cholesterol down

The good news was that  there were two other risk factors I could do something about—exercise and diet. I exercise regularly, which she told me was a plus, In fact, the Centers for Disease Control say that sedentary living, not high cholesterol, is the leading preventable cause of coronary death in this country—sedentary people have twice as many heart attacks as those who get even mild regular exercise. As for my diet, she said it sounded pretty good, but could be better. Furthermore, my blood pressure was low—another good sign.
Sue is a busy woman, but I kept her on the phone for about half an hour talking mainly about nutrition. We discussed LDL (bad) cholesterol and HDL (good) cholesterol (see “Good vs. Bad Cholesterol” on page 48) Se essentially reinforced what my doctor had told me: Avoid animal fats and anything high in saturated fats, such as palm, palm kernel and coconut oils. Eat lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Okay, I thought, lost 24 point and you’re in the clear. Willpower time.
Although I’d long since weaned myself of the daily meat habit and had found it fairly easy to cutback in general on high-cholesterol foods, eliminating them altogether was going to be difficult. Like most American children, I was raised hooked up to a cow. Cookies and milk were a tradition dating back to nursery school. And when that Good Humor truck bell rang outside on summer nights, a whole brain lobe went ballistic. Chocolate malts had an equally long lineage.
I knew I couldn’t kick dairy products cold turkey. At first I tried skim milk over my cereal and banana, but it was so sad that I stopped. The problem with skim is you can see through it and your eye forewarns your stomach that what is coming is not really milk but dairy plasma. Even 1 percent is opaque by comparison, so I compromised and used it.
Sugar, the nutritional plutonium of the 1970s, is making a comeback these days. I decided I would go for it when the craving for bad food got too strong. The key would be finding sweet, satisfying foods that weren’t overladen with fat.