I have been trying to eat better lately. I got pretty sick a couple of weeks ago. A hunters breakfast of gravy, bacon, ham, and eggs had my blood pressure sky high for a week. It seems two of those breakfast burritos with egg, cheese, and a little bacon in them keep me from being hungry most of the day with no side effects. I tried something new this week for lunch. Fried Crab cakes with some fresh sliced cukes on the side from my garden. They were very tasty.
When I was a teenager, a person didn’t have high blood pressure, unless it was higher than his age plus 100. So by that measure, I don’t have any problem as long as I take my medicine.
I track it at home, but in the office it is always way more. I take the device with me to calibrate it, so my cardiologist said he’s not concerned, and I don’t have to take another pill.
For years, I faithfully followed the AM. Heart Assoc. low fat diet. Well, my good HDL went too low. My bad LDL went too high, and my triglycerides went up up up. So I started to read Pub Med and did some researching, because I was gaining weight, even though I wasn’t eating much, and exercising like crazy, and I felt like I was starving to death with in an hour of eating anything.
So I did all this reading, decided I was becoming insulin resistant and redid my entire plan of eating. Within a month, I had my all my lipid numbers in the normal range for the first time in 20 years. Except for the total number - it was only a little high. Six months later, even more improvements.
What did I do? Well, I had already cut out soda pop and quit adding sugar to anything. So I cut my starches such as bread and potatoes-especially the bread - 50-100 grams is the max. I added good fats - nuts, olive oil, and butter from grass fed cows. I switched from Skim milk to organic whole milk and I use a cup of whipping cream per week - mainly in chia tea, or on berries for dessert. I also drink lemon or lime water.
I do make an effort to eat something green every day, but that’s a struggle, unless I make a smoothie and throw it in with the berries and cream.
Turns out that you need fat to make good HDL. Lard without additives is not bad for you and has a protective effect on the liver, but since I don’t make pie crust or biscuits, I don’t need to use lard. I do use coconut oil for stir fry sometimes or ghee.
It also turns out that you need vitamin K2 to prevent calcium buildup in the arteries and to get it to your bones. What are the sources of that? Egg yolks, butter from grass fed cows, and cheese - especially gouda. So I eat plenty of cheese, butter, and drink whole milk.
I am eating better too - I grow food - that’s bargain basement organic, and I buy organic when the store has it-avoid the pesticides etc.
I have often made the statement that the USDA food pyramid made no sense to me, based on the nutrition that I was taught in high school home economics. After all, when you want to fatten up the cows, you feed them grains.
But only after I started to read the “real” research that has been done, did I realize how accurate that observation was! The other thing was breakfast - always hated it. Was never hungry when I got up, and didn’t get hungry unless I ate.
So the research, once again, shows that if you are not hungry just don’t eat - it helps to repair your insulin receptors so that you become less insulin resistant. Your body will then produce less insulin.
Insulin is a powerful hormone that causes hunger and weight gain. So now you have it - my new plan of eating healthy. LOL
I told my docs that I wasn’t following the “guidelines” anymore, and they both said whatever you are doing - keep it up.