(pre-article to: Answer Day: What Causes High LDL on Low-Carb Paleo? | Perfect Health Diet)
Here’s the puzzle. Someone adopts a low-carb Paleo diet. Very healthy diet, right? But their LDL cholesterol level starts to rise. And rise. And rise.
Larry Eshelman emailed me last December with this problem. His LDL history:
(SI system readers, convert to mmol/l by dividing by 38.67.)
- 103 mg/dl (1990-2002, eating a low fat diet)
- 115 mg/dl (2002-2007, eating a low carb diet)
- 195 mg/dl (2007-2009, after reading Gary Taubes and adding saturated fat)
- 254 mg/dl (Dec 2009, very low-carb Paleo for 5 weeks)
- 295 mg/dl (Jun 2010, very low-carb Paleo for 7 months)
A common problem
This is not a terribly uncommon problem in the Paleo community; it afflicts famous and brilliant bloggers as well as ordinary folks. It’s been discussed by Richard Nikoley in several posts:
