hi all,
I am newest member of this forum. My hubby got the report from the doctor. Report says
LIPID PANEL WITH LDL/HDL RATIO CHOLESTEROL, TOTAL- 231
Triglycerides 503
HDL CHOLESTEROL 39
Though the doctor has advised him to have very low carb diet and avoid fatty food. Could it be possible to know the reason of this high cholesterol and also provide the list of food items which he should take and which he should avoid.
We are very concerned and don't have much knowlegde about this cholesterol thing.
Please help.

First of all, cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, and neither is saturated fats, but you have said that the doctor advised him to have a very low carbohydrate diet--then to avoid fatty foods. If one did this, he would be eating mostly proteins because the only three foods are: fats, carbohydrates and proteins. So really, the diet he needs to be on is just a plain balanced diet with approximately 1/3 fats 1/3 carbohydrates and 1/3 proteins. his Cholesterol level is not that high. Triglycerides come from all foods and is stored as fat in the body. eating excessive calories from any food will produce triglycerides. One need to balance the calorie intake with calories used. The best way to do this is to limit ones simple carbs like sugar, candy, soft drinks and other snack foods.(Also note that triglycerides level soar after eating--any test must be done after fasting at least six hours.)
Never avoid fats like the doctor is telling you--it has been proven that a low fat diet does not work, but many health professional are sill saying "low fat diet" but they are wrong. Even though fats contain 9 calories per gm compared to carbohydrates 4 gm--fats stay in the digestive tract much longer, and also fats does not raise one's insulin level. These factors more than off set the difference in calories, and fats will keep one from being hungry much longer than the carbohydrates. Therefore, in the long run, one will consume less calories if he eats an adequate amount of fat.
Ed

Hello Gia (and Hello fellow Edward! )

If you are interested in learning more about managing high cholesterol you should visit this site:

http://www.makingtheconnection.ca/en/home/

It's Canadian so the values for lipids will be different than what you have, I can convert them if needed.

The site has very recently been released by a joint collaboration between many Canadian associations like the Heart & Stroke Foundation, Canadian Diabetes Association etc. (ie: the information is very reputable). They also have a great set of tools to help those newly diagnosed such as the Cholesterol Management program found here http://5step.makingtheconnection.ca/

Hope this helps, any questions don't hesitate to ask.

Hi Gia2008,
I always have difficulty remembering the formula for converting American cardiovascular measurements to our Australian system, which is the same as the Canadian system that Ed Walker spoke about, so I'll add a conversion site for you

http://www.employees.org/~alokem/cholesterol.html

I would certainly agree with Ed Walker here, cholesterol and saturated fat appear to be implicated in the production of plaques in arteries and veins, I would be interested to see what research the other Edward uses to refute this.