My bmi is healthy,21.45,I am 61,I never fry, always semi-skimmed milk,but 2 sausages,1 burger,125 gr mince a week. Why high cholesterol?

[alswitha]

Also parmesan and pancetta and I have been eating a bit more hard cheese lately about 8 oz a week

[Penel]

Hi Alswitha

Firstly, if you are female, cholesterol goes up naturally after the menopause.

Secondly, although we have been told that eating fat will give us high cholesterol, modern research shows that eating too many carbohydrates, especially processed carbs, can cause a rise in cholesterol levels.

scientificamerican.com/arti...

[sandybrown]

Hello,

High cholesterol? What are the values? BMI?, height and weight? you need to look at the total picture. in todays terms, eating fatty food, butter and drinking blue top milk is good for you!. Processed food, fast food, and many other food gives high cholesterol.

[MikePollard]

Dump the fear!

Dump the dietary guidelines!

'Heart healthy whole grains' are a myth.

Google LCHF (Diet Doc) start enjoying heart heathy fats and your numbers will be stellar!

[Aliwally]

Also don't forget strong genetic factors. Some families have genetically determined higher levels. The vital question is when to do something about it.

[DakCB-UK]

It really depends on genetic background and what else you're eating (oats? soya? walnuts and almonds?), but sausages and pancetta are both cured meat, so I'd cut back on them, plus try to switch to low-fat hard cheese if you can find a good one (few and far between - Wyke Farms do a pink-wrapper cheddar which tastes right although the texture is a bit wrong and it doesn't keep well).

You'll find people (me included) advocate all sorts of things, which may or may not work for you, so don't go gung ho and make yourself miserable about it.

[sandybrown]

All,

There are a lot of comments, the person who asked the questions have not come back! Life is too short, enjoy life, food intake is very important, at the same time understanding cholesterol numbers and all other medical conditions are also very important. Low- fat is a no no, the process to reduce fat?, we need to have fatty food in small quantities. A well known person answered one of my questions via email about what he ate and the milk products he had and the cholesterol numbers in the 70's, very interesting. My brother who is a professor have mentioned the cholesterol numbers and grand portents, "Did our grand parents check the numbers?". No checks were available! What is different is the food that is available to us, we can decide on what to eat and what to avoid!

[Southwinds]

we've swopped to Quorn mince...we have red meat only three times a week and very little hard cheese... Exercise reduces it as well... Some people get free gym passes with high cholesterol as a good exercise programme helps. I'm now trying th Flora drinks.

But other half who is over 65 eats what he likes and is slim build and has 3.3 cholestorl so genetics plays a big part.