Question
Ruth Ho
I started into FOK plant based eating a few months ago. About a month into it, I had bloodwork done (90-day re-check) and my cholesterol numbers had actually gone up! What should I be aware of?
Answer
Are you doing the oil free are you doing coconut? Coconut oil is a big. You know reason for not seeing an improvement in your cholesterol levels. But if you're doing Forks Over Knives, that is a no oil low-fat version. Are you eating here's other ways you can actually improve your cholesterol levels. So I'd love to see your diet again, like these are not as simple and cut and dry as it always seems because we're talking generally speaking. But sometimes there's you know, maybe you have hyperclusterolemia in your family and you're fighting against it. So if you haven't seen any Improvement, I'd love to know what what your history has been and what you're eating. So how do we lower cholesterol levels fiber fiber fiber is the most important thing there are certain foods that have been associated with lowering cholesterol profile. So Fido sterile, so making sure you're getting the one to two ounces of nuts and seeds a day that will help you soy foods have been shown to lower cholesterol levels exercise is important for raising up the HDL. It's one of the only ways we increase HDL naturally without medications. Which when you have a increase HDL that will lower your LDL and your overall cholesterol. So foods, like nuts and seeds soy products the other things that's been shown to lower cholesterol is flaxseed. So eating about one to two tablespoons of ground flaxseeds a day where you can grind them up into a smoothie or whatever just make sure they're ground because you're not gonna absorb them if you consume them whole but that's been shown to lower cholesterol as well. And just making sure I just app amp up that fiber and where do we get the fiber of course plants, but nuts and seeds are good sources vegetables fruits fruits are really good for the cardiovascular function. I would love to see your overall diet. But those are some little tips that if you haven't heard, you know to try to incorporate into what you're already doing, you should see a result. And you said it was a 90 day reject. The other thing is if you have a familial tendency, you may just take a little bit longer. So just don't give up, you know, this is it will get better and try to tweak your diet and again reach out to me plant-based dietitian.com/contact and Doll, let me know what your diet looks like. I'd love to know what's going on and your exercise. So those are two things to really consider with respect to lowering cholesterol, but you should see a difference. There are a very small percentage of population. I think it's I think it's 1% It might be less than 1% where there's severe familial hypercholesterolemia. It's really hard to get it down all the way some people in those cases may require medication, but I don't know how severe yours is. I don't know what your diet looks like, but I would love to help you.
