Part 1 of 2: What Do You Think You Know About LDL Cholesterol? (Part One) | Free The Animal
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So, you want to reduce your LDL like a good soldier? Then increase your triglycerides dramatically. All else remaining equal, each 5-point increase in Trigs gets you a point off your LDL. Increase Trigs by 100 (easy to do with grains, sugar, and other refined carbs) and you can lower your LDL by 20.
So what are triglycerides? Most simply, fat circulating in your blood. Government recommendations are for a level of 150 and below. Mine are 47, and what you might not know about high-fat (and consequently low-carb) dieters is that they all have pretty low triglycerides (in the 50-80 area). Those who eat lots of grains and sugars in the form of bread, pasta, rice, processed foods, sweetened sodas, and, yes, fruit juices: you'll see triglyceride (fat circulating in blood) levels of 200 and on up, sometimes way up. 300-400 and above are not uncommon. Alright, so, eat lots of natural fat (from animals, coconut, and olives) in order to reduce your sugar intake (carbohydrate) and you'll dramatically reduce your triglycerides; eat low fat with lots of sugar (carbohydrate — yes; bread and pasta is, essentially: sugar), raise the fat levels in your blood, and potentially lower your LDL.
Part 2 of 2: What Do You Think You Know About LDL Cholesterol? (Pt 2 of 2) | Free The Animal
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So, what's your LDL? Unless you've actually had it measured, you do not know. Neither does your doctor. Are you on medications or dietary prescriptions as a result of the fiction that you believe is your LDL? And how about particle size? Large & fluffy are actually good, while small and dense are very bad. You might have a low LDL, but with a high percentage of small and dense particles, and you could be at 6 or 10 times the risk as someone with an LDL of 250, but 99% large & fluffy. Don't be fooled by your doctor, HMO, hospital, or the drug companies.
And guess what will reduce your small and dense LDL every time? You guessed it: get off the grains, (particularly wheat), sugar, processed foods, processed vegetable oils; and take omega 3s and vitamin d to get your levels above 60.
How do you find out what your LDL actually is? Dr Davis says, "Our preferred method is NMR (LipoScience) LDL particle number, probably the most accurate of all. Second best: apoprotein B, direct measured LDL, and non-HDL.
