Question about a heart health diet

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57 years old

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You’re not too old to start lifting weights, which I believe can help with cholesterol.

I am on a statin now and my LDL is at 54. The more I read about cholesterol the more I think that cholesterol is not a problem. Cholesterol appears to be the body's remedy for inflammation. It seems to me that inflammation is the real problem. The question then becomes, how do I get rid of the inflammation.

Add some aerobic exercise -brisk walking 2-3 miles.Helps develop collateral circulations.

There’s a battle being waged between scientists who say you need to eat primarily “healthy grains, fruits and veggies” and avoid fats and greatly reduce meat intake … and scientists who say you need to avoid inflammation which you do by avoiding carbs or limiting them as much as possible. [this means limiting grains/fruits/veggies].

I don’t know what to believe anymore and am suffering from a kind of dietary paralysis where I’m not sure what I should be eating. For now, I’m sticking to wild caught salmon once a week, chicken, eggs, nuts, a tiny bit of cheese, Greek yogurt, protein powder, strawberries or blueberries a few times a week, and some veggies thrown in daily to fill in the gaps. Only use olive, avocado and coconut oils. MCT oil powder daily. Lots of supplements.

Look up Peter Attia on YouTube. He puts out some great, albeit dense, podcasts on longevity and health.

Cut out alcohol

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“sources on both sides are reputable “
I hate to break it to you,many scientists are basically whores.They design studies to get the results the entity paying them wants.Scientists working for dairy industry will invariably produce studies showing dairy is good.
Studies paid for by Kelloggs and Coca-Cola will show there is no harm in sugar.
It is very confusing,especially since there are independent scientists and Drs. advocating diets that are diametrically opposed.Some are advocates for keto,some for vegetarian and vegan diets.Some say animal fats are poison,use vegetable oils.Others say vegetable oils are poison,use only animal fats.Carbs are good,carbs are awful.On and on.

I have dozens of books on nutrition and have read dozens of articles on the internet.You get to where you don’t know what to believe.
I know keto people that are healthy,likewise vegetarians.WarrenBuffet and Donald Trump reportedly eat crap diets and are hale and hearty at advanced ages.
My personal beliefs have come down to this:
Avoid fried foods,only oil I use for frying is peanut oil and not very often.Olive oil for pan frying,sautéing vegetables.
I eleminated dairy totally.
Avoid simple carbohydrates
Red meat is bad,especially factory beef.Only meat I eat is venison.Grass fed beef is ok I guess but don’t pig out on it.
Processed meats are bad( this is hard ,they are delicious)
Avoid fast foods( this is also hard,I like Wendy’s,pizza and Popeyes but I rarely eat it)
High fructose corn syrup is poison.
Minimize salt intake.
No cold drinks,mostly drink water.
I fully expect to get lots of downvotes which is fine.I’m 71,wife is 69 and neither of us are on any meds.Our diet seems to be working for us.

Probably,I have good genes for which I am grateful.When I was younger I ate like crap and smoked ( quit when I was 35)but it didn’t seem to hurt me.
I came from a fairly large family and there has been very little heart disease and an amazingly few that have had cancer.

Red meat bad - why?
Partly it is because of books I’ve read:
MAD COWBOY by Howard Lyman
THE CHINA STUDY by Colin Campbell ( a lot of downvotes on this one)
PREVENT and REVERSE HEART DISEASE by Caldwell Esselstyn,MD( brutal diet)
THE BLUE ZONES by Dan Buettner.
I have other reasons.I also have a big problem with the food lot model.Besides being inhumane it’s disgusting.Some feedlots feed the cattle chicken litter(shite).
Have the cows gorge on corn which makes them sick and then pour the antibiotics to them which contributes to antibiotic resistanceAll the corn makes the beef have high levels of Omega 6 fatty acids..Grass fed beef have lower levels and some Omega 3 fatty acids.
I think the environmental costs of factory beef are too great.I’m not talking about cow farts.The amount of land for pasture,hay and corn are just too great.IMO
Also I am pretty observant of friends and family(mostly my wife’s)and how they eat are how they end up health wise.
31 years in ICU,primarily with cardiac patients.I would always steer them into talking about their diets.Learned a lot that way.I didn’t offer any opinions or suggestions on their diets going forward,I just listened.People get pissed if you start talking healthy eating,I learned that trying to talk to friends and my wife’s famiy.I didn’t want to piss off my patients.See it on this board also.

Dairy-is likewise disgusting and inhumane.Modern dairy farming is not like it was in grandpa’s days. Cows used to live in pastures and get milked 1-2 times a day.
Now they are in a stall,food is brought to them on a conveyer and they never see the sun or grass.They stand in cow shite almost up to their bellies.
They are milked 3 times a day which often causes mastitis,get antibiotics for that.
FDA allows a certain level of somatic cells (pus) in milk.That pretty much killed my appetite for dairy.Dairy cows in the old days usually lasted about 20 years,now it’s about 5.
Another issue is the hormone levels in milk.Cows used to have calf and then be milked until they eventually go dry and then would be bred again.
Now they are soon shot up with hormones to make them ovulate and are artificially inseminated .Lactating pregnant cows have hormone levels in their milk that I don’t want. There is a lot of evidence that the hormones in dairy contribute to breast and prostate cancer.

I think vegetarian diets are heathy ,I know a few vegetarians and they are healthy.I tried it myself but I stayed hungry and I didn’t want to give up deer hunting. I personally don’t believe in keto but some people swear by it.

It’s interesting how contentious the subject of diet is,It’s like discussing religion or politics.
My NP wife feels the same way about diet I do ,we kinda evolved,together,but she never,ever wants to discuss diet.She says people get mad and they are going to eat what they want anyway.

You’re talking grass fed beef,most people don’t eat grass fed beef,they eat food lot beef,big difference There is a shite ton of corn grown to supply feed lots.
Problem is ,people eat too much beef. Most countries besides US,Argentina and Brazil don’t eat beef as a main course.Rather,it’s more Ike a condiment.

Plowing up thousands of acres for crops is not totally necessary.Have you ever seen a aquaponic or hydroponic growing system.?
One can grow quite a bit of vegetables in a very small area with a lot less water,
I have a small aquaponic system and grow significantly more lettuce on a surface area of 16 square feet than in our garden and I can grow it year round.
I went to a town in Iceland that grows majority of vegetables eaten in Iceland in greenhouses,rows and rows of them.They are heated naturally with geothermal wells .That is location specific in US so it wouldn’t be as easy or cheap here.
I suppose geothermal heat pumps could be used,it wouldn’t be as cheap but it could be competive considering the price of tractors and increasing price of diesel.
I’m not suggesting rowfarming will be eleminated but it could help.

“ nobody funds studies out of the kindness of their hearts”

I totally understand that.How can a scientist call hinself a scientist when they are paid by Coca Cola or Kelloggs and then know what exactly what the result is going to be before they even start the study.
The real problem is that food companies give lots of money to the American Society of Nutrition and Dietics which controls the education and licensing of dietitians.
Therefore,education of dietitians has to follow the narratives laid out by the food industry.It’s in big part a scam.
The food industry also donates a lot of money to the American Heart Association and American Cancer Society,therefore their dietary recommendations are skewed somewhat.

All this can be argued ad nauseam.I”ll eat the way I believe and everyone else can do the same.I said earlier,my wife and I take no meds,it seems to be working for us.
Her family would get highly irritated with me when I started talking healthy diet.They ate the SAD,lots of beef ,steaks and roasts with lots of fat.
Her father had bypass surgery when he was younger than I am presently and he died of colon cancer.Her sister had uterine cancer,surgey and radiation.Her brother has just been diagnosed with prostate cancer,apparently fairly extensive.
Her mother didn’t have cancer but she had significant vascular disease,shite ton of meds and died with vascular dementia.
They ate good though.

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I am also working on cutting back as much as possible on sugar. I am also trying to remove processed foods from my diet

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I “worked on” and “tried to” for years. Then I actually “did”. Implement “doing” instead of “trying”…it generally works better