mine is getting up there. My understanding is that low-cholesterol food is not really what's at play here; your cholesterol levels can go up from eating unhealthy food even there's little fat or cholesterol in them. So overall eating more vegetables and things is the way to go

Cabbage and exercise.

Cabbage (and possibly other greens, I forget) has properties that actively clear bad cholesterol. Exercise does the same.

The World's Healthiest Foods (which is an awesome website with a new redesign that I'm finding horrible) has a Food Advisor that might bring up some new suggestions.

This article might also help; check out the "Heart-healthy nutrients" bullet point for suggestions and links.

I hear that. My mom started HBP meds in her 50's.

Exercise did some good, but mostly it was the old change in diet/eating that does it for me. Lots more greens, sharp decrease in sodas and processed breads. "Eat To Live" is what I go by now, though I'm not fully 100%. I'm only mostly vegetarian.

I went to a personal trainer and had a fitness assessment, and found out I was reasonably healthy for someone my age/weight/etc, but could be better, especially at 36% body fat. :( The trainer really helped me learn my way around free weights and machines and pushed me harder than I would have gone on my own. It's kind of cool to see the muscles move around when I'm lifting something or just moving around. It's not *that* visible, but I know what I'm looking for so I see it and feel it.

I use MyFitnessPal to track calories. I'm back on after taking a break for a few months. It's fun to lose pants sizes and see muscles moving around, but I started cracking up (in a bad way) when I was trying to decide whether or not to eat something or exercise this way instead of that way and it got to be work and not fun.

Cholesterol traps - the usual suspects of cheese and saturated fats. Also sodas and white breads. My most stubborn number was the LDL (good cholesterol) and it finally moved when I stopped having that daily tortilla and twice weekly Pepsi.

Omega 3 - this is still giving me a hard time. You get these in dark greens and in oily fish. Well, I'd found that if I had too many dark greens I'd get sick so I scaled back (really, I stopped) and stepped up the tuna. To my shock the O-3 levels went *down*. So I'm integrating it back in, just not going whole hog, as it were. The trick is not so much to eat more Omega 3 but less Omega 6, so that the ratio is closer to 1:1 (The normal American diet has the ratio at 16:1)

Good luck! If you want you can friend me on MFP

Baby #2, squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal! ::claps hands::

I have nothing of substance to contribute to the discussion beyond that.

Dammit, had that backwards. HDL is good. LDL bad.

And what she said. :)

Baby #2, squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal! ::claps hands::

If you don't want to go the prescription route, then your only other option is a full lifestyle makeover, especially nutrition and exercise. Even then, your levels will be all over the place and the only true measure will be the average of a series of tests (and no one does that that I have heard). There is no cheating, either. One hamburger can boost your levels for days. Many people try to trick their doctors by only eating well the week before a cholesterol test. Sure, their numbers look good in the short term, but the long term has its way eventually.

This is why the medications are important. The statins work, basically, by binding to food fats in the gut and not allowing them to be digested in the first place. Statins also help stabilize blood cholesterol levels and prevent spikes when you do cheat on your diet.

Keep (H)DL high and (L)DL low.

What finally worked for me over the last 18 months has been a mindset shift away from "avoiding what I can't have" to "enjoying what I can have". Fresh veggies and fruits, white meat chicken and turkey, and fish. Also, oatmeal, fat-free yogurt and nuts. Homemade soups are really the way to go when you first start out, and salt-free vegetable stocks can speed the process greatly.

Huh, that actually makes me feel a little better, Ardiril. I was NPO for my first mega test, but not the second. Also it was the day after my one weekly splurge.

That test also checked to see if certain statins would work on me. Two of them wouldn't, so I thought that was good to know.

Your real friend against cholesterol, especially if statins don't work, is fiber. That also inhibits fat absorption. Thus, that sticky glop we call oatmeal. Bleh, I know, but putting 3 tblsp in my daily smoothie does just as well. Now if I could just get a kale leaf into that smoothie...

Thanks all! It sounds like high fiber foods are the way to go - a lot of the same foods that are high fiber are also good for cholesterol. I need more fiber in my diet anyway.

As I mentioned in a thread a few weeks ago, up until now I have had deplorable breakfast-eating habits. I am hoping that cutting out the sausage, egg and cheese on a greasy biscuit or croissant will make a difference, both in my weight and cholesterol. I also tend to eat junk for dinner the nights my husband works, so I'm going to put a stop to that as well.

Keep the eggs but try boiling them. Chances are they will provide startlingly high satiation. Definitely get rid of the cheese and greasy bread.

"cutting out the sausage, egg and cheese on a greasy biscuit or croissant"

Heh, yeah. But with a caveat. For myself, cutting down on breakfast makes me too sludgy to get through the rest of the day. Could you cut out one of the 3, like just egg and cheese, or just sausage and egg? Whole grain toast instead of the biscuit or croissant? How about adding a banana on the side?

Or, overnight oatmeal. A quick trip through the microwave in the morning warms it up, but use a low power setting and keep it covered.

High fiber won't budge my high cholesterol, but statins work (except I love grapefruit!) However, a scan of my coronary artery (not covered by insurance) shows I have no plaque build up and thus probably shouldn't care at all.

Another high cholesterol person here, with a history of heart attack/stroke/diabetes in the family. I went vegetarian a couple of years ago, and started following Eat to Live this past fall. I run (slowly) too. At my last checkup, which was about 8 weeks after I started Eat to Live eating, my doctor asked me what I'd done to drop my overall cholesterol reading by 39 points.

The salt and fat need to go. I promise you will not miss them if you track Eat to Live -- you'll love the food.

The website, FYI, is drfuhrman.com.

So, as a follow up, I had the cholesterol test as part of a physical required when applying for life insurance. I found out that I got the highest rating (meaning, I'm considered to be in the healthiest group, and will have the lowest premiums), so I guess it can't be THAT bad. But it's still high (overall 251, bad cholesterol is 159, I forget the number for the good cholesterol but I know that one was good), so I am glad to have the wake up call to make changes now before it gets critical.