High Protein, Low Cholesterol Diet

Well this past week i got some blood work from my Doctors and it wasn’t good news. My good Cholesterol is 12 and that should be above 40 and my bad is 320 and the doctor says that should be close to or below 100. Some say 200 but either way, mine is too high. On top of that my blood pressure is 170 over 108.

My diet wasn’t the greatest but i didn’t think it was too bad. Maybe it’s becuase i never really paid attention to cholesterol like i should have. I’m now on cholesterol meds and synthroid for my thyroid. I also have to have my blood pressure checked everyother day. Since the doctors visit and realizing i had to pay closer attention to what i put in my mouth, i noticed alot of what i ate (including meal replacements) where very high in cholesterol.

I’m concerned about losing strength becuase now he’s got me eating mostly fruits and veggies. Kinda scared to take in any cholesterol even tho it seems almost everything with protein has some.

I planned on going to worlds in November in Florida for 100% RAW. Is there any cholesterol free protein? Any diets you guys recomend to help my keep as much strength as possable? I could careless about size…i just want to keep every once of strength i can while i work thru this and get a handle on my BP and cholesterol. I have worked my butt off to get my deadlift and squat 550ish and bench 405. Now i dont want to lose it !!! Please any help would be great and if you need any details to help you help me i will reply here. Thanks in advance and hope you all STAY STRONG !!

Wow…those are indeed some bad numbers. I’m going to copy and paste a post I made in another thread.

"
This is a pretty big can of worms around here as many posters here, including myself, have somewhat of a different view regarding cholesterols role (or lack thereof) in directly affecting heart disease.

However, I think its pretty solid that having a high HDL along with low triglycerides and as low as possible VLDL are good ways to put yourself in a cardioprotective state.

Also, the big picture should be about keeping inflammation to a minimum, which should go a long way in the prevention of the deposition of cholesterol in the arteries.

Some general recommendations that are healthy all the way around can be made.

  1. Increase fiber intake, especially broccolli and green vegetables.
  2. Keep refined carbohydrates to a minimum.
  3. Obtain 3-12g of EPA/DHA from fish oil, mainly for lowering triglycerides, as Fish Oil can raise both HDL and LDL.
  4. Use coconut oil as a saturated fat for cooking (lowers LDL, raises HDL)
  5. Continue exercising.
  6. Don’t be overfat.
  7. Try to ingest somewhat of a balanced fat intake among your different types of fat (roughly 1/3 each of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated fat)
  8. He may want to shift his eating style to more of moderate fat/lower carb/moderate protein type diet, a la Anabolic Diet or really just any diet which focuses on green vegetables, fat and protein.
  9. If lowering LDL is that much of a concern (though having a high HDL and a very low VLDL are more important) then looking into phytosterols may be beneficial.
  10. Avoid trans fats like the plague, as these will lower HDL and raise lDL.
  11. Drink green tea.
  12. Red Yeast Rice may be beneficial in lowering LDL cholesterol - because it exerts its effects similar to statins, Coenzyme Q10 should be taken in conjunction with this supplement, as statins can deplete the heart tissue of Coenzyme Q10.

I’ve pretty much eaten low-carb, tons of green vegetables and kept my protein and fat high and my blood levels consistenly improve. Granted, your mileage may vary because of genetics, but here is my most recent bloodwork.

Marker Range Measured

CHOL ***** 184
TG 0-150mg/dL 49
HDLD 40-60mg/dL 87.9
AMY 25-125U/L 70
FE 40-160μg/dL 149
CRPH 0.00-7.47mg/L <0.20
LIP 22-51U/L 31
LDL < 130mg/dL 86.3

I know had some bloodwork from a couple years ago :

CHOL 152 mg/dL <200 optimal
TG 85mg/dL <150
HDLD 77.0 mg/dL >60 optimal

So, I’ve been able to reduce my triglycerides further (thereby reducing my VLDL as well since its a percentage of triglycerides), increase my HDL even further, even though total cholesterol is now higher. However, after looking at the specific numbers, in this case higher cholesterol = better cholesterol.

Hope this helps. "

Now, I certainly am not advocating going against your doctors orders, but genetics aside, I think most physicians don’t approach the cholsterol issue in the right way. Hope this provides some help. Good luck to you.

In addition, egg protein should be very low in cholesterol, if you are still going to try and minimize your dietary cholesterol intake, and need a protein shake. Personally I’d try to get whole food as much as possible, though.

Great advice IMO. I have an 80 year old male client with high blood pressure/cholesterol.

He’s on reducing meds for both, and a high carb/low fat (cereal based) diet.

Blech.

What was your diet like before? You said, “Not bad,” but didn’t give many details.

Suffice it to say here that blaming your problem on dietary cholesterol is missing the boat.

Your problem is going to require you to make a fundamental choice between two diametrically opposing paths. On one hand, you can choose to accept and follow the mainstream medical advice. Or, you can reject their advice, enlighten yourself as to the true cause of your predicament, and improve your life. One path will be extraordinarily difficult but successful; the other will be entirely fruitless. The choice is yours.

[quote]NewDamage wrote:
Wow…those are indeed some bad numbers. I’m going to copy and paste a post I made in another thread.

"
This is a pretty big can of worms around here as many posters here, including myself, have somewhat of a different view regarding cholesterols role (or lack thereof) in directly affecting heart disease.

However, I think its pretty solid that having a high HDL along with low triglycerides and as low as possible VLDL are good ways to put yourself in a cardioprotective state.

Also, the big picture should be about keeping inflammation to a minimum, which should go a long way in the prevention of the deposition of cholesterol in the arteries.

Some general recommendations that are healthy all the way around can be made.

  1. Increase fiber intake, especially broccolli and green vegetables.
  2. Keep refined carbohydrates to a minimum.
  3. Obtain 3-12g of EPA/DHA from fish oil, mainly for lowering triglycerides, as Fish Oil can raise both HDL and LDL.
  4. Use coconut oil as a saturated fat for cooking (lowers LDL, raises HDL)
  5. Continue exercising.
  6. Don’t be overfat.
  7. Try to ingest somewhat of a balanced fat intake among your different types of fat (roughly 1/3 each of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated fat)
  8. He may want to shift his eating style to more of moderate fat/lower carb/moderate protein type diet, a la Anabolic Diet or really just any diet which focuses on green vegetables, fat and protein.
  9. If lowering LDL is that much of a concern (though having a high HDL and a very low VLDL are more important) then looking into phytosterols may be beneficial.
  10. Avoid trans fats like the plague, as these will lower HDL and raise lDL.
  11. Drink green tea.
  12. Red Yeast Rice may be beneficial in lowering LDL cholesterol - because it exerts its effects similar to statins, Coenzyme Q10 should be taken in conjunction with this supplement, as statins can deplete the heart tissue of Coenzyme Q10.

I’ve pretty much eaten low-carb, tons of green vegetables and kept my protein and fat high and my blood levels consistenly improve. Granted, your mileage may vary because of genetics, but here is my most recent bloodwork.

Marker Range Measured

CHOL ***** 184
TG 0-150mg/dL 49
HDLD 40-60mg/dL 87.9
AMY 25-125U/L 70
FE 40-160μg/dL 149
CRPH 0.00-7.47mg/L <0.20
LIP 22-51U/L 31
LDL < 130mg/dL 86.3

I know had some bloodwork from a couple years ago :

CHOL 152 mg/dL <200 optimal
TG 85mg/dL <150
HDLD 77.0 mg/dL >60 optimal

So, I’ve been able to reduce my triglycerides further (thereby reducing my VLDL as well since its a percentage of triglycerides), increase my HDL even further, even though total cholesterol is now higher. However, after looking at the specific numbers, in this case higher cholesterol = better cholesterol.

Hope this helps. "

Now, I certainly am not advocating going against your doctors orders, but genetics aside, I think most physicians don’t approach the cholsterol issue in the right way. Hope this provides some help. Good luck to you.

In addition, egg protein should be very low in cholesterol, if you are still going to try and minimize your dietary cholesterol intake, and need a protein shake. Personally I’d try to get whole food as much as possible, though.[/quote]

Thank you very much ! Very good input =)

[quote]eic wrote:
What was your diet like before? You said, “Not bad,” but didn’t give many details.

Suffice it to say here that blaming your problem on dietary cholesterol is missing the boat.

Your problem is going to require you to make a fundamental choice between two diametrically opposing paths. On one hand, you can choose to accept and follow the mainstream medical advice. Or, you can reject their advice, enlighten yourself as to the true cause of your predicament, and improve your life. One path will be extraordinarily difficult but successful; the other will be entirely fruitless. The choice is yours. [/quote]

Well since i’m not even really sure what caused my really high BP and cholesterol i can only assume that my diet was PART of it and it would kinda make sense to get my diet right and work hard on making sure i’m consuming the right foods. Than if i still have the same issues after trying to do that right thing, than i guess i prob have even a bigger problem. All the doctor really did was give me the numbers and tell me what they mean and than tell me to avoid certain foods and eat no more than 4 oz portions of meat only at a time blah blah blah. Than throw some meds at me and off i go.

My diet was eat as much lean meat as i can when i eat it. No junk food. Eat fruits and veggies as often as i can with meals. I would take 3 meal replacements a day with 2 protein drinks and 3 whole food meals. I didn’t count my calories or anything like that. Just tried to always eat good wholesome healthy foods. Just my meal replacements and protein drinks now that i read the packages have a ton of cholesterol in them when you add it all up and that doesn’t include w/e my whole foods have.

To be honest my doctor wasn’t really much help which is why i came here for advice. I’m aware my diet is prob just part of the problem. I’m not overweight or anyting like that. This might sound dumb but i always just assumed if i worked out and wasn’t overweight that i would never have to worry about this stuff ! T-Nation always seems to have such great advice which is why i came here ! =) Thanks !