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. [log in to unmask]