Early Retirement Extreme Forums

enigmaT120 wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:53 am

...my HDL has always been low like that, once under 40 ... lower
in saturated fats.."

eating saturated fats raises HDL

sl-owl-orris wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 22, 2017 1:55 pm

TG 45 mg/dl

wow, that's by far the lowest TG brute has ever heard of. the healthy level seems to be <150mg/DL, so sl-owl-orris is < 1/3 of the healthiest limit.

Toska2 wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:34 am

Once one concerns themselves not to eat crap, the gains plateau.

while a popular sentiment, brute's experience is contrary to this idea. the whole idea of "clean eating", "non-processed food" or "eating real food" is a red herring, a bit like veganism.

while it's certainly possible to eat a healthy non-crap or vegan diet, the ideas are orthogonal to the actual impact of the diet. sugar, HFCS, hydrogenated vegetable oils/trans fats are all vegan. sugar can be very "unprocessed". lots of unprocessed food can still have very negative effects on metabolism and fat accumulation.

so for any number humans that undertake one of these red herring diets, a few will (by chance?) happen to pick a subset that actually works great. others will pick a subset that does not lead to the desired outcomes.

brute doesn't think "processing" necessarily adds negative value to food, and "unprocessed" doesn't add blank positive value. brute would rather eat "processed" (what does that even mean?) meat and animal fats than "unprocessed" fruit or grain, due to impact on metabolism.

while processing can certainly affect the health impact of foods, brute would not subscribe to the idea that more processing is always worse, or that a less processed food item is always less healthy than a more processed one.

+1 to Brute

"Processed" food is a vague term for a lot of different types of food prep. Some processing includes cooking, roasting, pasteurizing(heating to kill bacteria), freezing, canning, pureeing, grinding or milling grain, adding preservatives, adding sugar/"flavors", or "fortifying" with vitamins. Adding fillers to food is another common type of processing. Did you know ground beef and hamburger patties are often mostly soy? Its cheaper protein than animal meat, and most people don't mind the taste difference.

Some conceivable ways pre processed foods are bad for you include the fact that non-fresh food changes chemically over time, even when frozen or aseptically canned. Probably more important is the fact that some processing (including cooking and grinding of wheat flour) makes more calories available for digestion with less energy input from your body. More calories for less work => obesity. Hence the raw food diet.

Avoiding processed food is a reasonably good heuristic for health, but misses a lot of important nuance. Same thing for veganism. All things equal, a SAD dieter switching to veganism will probably get healthier. But if you're cooking with vegetable oil and eating lots of carbs, you could conceivably be getting worse.

I think "processed" in the sense of this thread refers to bottom of the barrel stuff like TV Dinners, candy bars, Cool Ranch Doritos, etc. Not your standard 80/20 ground beef you find at the supermarket.

So, if forced to pick one set of foods for a month, I think even Brute would choose steel cut oats and fresh fruit as opposed to Slim Jims and Spam.

Of course, eating to your phenotype and conducting n=1 experiments is always going to be the best way to go. If you thrive on Slim Jims and Spam, no one should tell you otherwise.

ThisDinosaur wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:02 am

if you're cooking with vegetable oil and eating lots of carbs, you could conceivably be getting worse.

Many people thrive on high carb diets. I agree with what you're saying for the most part, but just want to emphasize that you can't demonize an entire macronutrient.

Smashter wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:05 am

So, if forced to pick one set of foods for a month, I think even Brute would choose steel cut oats and fresh fruit as opposed to Slim Jims and Spam.

negative.

@Smashter. I'm not demonizing carbs. I'm demonizing too much of any one thing. Notice I said "lots."

ThisDinosaur wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 23, 2017 9:24 am

@Smashter. I'm not demonizing carbs. I'm demonizing too much of any one thing. Notice I said "lots."

"lots" isn't that much for the majority of humans that aren't physical laborers. if humans are pre-diabetic or fat, it's highly likely caused by chronically overeating carbs vs. their own personal tolerance. that would include the majority of westerners.

BRUTE wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:48 am

Smashter wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:05 am

So, if forced to pick one set of foods for a month, I think even Brute would choose steel cut oats and fresh fruit as opposed to Slim Jims and Spam.

negative.

Brute as a Leprachaun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiylnBNwKac

Love the Second City deep cut! Dragline is a comedy nerd? Might need to start a new thread to share favorite sketches

I like Spam. I had a little can about 40 miles into a longer bike ride, as a break, and it was great. I haven't eaten any since though. I just never think about it.

Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, garnished with truffle pâté, brandy and a fried egg on top, and Spam.

I'm back down to 1.19 on the tris/HDL ratio. That intermittent fasting and MCT oil must be doing something.

Anyone care to post their entire set of numbers?

Got my results today:

Total Cholesterol - 289
Triglyc - 67
HDL - 102
LDL - 174
Total chol/hdl - 2.8
Trig/hdl - 0.67

Mostly low carb but since I've been a nomad Las couple of years, some junk food/wine and carby goodies have been consumed more than I would like. No specific exercise regimen except long walks.

Also A1C - 5.4

Low carb has so far saved me from becoming a type 2. Runs on maternal side. Hoping to avoid it.

did the doc say anything about close to 300 total? brute once had a doc freak out, turned out he knew nothing about cholesterol. brute had mistakenly assumed him to be a real doctor. it must have been the lab coat.

Docs always give me grief about that. It doesn't bother me.

However, I do wonder if there is a way to bring down my LDL and triglycerides while keeping a high HDL. Maybe I will experiment later this year when my travels overseas will automatically force some change in diet and activity.

But then, I do cook everything in butter.

Freedom_2018 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:23 pm

Anyone care to post their entire set of numbers?

Got my results today:

Total Cholesterol - 289
Triglyc - 67
HDL - 102
LDL - 174
Total chol/hdl - 2.8
Trig/hdl - 0.67

Mostly low carb but since I've been a nomad Las couple of years, some junk food/wine and carby goodies have been consumed more than I would like. No specific exercise regimen except long walks.

As of end of July, mine were:

Triglyc: 92
HDL: 77
LDL: 118
Total: 213
Chol/HDL: 2.77
Trig/HDL: 1.19

I was pleased that my serum glucose had dropped from the 90s to 84 and that there were ketones in the urine. Less pleased that I need to lose 10 lbs. I also blame the wine.

Freedom_2018 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 08, 2017 8:34 am

However, I do wonder if there is a way to bring down my LDL and triglycerides while keeping a high HDL.

LDL is typically calculated using a formula. it should say on the results sheet if the value was calculated or measured directly. the formulas are often completely off for low-carb/keto diets, meaning that a calculated LDL will be far too high and meaningless.

trigs of 67 look great. in which case there wouldn't be anything to fix.