On Thu, 5 Nov 1998, Rathy Grimes wrote:
>
> So is there any conclusive evidence that a high blood
> cholesterol level is bad news? Is it common among
> low-carb dieters? I have been eating a large amount of
> raw red meat and eggs for about 7 months and my
> cholesterol has just been found at 279 (which is
> apparently unusual for someone in their 20s.)
>
> My doctor wants me to adopt a mainstream
> low-saturated-fat diet, and I'm not sure how I could
> do this and still avoid grain... Does anyone have any
> advice?

For younger people, the correlation between heart disease and
cholesterol
is positive and statistically significant (after age 70, it disappears
and
can even become negative).  I would take this reading very seriously.
People on traditonal diets, including hunter-gather diets, have low
rates
of heart disease and cancer, and they also have low BPs and low total
cholesterols.  Don Wiss's telling you to check your total/hdl ratio
was
good advice, but I would be surprised if your hdl was above the low-
to
mid-40s, which would make your ratio quite bad (total cholesterol and
total/hdl ratio correlate positively very strongly).  The signficance
of a
high cholesterol level also depends upon your blood pressure and
whether
you smoke.  If you don't smoke and have low blood pressure (<130/<85),
then your total cholesterol level is less important.  Anyway, you can
eat
paleo and still have a good blood lipid profile:  eat lean meats, eat
any
kind of fish (fish fat tends not to be saturated and it is saturated
fat
that drives up your cholesterol), eat plenty of vegetables, don't be
afraid of fruits and nuts, use canola/olive/flax oil (if you use
any oil at all), and exercise (exercise increases hdl levels, thus
bringing about a more favorable total/hdl ratio . . . which, by the
way should be under 4).  You should monitor your lipid profile until
you
get it right (= low total cholesterol, high hdl, low tot/hdl ratio,
low
triglycerides), as well as your blood pressure, your heart rate, your
percent body fat (all of which you want low), and how you feel
overall.
This, of course, is prudent advice for anyone starting any new diet or
exercise regimen.  The worse thing you can do is to ignore your health
numbers (cholesterol level et al) or to take too seriously the
discussions
on this list regarding the Innuit or Staffanson's all-meat diet
experiment.

As an aside, calorie restriction also has favorable effects on blood
lipids, BP, and body fat, and I agree with James Crocker that the
paleo
and calorie-restriction approaches can be melded together nicely.  The
low
insulin levels and high nutritional density obtained by the paleo
appoach
keep hunger levels in check and can lead to less overall consumption--
and
in and of itself, low consumption can produce favorable effects.

Gregg C.
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