Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: MartinTheK on 25/08/2010 13:49:03
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To extend the recent thread about the best diet for weight loss. I have recently celebrated my birthday with some laboratory blood work. Results would vary depending but I believe my experience is not remarkable. During this period I have lost 20 pounds without feeling hungry. This is a crucial point because, frankly, I would eat in my sleep if I could find someone to feed me.
These results were achieved by drastically reducing my intake of dairy products, fried foods, and meat...except for fish. Lot's of whole grains, veggies, and legumes.
4/23/08
Total Cholesterol: 149
Triglycerides: 292 <-(bad news)
Glucose: 117 <- "Pre-diabetic"
8/12/10
Total Cholesterol: 89
Triglycerides: 134
Glucose: 89
Individual results will vary but, a spectre is haunting Europe and that spectre is unhealthy eating.
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To extend the recent thread about the best diet for weight loss. I have recently celebrated my birthday with some laboratory blood work. Results would vary depending but I believe my experience is not remarkable. During this period I have lost 20 pounds without feeling hungry. This is a crucial point because, frankly, I would eat in my sleep if I could find someone to feed me.
These results were achieved by drastically reducing my intake of dairy products, fried foods, and meat...except for fish. Lot's of whole grains, veggies, and legumes.
4/23/08
Total Cholesterol: 149
Triglycerides: 292 <-(bad news)
Glucose: 117 <- "Pre-diabetic"
8/12/10
Total Cholesterol: 89
Triglycerides: 134
Glucose: 89
Individual results will vary but, a spectre is haunting Europe and that spectre is unhealthy eating.
Well firstly Happy Belated Birthday [:)] [:)]
Secondly well done on losing the weight and getting your numbers down!!
With your counts above, do they specify how much of each type of cholesterol was present? Chylomicrons, VDL, LDL and HDLs etc.
And with the glucose, did they perform a fasting glucose test?
Simple, unprocessed food is the key to healthy eating, like you say lots of fruit and veggies and lean meats.
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Those were fasting Glucose values.
As to the cholesterol profile, it was as follows..
4/23/08
LDL = 61
HDL = 33
LDL/HDL = 2.03
8/12/10
VDL = 26
LDL = 24
HDL = 34
LDL/HDL = 0.71 <- (much better)
The doc wants me to increase my HDL (beneficial cholesterol) over 40, but he doesn't say exactly how to do that...more exercise? I could ride my recumbent trike more once the summer heat wave breaks and the air quality in the San Joaquin Valley improves to "moderately unhealthy" I suppose.
I should add that I have been careful to avoid "high fructose corn syrup" ever since I saw that TV presentation by the biochemist/nutritionist from the University of California, Davis. That means reading food labels because the food -plutocrats seem to have added it to almost everything.
The recumbent trike is British made...it's a sweet machine...I took it to San Francisco last week in my car...riding it is almost as much fun as skinny-dipping with the Carlton sisters.
Thanks for the birthday wishes, 65 isn't as bad as I feared...you just have to keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.
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Woo that is a big old drop in your LDL, well done!! [:)]
To increase HDL exercise is important, doesn't have to be intense, but regular and for as long as you can manage, the emphasis being put on durations.
Diet-cutting out fats is good but you have to ensure you are still getting enough of the good fats, monosaturates like olive oil increase your HDL levels, keep going as you are with cutting out the trans-fats and triglycerides and include more mono and polysaturates.
You are eating lots of veggies which is good, they are a good source of soluble fibre which increases HDL's, you can also buy soluble fibre to mix into water too.
To increase HDL exercise is important, doesn't have to be intense, but regular and for as long as you can manage, the emphasis being put on durations.
You are already losing weight which is good, fat stores are like a storage depot for LDL's which the HDL's then have to combat.
Other than that I can't think of anything else, I just recently sat an exam in FA metabolism, hence it is still fairly fresh in my mind. Of course if I have got it wrong that means I have failed my exam too!!! [:)] So do check with your GP.
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On the basis that the liver produces more cholesterol than that from our dietry instake and (if I understand correctly) reduces production to compensate for high dietry cholesterol, how does increasing intake of unsturated fats help and what is it helping?
(I do hold with healthy diet and exercise, but am often sceptical about specific claims - is there any science involved or is it like BMI - a rough guide produced on a statistical rather than rational basis)
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Mazurka - I think correlation has been demonstrated but not causation; but I stand uncertain and ready to be corrected.
The number of times that food types and certain drinks have vacillated between health-promoting and health-destroying put me in the same sceptical camp as you. anecdotally - I feel better, have more energy, and work easily when I eat healthily; conversely, I enjoy myself more, relax more, and produce better work when I eat badly and drink too much. that's my concept of a balanced diet!
Matthew
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I can remember telling 85 year old patients that eating two fried eggs accompanied by bacon and buttered toast every morning was unhealthy (it says here) and of course they would blow me off as an idiot. But they were the minority who had some genotype which allowed that. The majority had dropped off the twig years before. Just because science can't yet point to the physiological mechanisms involved doesn't affect the laws of probability. In most people (and I am the most important one to me) you need to drastically modify your diet that thy days may be long in the land.
Here is a thought experiment. Imagine going in to buy a a 500 kilobuck whole life policy on your own (with no employer subsidy). What sort of premium do you think you would have to pay with a 350 mg. Cholesterol and a 115 mg. fasting glucose? You're probably better off telling them you're a sky-diver.
It's amazing what having a few billion dollars in play can do to affect an insurance company's opinion about "dietary health fads".
My two heart attacks were 20 years apart. That was not a matter of luck, my friend. I started modifying my diet when my half brother (who loved his eggs and bacon) keeled over at 35 from a heart attack in 1975. That's was probably a major reason I survived my 1989 anterior MI (that's a bad one). I really changed my lifestyle after that and forestalled my second MI until last January. You should note that medical treatment had improved steadily from 1975 thru 2010 which was an additional ace in the hole. Those new nice numbers I showed above are the fruit of years of adversity and meditation. Like Dirty Harry asks, "Do you feel lucky?". I don't and that's why corn dogs ( with lot's of mustard-Yum, Yum! ) are off my dance card.
"and I only am escaped to tell thee"
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I have often wondered - what is a corn dog? Read references to them in various american novels etc. are they some variation of hot dog? Its the sort of thing I don't like to look up on google - but prefer to find answer from real person.
On a serious note - its not the healthy eating advice given by practitioners that confuses; it's the deliberately contrary "information" (in the loosest sense of the word) given by our friends the press. its not news unless it contradicts what they said last week. whenever people ask about diet, after reading some mad article in the daily mail (grrr) I will always suggest an appointment with gp, well-woman clinic, well-man etc - all of whom will help you with good dietary advice. the educative thrust needed is just as you have said - people need to learn that their health is in their hands. Matthew
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The corn dog
Take a hot dog and insert a wooden skewer in one end. Then dip it in a corn meal batter and immerse it in a deep fryer until the batter is cooked. Let it cool and then slather it with American (milder) yellow mustard. Typically, an American teenager (or adult) would have a couple of these, about a liter of high fructose coke and maybe some french fries. It would cost about $4 probably..under two pounds(?).
You have to understand the American genius for creating deep fried dietary horrors...I have recently heard of deep fried butter being sold at the Texas state fair...this comes after deep fried twinkies ( a "creme" filled small cake with so many preservatives in it that it will sit on a shelf for months without spoiling).
As regards conflicting news stories---American food producers maintain a variety of associations for each product (beef, pork, eggs, butter, cheese ..you name it)
Take butter, for instance, (but it could be any of them) they can arrange for somebody somewhere to publish some "scientific" article ( Possibly in a journal which is not critically reviewed -it could be the Proceedings of the Tibetan Compost Stompers Association ) and with a little baksheesh here and there--Shazaam!!, the news is all buzzing about the newly discovered health benefits of "Texas Deep Fried Butter"...Did you know that it has actually been shown to boost the testosterone levels in 9 out of 10 Texans? ...it has to be true if it is in the newspaper, you know.
Everybody gets to visit the treasure house of being alive...then you have to decide for yourself what you will take away. If you are willing to accept the risk of "Texas Deep Fried Butter Nuggets" and you haven't been deceived about the real risk of them...then you should be free to enjoy them. I am only saying that you shouldn't be a chump for the beef marketing council..or any of them.
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Wow! It comes to something when the healthiest part of a meal is the wooden stick it is served upon! I honestly thought the infamous deep fried mars bar was the worst that we could concoct (and before any says they are an urban myth I have tried one in Edinburgh about 15ish years ago).
My view of the regulatory systems in UK, EU and USA, which I have done some academic work on, is that when they are working as envisaged it is fine and the influence of Big Business is rejected or at least minimized; but any disruption or weakness and the financial clout of the big producers makes itself very evident. this tends to happen when european states have divergent ideas of best procedure and in the confusion and argument the commercial interests exploit the division.
just to play devils advocate, and because I couldnt answer this question myself either; on the idea of, shall we call it, informed consent to consume ridiculously unhealthy food and drink - where do you draw a line? texas deep fried butter nuggets, E-numbers (EU additives - not sure if you use same appelation) that make food vividly colourful but are a bit carcinogenic, some of the forms of chewing tobacco that are highly carcinogenic, pressurized syringes full of alcopop to squirt straight down throat, edible opium... I hate the idea of legislation or regulation of consumption - but agree with you about exploitation by vested interest.
Matthew
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On the basis that the liver produces more cholesterol than that from our dietry instake and (if I understand correctly) reduces production to compensate for high dietry cholesterol, how does increasing intake of unsturated fats help and what is it helping?
(I do hold with healthy diet and exercise, but am often sceptical about specific claims - is there any science involved or is it like BMI - a rough guide produced on a statistical rather than rational basis)
80% of the cholesterol in out body is synthesized by cells, particularly in the liver. We need cholesterol as it is an essential part of the cell membrane and has a protective role. The liver cells make a lot of it because the liver is subject to a lot of toxins and needs the extra protection, hence alcoholics often have a fatty liver. HDL removes cholesterol from the atheroma in arteries and transports it back to the liver, where it is processed and excreted or recycled. Hence some people have been advised to have one or two alcoholic drinks a day to encourage this behaviour in HDLs.
HDL's also carry out other protective functions within the arteties, which I won't go into now, but the important thing to remember is that all lipoproteins work in conjunction with each other, hence the levels of HDL to LDL is so important.
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The question is raised whether I believe healthy behaviors should be mandated by legislation. I wish human beings were tractable enough to make that work. The crystal Meth epidemic could be stopped in 5 minutes. But we are like King Canute..
Well, not quite so bad. Health providers are all health educators at the end of the day. If I am not teaching a patient or their family, I have not been a professional RN, no matter what else I have done.
A case in point. Today I went to the retired nurse lunch bunch for the first time. All the retired nurses were eating a typical Italian/American restaurant meal (i.e. a ton of meat,cheese and grease smothered in tomato sauce served up in various forms) and I had ordered a plate of olive tapenade (which most had never seen or heard of)
I couldn't stop myself. I tapped my water glass for attention and announced to the dozen people present, "Look everybody. This is "olive tapenade". It tastes good and it's much better for you than that "house salad with creamy ranch dressing. Would anybody like a taste?"
So everybody asked to try it, right? [sigh!] Not in this world kid. One of them asked, "Why should we care?" to which I replied, "because someday you may wake up unable to move your entire left side from the stroke that ranch dressing helped bring on." I don't get invited to that many parties for some reason.
Still, Jack, my old ICU buddy did take a small taste on the tip of his teaspoon - before he tucked into his meatball sandwich smothered in cheesy tomato sauce (crisps on the side). If that's the way RN's act - how successful would it be to outlaw meatball sandwiches?
It was very good olive tapenade.