Lowcarbezine!

Why I Love My Job

On Saturday, January 24, 2004 9:24 PM David Musolf sent me this email:

Dana and/or Staff,

I have just been diagnosed with slightly high cholesterol (223), and extremely high triglycerides (over 800). I've been reading up on various diets to help without taking drugs. Most of the things I've read have lead me to a low-carb diet to help with the blood sugar and hopefully lower my triglycerides. My question is that many of the low carb diets don't necessarily address the low cholesterol side of things. In you 500 Low-Carb recipe book that I just bought, you use lots of butter, eggs, coconut oil etc. I thought these things would be bad for the cholesterol. I'm 40 years old, 6' 3" and 205 lbs and in pretty good shape. My goal isn't to lose weight (even though I've already lost 10 lbs), but to eat better to help my cholesterol and triglycerides. I want to make sure that your style of diet addresses this.

I responded:

Here's the deal:

Triglycerides almost invariably drop like a rock on a low carb diet -- indeed, that high triglyceride levels are carbohydrate-driven is not even controversial.

More controversial, but backed up by many clinical studies (including the Duke University study that got a lot of press last year) is the fact that most people also experience an improvement in their cholesterol levels on a low carb diet, even one that includes butter, red meat, cheese, and the like. HDL (good cholesterol) almost always comes up, and most people have a drop in total cholesterol at the same time. This is because high insulin levels (caused by eating lots of carbs) can cause the body to create lots of cholesterol.

However, there does appear to be a group of "saturated fat responders" -- people who, if they go on a low carb diet with lots of butter, cheese, cream, and fatty red meat, get an improvement in triglycerides and HDL, but also get a worsening of LDL.

The way to find out which group you are in, logically enough, is to try a low carb diet including the saturated fats, and then get your bloodwork done again in about two month's time. If all your numbers improve, hey, you've found your diet. If you find your tri's and HDL are better, but your LDL is also way up, you'll want to look instead at a low carb diet that emphasizes poultry and fish, olive oil, nuts and seeds, and avocados (ie, monounsaturates) instead of saturated fats.

Of course, you can just go straight to the low carb diet that slants toward monounsaturates if you like.

As for eggs and coconut oil: Eggs were cleared long ago of the charge of raising blood cholesterol. It made sense on the surface that eating less cholesterol would lower blood cholesterol, but it doesn't work - all that happens is that your body makes more, and if you eat more, your body makes less. Eggs are not a good source of saturated fats, so that doesn't factor in.

Coconut oil, far from being dangerous, is emerging as one of the healthiest oils -- one of the reasons I have it in my kitchen. The tests that showed coconut oil raising cholesterol involved highly processed, hydrogenated coconut oil, not virgin coconut oil. I trust you're clear on hydrogenated oils and the trans fats they contain (think margarine and Crisco) being about the worst sort of saturated fat you can eat.

Anyway, I hope this helps!

Dana

This week, I got this post from Mr. Musolf:

Dana,

I just wanted to give you a quick update. I just got my latest blood work back and the results are very encouraging.

total cholesterol 223 -> 198 (goal is under 200)

Trig. 823 -> 224 (goal is under 150)

LDL ??? -> 127 (goal is under 130)

HDL 20 -> 30 (goal is over 40)

body weight: 217 -> 198

All of this was accomplished since the first week of January. I've been following most of the guidelines in your cookbook and used a lot of the recipes. I think I'm on a good trend here and my doctor was very impressed. I'll probably go on a much lower dose of medication to get the HDL's up and the triglycerides down.

This is just another data point to back up your philosophy and I wanted to thank you for a great cookbook and good advice that has really worked for me.

Thanks,

Dave

Dave, you made my week. Thanks so much for writing and letting me know about your success! And thanks even more for letting me share it with my Lowcarbezine! readers. What a great story.

Posted by HoldTheToast at March 26, 2004 05:22 PM