What to eat for breakfast on high cholesterol

[halfapintofguiness]

Good morning all, I’m new here and need help with breakfast ideas that can help to lower my 7.9 cholesterol. I don’t like cereal for breakfast and shouldn’t eat any dairy products. Plain toast sounds boring. Any ideas? Thank you.

[benwl]

Although you don't like cereal, porridge made with plain oats and water, or just soaked overnight, is one of best things you can take. See mayoclinic.org/diseases-con...

[Pinkpig20]

I was going to suggest porridge too,maybe with soya.

[TheAwfulToad]

Sigh. The NHS campaign to get everyone stressed over their cholesterol appears to be working. Stress, of course, being one of the primary risk factors for heart disease.

Total cholesterol has little or nothing to do with disease risk. If you're over 60, it's completely normal for your TC to rise slightly; in fact older people with low cholesterol are statistically more likely to die.

What's your HDL/triglycerides ratio? It's only a rough indication of risk, but it's (marginally) better than the TC value.

Why no dairy products? Do you have a confirmed allergy or intolerance? What do you generally eat? Can you give some examples for your breakfast/lunch/dinner?

[halfapintofguiness in reply to TheAwfulToad]

The reason I got worried ( I am less worried now) is because my doctor actually called me at home in the evening to tell me about the blood test results and have a long chat about it!

Being Mediterranean, I eat a healthy diet of plenty of veggies and fruits, no processed foods and not much red meat. My guilty pleasure is the brown sourdough toast I eat for breakfast with lashings of unsalted butter. Could that be the culprit?

I don’t exercise per se but I’m on my feet all day and cycle to work everyday.

After reading all your comments ( thank you everyone) I’ve decided to carry on eating what I eat, cutting down the dairy products and start an exercise class. I will have further tests in November and will let you know the outcome.

[TheAwfulToad in reply to halfapintofguiness]

Keep us updated on your other tests - it'll be interesting to know what your HDL-C and triglyceride numbers are.

Your TC number really is completely meaningless: it was discredited years ago as a predictive marker, and it's quoted on the test results only because the test procedure has to compute TC in order to estimate LDL-C (which is what doctors actually look at as a predictor of risk ... even though it's not much better in that regard than TC). Since there's nothing actually wrong with you, there is no "culprit".

From the sound of it, you have a lifestyle and diet which predicts a long and healthy life independent of any blood test. I wouldn't cut down on dairy since (reading between the lines) that may leave your diet deficient in fat. As long as the sourdough bread is your only guilty pleasure and you're not loading up on (say) pasta for lunch and dinner, you're probably doing just fine.

[Hidden in reply to halfapintofguiness]

Could be. Ditch the toast and just eat the butter on its own instead.

[andyswarbs]

Dietary cholesterol ONLY comes from meat/dairy/fish/eggs. Reducing these is your best approach to reducing bad cholesterol. Replace these with good carbs such as chick peas, lentils. A daily breakfast of oats is a great cleanser of the gut, incl cholesterol.

[TheAwfulToad in reply to andyswarbs]

Dietary cholesterol has nothing whatsoever to do with circulating blood cholesterol. Nor does saturated fat. Even the most hidebound experts have stopped shouting about those.

Like most things, the types and relative amounts of lipoprotein-packaged cholesterol are under closed-loop control. It is a vital substrate for all sorts of things, not some poison to be eliminated. Nobody knows exactly how the control loop functions or what its inputs are. Whatever it's doing, it's a fairly safe assumption that your body doesn't have the explicit intent of furring up its own arteries.

[Hidden in reply to andyswarbs]

Hmm first of all cholesterol doesn't only come from meat fish and eggs. Your body makes it. Its essential to carry things around in your blood. Its also essential for repairing damage caused by carbs and sugars in the body. Essential for every wound I think. Essential for the brain nerves etc. So thankfully we don't only get it from meat dairy or vegans would die on the spot. Reducing cholesterol intske doesn't correlate to a reduction in blood cholesterol either. And since meat eggs and dairy contain very good cholesterol ( unless your munching on the arterial plaque of an animal) as well your good to go. But that might deoend on the diet of the animal..if the animal is stressed out and fattened on carbs and sugars ..it may well contain a lot of oxidized ldls ... If its a happy fellow munching grass its likely it has less bad cholesterol than we would produce in a week of stressing and eating carbs. Not sure what volume of cholesterol a body creates or oxidizes in a week I'm exaggerating for comedic effect. But what you are saying seem anathema to the modern concept of cholesterol and diet.

[G1nny]

I’m in 🇺🇸 too! Never heard of hone.

[G1nny]

Nvm I think you meant honey

[Hidden]

Check out The Great Cholesterol Con- amazon.com/Great-Cholestero... or Fat Chance- amazon.com/Fat-Chance-Beati... or any of the related books listed on those pages. The myth that fat is evil and carbs are good is being disproven. The whole cholesterol theory was based on faulty, biased research and started a whole generation of people down the wrong path, eating stuff that's actually CAUSING heart disease, not preventing it. Change comes slowly, but it's coming around. Eat eggs & bacon!!!

[G1nny]

It was the word hone which I finally figured out was honey. I drink lemon and ginger every morning, helps to clear my chest from the mold allergy congestion.

[G1nny]

Thanks , love turmeric but sounds take it in a pill every other day

[halfapintofguiness]

Fatbuddy thanks for the recipe. I’m definitely going to try it and let you know the results.

[Hidden]

An egg scrambled with some spinach and or mushrooms ....a bowl of blueberries with some oatmeal or those sprinkles with linseeds ...omegas in the linseeds antioxidants in the blue berries. Or any berries you like... They also help with formation of plaque and help your brain and a whole load of their things. I like a protein breakfast like mushrooms or egg and spinach ....not that I'm trying to lower mine which is 7.5 and not considered high by my doctor nor me...I'm OK with it being high. that and I'm a lady person and lady women with high cholesterol have lower all cause mortality so I'm happpy to be high. my kids and I get a bowl and fill it with a variety of things. Yoghurt berries(frozen) sprinkles nuts seeds cocoa nibs weird horrid things like spirulina in tiny amounts just cos I have to use the damn crap up cos i bought it! ..sometimes a bit of hemp oil ... And if the kids aren't here I'll make myself a plate of mushrooms or spinach and eggs or a mackerel with pear I dunno ehy I love that combo. Some tomatoes and bits and bobs. but they hate that so although its my favourite I usually don't bother. But in general antioxidant berries, omegas from linseeds or other seeds and some fibre should help lower things. And staying away from sugar and high GI food. Make a meal of it!