this guy seems to have some very extreme viewpoints. i'm always tempted to take any extreme opinion with a grain of salt, especially when it comes to my health!

Isn't the truth tempting as well? You should read the book and then let us know how you feel.

the "truth" as some accept it. please let's not get ridiculous.

[corvus]

he wanted to put you on cholesterol-reducing drugs, even tho your HDL/LDL ratios were favorable? that's doesn't inspire confidence.  (in the doctor i mean)

That she was towing the party line on cholesterol was to be expected. It's rare for doctors to have a clue when it comes to diet and cholesterol issues these days. I'm sure she just looked at the total cholesterol, which of course went up due to HDL increasing and TRI decreasing. I didn't bother tyring to get an LDL subtype test. Waste of time and money, as most lipid profiles are, IMHO.

And yes, I was fasting. When you eat as much fat as I do, it's no problem to go a long time between meals. :-)

[tommy]

we should break this thread out into 3. 1 for countertops, one for everyone's opinion on cholesterol, and one for eating well and healthy.

i'll vote for sushi every night. good, and healthy.

[torakris]

I like to think I eat both healthy and well. I have to admit though I have never had a weight or any other kind of health problems so I have never needed to go on any kind of "diets".

what works for me and my family is moderation, nothing is not allowed but we eat "the not very good for you stuff" every once in a while and not in huge amounts.

I feel that Asian cuisines are great for you and taste great to boot, if you avoid the deep fried stuff and the oily stir fries. Asian cuisines in general tend to use higher propotions of vegetables to meat, less oil, and preparations like steaming. Southeast Asian salads for example are dressed simply with nampla lime juice and a little sugar and then spiked with chiles and handfuls of herbs, I can't imagine what could be better for you! Then there is kimchi and sushi............

[Jinmyo]

Agreed. Southeast Asian, Korean, and Japanese cuisines (or at least major and diverse elements of these) provide a vast range of healthy and incredibly delicious meals.

In fact, just packing away a good quanitity of delicious kimchi as part of every meal would be a good thing.

[tryska]

also always remember to have cholesterol checked when you are in a fasting state - if your numbers are high, and you ate prior to the test, take the results with a grain of salt, and get re-tested when you are fasting.

My daughter, 20, had the flu and went to a doctor, who ran a panel of tests to see if she had mono. When she went back to find out her results, already feeling better, they wanted her to wait and talk to the doctor. It turns out a number of her results were a little outside the normal range, and they wanted to talk to her, to make sure she wasn't anorexic, and hadn't been starving herself for the past month.

Because her cholesterol was WAY off.

It was 87.

They're talking about studying her.

is it still remarkably low?

when i was 18-ish, mine was something like 218 - with 90% of it being HDL. I doubt it was a fasting test, but i'd liek to thank my folks for raising me to have such healthy blood lipid profiles.

also do your doctors consider her Cholesterol to be extremely good?

[Hopleaf]

Hopleaf, what do you do with the faux cheeses? Are they from soy or from nuts?

Well, I'm religious about making my sandwich every work day cuz I hate buying $10 lunches at the Corner Bakery (only worthwhile dining option near work). So, mostly, I just buy the slices of faux cheese, and Veggie slices is predominantly soy-based, but it still has some dairy in it (just the caseins, I believe) so it's not for the lactose-intolerants (and as a side note, I think that's the main distinction between Veggie Slices and Toffutti, which doesn't have the creamy texture that Veggie Slices has).

But I did get some shredded Veggie Slices (oxymoronic labeling there, shredded/slices?) and tried it on a Nacho platter and over chili. It tasted more like block cheese than the slices, but it didn't melt nearly as well as the slices. The first test with the slices I made grilled cheese sandwiches, sautéed in a little olive oil instead of butter, and the cheese really melted well and had that creamy american cheese flavor.

[tommy]

also always remember to have cholesterol checked when you are in a fasting state - if your numbers are high, and you ate prior to the test, take the results with a grain of salt, and get re-tested when you are fasting.

but you're not usually fasting. why have numbers that show your body in a state that it is never in? people generally eat 3 times a day, with coffee, soda, snacks, tea, whatever, in between. many doctors (and yes, even well-respected doctors), don't suggest fasting before a run-of-the-mill test (obviously, if there's another reason, such as an isolation approach, or another scientific approach, then i'm sure some say to fast once in a while). the only numbers, as far as i understand, that are really affected are the triglycerides anyway.

so the blanket statement of "always remember to have get checked when you are in a fasting state" is probably not accurate. let your doctor decide.

[tryska]

well my doctors (both GP and endo) have always required fasting, because of the chance of skewing.

I mean you really don't want to have say a 3 egg omellete and then go in for a test, because your numbers are goign to look off the chart, simply because those triglycerides are being transported when your blood was drawn.

it can give you a"false positive" as it were.

if you want to know if soemone has a problem, look at their baseline.

[Hopleaf]

Having just recently started to eliminate unnecessary animal fats and saturated fats from my diet in an effort to finally lower my cholesterol, I'm often struggling with finding a balance between eating what I want and eating what I should.

Luckily for me, I've been liberated from the notion that saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for you. In fact, I firmly believe they are good for you. This is one less thing I need to feel stress over, and eliminating stress is great in terms of health.

Read The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov. The book's web page is:

http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm

Also check into his organization, The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics here:

http://thincs.org/

One skeptic I particularily like is Dr. Malcom Kendrick. You can find his articles here:

http://redflagsweekly.com/kendrick.html

They are all worth reading, but I recommend you start with 'So, What Does Cause Heart Disease?' here:

http://redflagsweekly.com/kendrick/2003_aug01.html

I did great on a paleo-diet, and I mostly stick to it for day to day eating. I lost weight, eliminated my hypertension, and cured my migranes. Since I don't worry about cholesterol, I can't give you my recent numbers, but before I learned to stop worrying and love saturated fat, I did get a blood test and found that my numbers had improved considerably (HDL way up, Triglycerides way down) And that was after being on my mostly red meat paleo-diet. My doctor's advice on seeing the numbers: start cholesterol lowering drugs immediately. Of course, I refused.

Best of luck, and please pass the bacon (and steak, and butter, ...)

Hey, I did say unnecessary animal and sat. fats.

[CathyE]

Corbus, I don't understand why you say a lipid subtype test is a waste of time and money. The advanced cholesterol analysis (from Berkeley Labs, for instance) can reveal problems that regular cholesterol tests can't. For me, it showed that I have a high level of something called lipoprotein (a), a heredetary factor that is quite dangerous and suggested the need for different treatment and possibly diet for me. I really urge anyone with a risk factor to get this kind of analysis done.

[Mottmott]

also always remember to have cholesterol checked when you are in a fasting state - if your numbers are high, and you ate prior to the test, take the results with a grain of salt, and get re-tested when you are fasting.

but you're not usually fasting. why have numbers that show your body in a state that it is never in? people generally eat 3 times a day, with coffee, soda, snacks, tea, whatever, in between. many doctors (and yes, even well-respected doctors), don't suggest fasting before a run-of-the-mill test (obviously, if there's another reason, such as an isolation approach, or another scientific approach, then i'm sure some say to fast once in a while). the only numbers, as far as i understand, that are really affected are the triglycerides anyway.

so the blanket statement of "always remember to have get checked when you are in a fasting state" is probably not accurate. let your doctor decide.

Tommy, I think one of the points of always fasting a certain amount of time before getting the test is to be able to compare the results of one test with another in a constant fashion. While you're right that we always eat, we don't always eat the same things nor do we always get tested at the same time of day. You may have oatmeal one am and a couple eggs and bacon another, and get tested before lunch. Or you may be tested one am after oatmeal but on another day not only have the eggs and bacon for breakfast AND topped it off with a lunch of mac and cheese and a milkshake, etc.

[snowangel]

a ketogenic diet (keto-diet) is a low-carb diet.

It is a little more complicated than this. A true ketogenic diet is actually very high in fat, low in protein and carbs. It is most often used for children with epilepsy which is untreatable with medication. Basically, fast until your body starts producing ketones, then eat pretty much nothing but fat (mayo, cream, butter, oil). Liquid intake is controlled.

[tryska]

yes.

altho the way i did one was by eating a ratio of 75% fat to 25% protein at 2000 cals a day. No fasting involved and i hit ketosis within a week and a half. after that i added in 30gs carbs a day pre-workout.

Edited October 21, 2003 by tryska (log)