Need help lowering Cholesterol

[Michael_Schaap]

Cholesterol is needed in the body. The American heart Association recommends less then 300mg for the average person. If you have a cardiac condition then its 200mg per day.

This number adds up quickly... a Big Mac for instance is 80mg... one egg has about 210mg.

Then there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol... I am utterly confused by the differences... why one is good vs bad... I know olive oil is good .. eggs used to be thought of as bad.... now it depends on who you talk to. Bacon grease is bad.... but fish oil is good (why opionion has changed on fish so dramaticly).

 

[Robin]

I think I read somewhere that Omega (in fish) is good for someone with this problem..so that's why they recommend more fish..

I cooked hubby shrimp today..didn't come out so good though....I suck in the cooking dept.

 

[Michael_Schaap]

marinating/Coating

With a cardiac diet I am discovering that finding something to marinate with or give food a good coating of is very hard. Can't use soy sauce any more... terriaki is out of the question.... BBQ... forget it other then a small amount... Italian dressing (HAHAHAHAH....) no can do.....

But... Honey mustard is great!

1 1/2 TBS Honey Mustard
1/2 ish TBS Olive Oil
1 TBSish Lemon Juice
1/2 TBS (or as much as you want) Hot sauce

Then mix it up with spices you like....
Garlic
Pepperrika
Oregeno
Spice mixes WITHOUT SALT

This is real good with fish and chicken. I usually leave the lemon juice out for beef and add something like... worseshire sauce or a very small amount of a low sodium BBQ sauce (very hard to find).

 

[Robin]

Good for you Michael. But hubby expells stomach contants when he smells mustard......

 

[Eric_C]

We went through the same thing years ago after a heart scare. Turned out to be something else but it really did straighten us out.

We tried all the diet books and honestly they were horrible.

We found several EXCELLENT recipes that helped.

Some quick tips:

Fiber...lots of it. I have popcorn, minus salt but still with a bit of margarine. We eat Hommous at least 2 times per week. Fiber is a big helper.

Beef was the toughy and we did try ground turkey but honestly it just doesn't cut it. Our biggest savior was Piedmontese Beef. Its very low fat in certain cuts, but not all. Do some research into it. Only the Sirloins, Tip Roasts, flanks, soup beef, and Filets are 'good' for you, the T-Bones and New Yorks are better than regular beef but not enough to make it a regular part of your diet.

When I had some time tommorow I'll put together our favorites....the only big problem with them is they may be high in salt which thankfully we're able to tolerate. One of them is a peppered flank steak with a blue cheese sauce that is fantastic and very low fat.

It can be done...Some of Subway's stuff is good too, but the sodium levels are astronomical.

I'm no doctor and if you ask 10 doctors you'll get 10 answers. My father has had 2 heart attacks in the past 35 years. Obviously his cardiologist knows what he's doing since its been 35 years and 20 since his last one. He told him to eat 3 eggs per week as his levels were getting too low.

Drink a day if your blood pressure can handle it...olive oil instead of butter for cooking....

There are a lot of little things that pop out of my head as I think about it but the biggest is moderation. I set my limit at 300mg of Cholesterol which honestly is EASY. Except for shell fish and eggs food does not have much cholesterol in it. Surely not enough to push you over 300 unless your just eating fast food all the time. I put my sat fat limit at 15mg a day.

We go out for Pizza with veggies and real cheese, I tell them 1 cup of cheese over the entire pizza, I eat my portion and enjoy it, 8g of sat fat in that meal so I have 7 for the rest of the day.

Don't give up what you like, learn to manage it into your diet. If I go out for Mexican at lunch, its vegetarian at dinner and some extra fiber.

Once a week we go out for dinner and I have whatever I want.

I guess we are lucky that neither of us are really into junk food like candy bars and that.

We love Healthy Choice Ice Cream and some of the Sargento low fat cheeses are decent.

Oh...and wash your beef...if your making spaghetti or something that requires browning, brown it, drain it, and wash it to get the rest of the fat off.

Good luck and I'll put some of our stuff up tommorow.

 

[Robin]

I've been getting I can't believe it's not butter for us now. Hubby isn't too big on olive oil. It says no cholesterol on it so I guess it's good.

 

[Eric_C]

I forgot to mention and it doesn't seem that you can edit your messages here...you can make certain things taste exactly like their regular counterparts.

An example. We make taco salad orginally from this recipe:

1 head lettuce
1lb ground beef
1 16oz bag of Dorito's
1 regular sized container of Catalina Dressing
2 Cups Mexican cheese

You mix everything, smash the Dorito's and mix. Great stuff, super high in fat.

Now we make:

1 head lettuce
1 lb washed Piedmontese Ground Sirloin
Fat Free Catalina Dressing
Sargento Low Fat Cheese
16 oz bag of WOW Dorito's(be careful with your stomach)

exactly the same taste and less than 15 percent of the original fat.

I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but its amazing the difference and no one could tell the difference.

Downside...not everyone can take WOW chips, forget the nutrional benefits since the WOW chips negate them, and high in sodium.

But for those moments when you want something GOOD this is a great backup.

Don't pay too much attention to cholesterol. If your going with proper sized portions of meat then your not going to hit 300mg unless your having eggs or shellfish.

When I said olive oil, I meant for cooking instead of butter. You have to watch out, alot of those butter subs have hydronegated oil(sp?) and that is way way worse for you than any regular fat. We never have butter subs, alot of docs will tell you your better off with real butter.

 

[cara]

With a cardiac diet I am discovering that finding something to marinate with or give food a good coating of is very hard. Can't use soy sauce any more... terriaki is out of the question.... BBQ... forget it other then a small amount... Italian dressing (HAHAHAHAH....) no can do.....

But... Honey mustard is great!

Michael, even without a cholesterol problem, my marinade consists of:

Olive Oil
Vinegar (Aceto balsamico de Modena)
possibly some sherry
garlic
ginger
herbs and spices as you like

something else:
ever tried to substitue cream cheese or cottage cheese for the butter?
I would suggest Quark, but you don't have it over the ocean...

 

[urmaniac13]

16 oz bag of WOW Dorito's(be careful with your stomach)

Eric, if I remember correctly, wasn't Wow products from Frito Lay the "fatfree" stuff made with olean? If that's what I am thinking of, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they have some utterly invincible stomach and digesting power... that stuff may taste good but really gives you nasty consequences... there are baked corn or tortilla chips available, either from Frito Lay or a fresh bakery section of a large supermarkets... they would be a better option for your recipe, though it will be a better idea to add the chips as you eat rather than mix everything beforehand and serve it, as they get soggy very quickly...

 

[cara]

why don't make the tortilla yourself?
there are good and easy recipes...

 

[Eric_C]

Yes, WOW is made with Olean.

If you sit down and eat a bag of chips then your in trouble. If you do some reading on it with a little experimentation you can come down to an acceptable amount.

The long and short of it is this....your body absorbs alot of fats while it travels through the intenstines. More or less once your stomach has finished breaking things down the oils from the deep frying pass by themselves. The vegetable oil, Olean, has been chemically altered to NOT be absorbed by your intenstine.

Good points, its really vegetable oil, so they taste just like regular chips. The bad...well deppending on how much you eat determines how much undigestable oil, in a pure form, travels through you.

Don't need to draw a picture at this point, but if you eat these on an empty stomach were there are no other byproducts to absorb the extra undigested oil then you get some of the more unpleasant side effects.

Its not something we have everyday but for those times when you want something bad that tastes good they work well.

 

[urmaniac13]

Yes, WOW is made with Olean.

If you sit down and eat a bag of chips then your in trouble. If you do some reading on it with a little experimentation you can come down to an acceptable amount.

The long and short of it is this....your body absorbs alot of fats while it travels through the intenstines. More or less once your stomach has finished breaking things down the oils from the deep frying pass by themselves. The vegetable oil, Olean, has been chemically altered to NOT be absorbed by your intenstine.

Good points, its really vegetable oil, so they taste just like regular chips. The bad...well deppending on how much you eat determines how much undigestable oil, in a pure form, travels through you.

Don't need to draw a picture at this point, but if you eat these on an empty stomach were there are no other byproducts to absorb the extra undigested oil then you get some of the more unpleasant side effects.

Its not something we have everyday but for those times when you want something bad that tastes good they work well.

I see, thanks for a little education Eric, I was really discouraged from my own not so pretty incidents, and I haven't had any of them for 6,7 years (and they are not found here in Italy anyway...) but I think I have done those no no's as you described. It is a good thing to keep in mind if you do choose to use that product...

 

[purrfectlydevine]

Yes, WOW is made with Olean.

If you sit down and eat a bag of chips then your in trouble. If you do some reading on it with a little experimentation you can come down to an acceptable amount.

The long and short of it is this....your body absorbs alot of fats while it travels through the intenstines. More or less once your stomach has finished breaking things down the oils from the deep frying pass by themselves. The vegetable oil, Olean, has been chemically altered to NOT be absorbed by your intenstine.

Good points, its really vegetable oil, so they taste just like regular chips. The bad...well deppending on how much you eat determines how much undigestable oil, in a pure form, travels through you.

Don't need to draw a picture at this point, but if you eat these on an empty stomach were there are no other byproducts to absorb the extra undigested oil then you get some of the more unpleasant side effects.

Its not something we have everyday but for those times when you want something bad that tastes good they work well.

As always, I think moderation is the key. If you eat an entire bag of regular chips you probably won't feel too great either. Keep in mind what a serving really is.

 

[Michael_Schaap]

We just came back from Chilies restruant. Last time I went there was two months ago. Today was my second day at work full time and I am so exhausted its beyond belief. So I thought I'd treat myself with my favorite hamburger at Chilies. It was great..... but..... now that I have been cutting way back on sodium it tasted way too salty. And greasy for that matter.