I have been advised my cholesterol is borderline high and because of family history would be wise to take statins, I declined and said I would try with diet and increased exercise for six months I am now wondering. Is there a level of cholesterol it is advisable to eat daily? Is there any information listing cholesterol levels in food? I do my own cooking and baking, which is where I am having difficulty, or is is enough just to cut out butter, full fat margarine, cheese and milk, I would be really grateful for any help. Also has anyone any experience of taking statins, good or bad, rather long winded, sorry but am confused at the moment, Thankyou if you can help
Confused about cholesterol: I have been... - Healthy Eating
Confused about cholesterol
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Paddysno1
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nhs.uk/Livewell/Healthyhear... Hi this may help you I have have high cholesterol and I take the statins also eat healthily
Have a look at three web sites which will give you all the information you ought to have in connection with those statin drugs. These pages put it better than I can.
healthscams.org.uk/are-stat... and also: healthscams.org.uk/statins-... and finally read what a heart surgeon has to say:healthscams.org.uk/heart-su....
Best wishes, Tibbly
Hi Paddysno1 ,
Welcome to the Healthy Eating forum. I am wondering if you may also find the following community of help to your query - it is 'Cholesterol Support' forum in Healthunlocked, and a link to that community is here, if you'd like to take a look:
healthunlocked.com/choleste...
I hope this is helpful to you.
Zest 
HI again Paddysno1 ,
There's a booklet you could download from the British Heart Foundation about lowering cholesterol here:
bhf.org.uk/publications/hea...
Hope this is helpful,
Zest
bhf.org.uk/heart-matters-ma... I take statins they do me no harm. Just remember everyone is different.
Statins won't do you much good either. Tibbly
That's your opinion and I respect that. All medication comes with side effects I have to take medication for psoriatic arthritis and have to have regular blood tests due to side effects also have COPD and have to take steroids they come with side effects. I think it is up to each individual what they take.
The problem is that the medical profession only seem to deal with symptoms they don't spend time looking for the cause. A great friend of ours who is a surgeon, now retired, said to me a long time ago, "There is nothing wrong with our bodies it's the way we treat them that makes them ill".
We are 86 and 82, neither of us are on routine medication. That's not luck, life is not a Roulette Wheel.
Sorry to be direct but........
Tibbly.
And not all smokers end up with copd. And even people who have never smoked can get it I see my self as one of the unlucky ones and I don't think my arthritis is due to anything I did. As one of my doctors once said to me she was sorry what life has thrown at me. And i said you just have to get on with it the best you can.
Ancel Keys has been the cause of ill health and the huge profits made by the polyunsaturated seed oil industry. His conclusions were flawed, he selected data so as to make the case he wanted to prove; it was dishonest to say the least.
Tibbly
Thanks their is nothing wrong with my heart. That's the only part of me that is good .
Rather than risk statins I did some research on the additives included in the yoghurt type foods that claim to reduce cholesterol in a few weeks. These seem to be plant sterols which are natural compounds. They are available as tablets from health food stores. Why not try them first before committing yourself to statins? Let us know how you get on.
Food's best without additives, & best to just eat the healthy plants than something processed!
Margarine is definitely something to cut out as it's chemically plastic. Grass fed organic butter & natural fats are better for us than the processed c**p that multi-national companies peddle under the guise of being healthy.
Take a look at Chris Kresser's website. Good free advice on nutrition & functional medicine. chriskresser.com/
Michael Mossley's dietary advice is good, too.
Hi, I sympathise, cholesterol is quite a complicated matter. I dont think it has much to do with the natural cholesterol in food, more to do with the cholesterol made in your body from what you eat. I have had high cholesterol and I did manage to lower it through changing my eating habits. I ate more fat, but of a healthy kind, avocado, olive oil. Drastically cut down on sugar, it does increase cholesterol! If u like baking there are a lot of recioes online which substitute fat and sugar for banana and apple purée. Remember date purée, honey and agave are still sugar. I adopted a mainly vegetarian diet, cutting out nearly all saturated fats. Swap to higher fibre foods, wholegrain bread barley, brown rice, lentils, beans. Lots of veg. No more cakes and pastries, bacon and butter. This worked for me and I know this because I had my cholesterol tested 8 weeks after Xmas and it had risen again! Mainly because I had not been so strict with sweet foods and had been eating more meat, even if only chicken. There are foods which actively lower cholesterol -health.harvard.edu/, gives a few and some tips. Also heartuk.org.uk/. The ratio of HDL to LDL is also important. If your cholesterol is a bit high but HDL is higher than LDL thats not so bad. This is a diet for life and if it is a genetic problem you may still need statins. The important thing is, dont just take the statins and do nothing about your eating habits. I read several reports last year of drug companies ending statin tests early because more people taking the drugs were dying than on the test group, and another that said that although statins were lowering patients cholesterol, this was not altering their outcomes ( in other words just as many died of heart attacks etc). In my very unexpert opinion, this is because people were most probably relying on the statins and not altering their eating or excercis habits, so they were still unhealthy. Your tastes will change and you wll enjoy eating more healthily. Good luck.
OMG, I take statins and I am now worried and confused. It never crossed my mind to think that something prescribed by my GP could be harmful. I am sitting here with my tablet in my hand wondering if I should take it or not.
Please follow link to Dr Malcolm Kendrick's site, lots of information on statins - drmalcolmkendrick.org/stati...
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