Kodiak wrote:Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement. Dad came home this afternoon and is doing just fine. His only complaint is that the doc told him to leave off the peanut butter
He loves his peanutbutter! but he says that is a small price to pay for many more years here.
Thanks again Ron Whiting
The types of fats in nuts are among very best for you, but, regrettably, any fat in excess is not such a good thing when you're dealing with heart disease.
I, too am a peanut butter addict, and I find the best way to deal with it is not to have it in the house at all, until the cravings get the best of me, then I ask for a small jar, and eat it in a day or so. If I see it looking back at me out of the cupboard, it kinda gets the best of me....
If one is serious about boosting their good cholesterol, whole grain oat foods, fish, and olive oil are the only way to go.
I have done experiments with my own blood chemistry and diet, and found that consuming "all you want" of these three foods does dramatically increase the "good" cholesterol. Nothing I have found seems to help with the "bad" cholesterol, in terms of diet alone, however.
There is a prevailing theory in medicine now that "bad" cholesterols are created by the body, out of excess blood sugar and triglycerides, and have nothing to do with diet whatsoever, but rather everything to do with metabolic disorders.
There have been recent studies which support this as well, where groups of people ate all the eggs or dairy that they wanted to, as opposed to the control group, which ate none of the eggs or dairy. There was no significant difference in blood cholesterol or triglyceride levels between the two groups. These studies have been repeated inumerable times in the last several years.
This is by no means a license to live upon a diet of eggs fried in butter, but illustrates how persistent medical myths can be, even among the most knowledgeable physicians.
Ron, you should work with your dad to help understand his blood lipid numbers, and try to develop your own "tricks" as far as what helps and what does not. I have seen people follow "low cholesterol diets" and end up with higher cholesterol levels than before, because of persistent myths like these. I'm sure you can make changes that will help. Just don't be lured into making changes for the worse, just because the person suggesting them wears a white coat.
All my best,
Tom