Health and Fitness, September, 2015

[Ramblinrose]

Harmony... I was reading Woman's World yesterday and saw an article about the connection between thyroid and wheat. Thought of you. The doctor who wrote it is William Davie and he wrote the book The Wheat Belly Diet.

http://www.amazon.com/Wheat-Belly-Lose- ... op?ie=UTF8

The reviews are pretty mixed, but I will say that eliminating wheat had a huge effect on my dogs. Thought I would at least pass this information on to you.

I started my diet bet today. I need to lose 6 lbs in 28 days to win. It is very doable for me. I had planned on dropping another 10lbs during this upcoming month, so I might as well try to win some money while I'm at it.. Win/win situation for me.

Went back to my fitness group on Tue and I am so sore I can hardly move my arms. Guess those particular muscles haven't been worked in a while. Hopefully I will be going to class this evening. Sweetie' car is in the shop so I will have to wait and see if it is done by the time I need to go to class. If not, I have something I can do here at home.

Here is a recipe that came out of the Wheat Belly Diet. I can use it because there is no sugar in it. Looks good and I am going to give it a try.

4 eggs separated 1/2 cup coconut flour 4 tsp lemon juice
1 cup ricotta cheese Sweetener equivalent 1 tsp vanilla
room temperature to 3/4 cup of sugar

Preheat oven to 375*. Grease a 9x9 baking pan. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, beat cheese, flour, sweetener, lemon juice, egg yolks and vanilla until smooth. Gently fold egg whites into cheese mixture until combined. Pour into pan; bake 20 minutes or until edges begin to brown and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool slightly before serving.

In some ways this eating program mirrors my 100 sugar count plan. I also have a recipe for making hamburger buns with no wheat flour, but don't have it in front of me. Its made with almond flour which I can eat.

[Twins' Mom]

((Harmony)) I recall my mother's doc saying that low sodium can cause fatigue. Hope you can get the meds straightened out.

[Nancy]

Rr what does that recipe make?

Back in cleaned up stuff that pruned and raked out if the coop and got it where I want it for now. Taking a hydration break now while I watch my other knitting show.

[Harriet]

Harmony, I'm sure you are confused about the sodium and chloride, and need your dr to properly prescribe for this - his/her responsibility to get that straight, so I don't see how you are supposed to work on it. If there is something to do, I'm sure you will be right on the money with it because you are such a responsible person.

BUT, do remember, as of February 2015, the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Department of Agriculture, has assured us that there is no way to "work on" our dietary cholesterol, nor is there a reason to bother. They are agreeing with what the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology had already reported.

Here's the pertinent quotes from their 2015 dietary guidelines as of now:

"Available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum (blood) cholesterol, consistent with the AHA/ACC (American Heart Association / American College of Cardiology) report. Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption."

That bolding was mine.

Here's an article about it. Also it's at dot gov sites, to read the whole report with charts and such, about all kinds of nutrients and vitamins and foods, etc.

So don't worry. Be happy.

[Harmony]

Thanks Harriet. I will go back and read that report. However, my 1st reaction was this: are they saying this because they are also promoting the use of those cholesterol drugs? Do you trust what they say? That's the work I was referring to, to figure out what / how to eat all over again.

The sodium & chloride thing - well, that can be very very serious. I may have to switch a medicine but I'm hoping not. One thing they do is limit fluid and see if that helps. But probably, it's just a side effect of the med I take and people get switched off that for just this thing all the time. It's called hyponetremia. I may have spelled that incorrectly. It is a low sodium level. A bit lower than mine can cause heart failure, coma, instant death. And it causes fluid imbalance with bad retention. Very serious. Often, adding salt (by the way, you do know sodium and chloride together is exactly what table salt is?) I've never limited my salt intake - so this isn't dietary, it's from the medicine. Although, I did read low sodium can be caused by hypothyroid too. Double whammy for me.

Oh, and if this wasn't enough, my B12 is high. I love my B12 supplement, helps me feel better. Grrr.

So, what would you do if your cholesterol #'s were bad and they wanted to medicate...the only thing I know to do is look at my diet. What else is there? I already take supplements supposed to help this and they aren't helping. If wearing my shoes on the opposite feet would help, I would do that...but... now I'm going back to read your links, thanks!

[Ramblinrose]

I forgot to label my recipe..... It's for cheese cake lol

I am still really sore from my class. Had to take some Tylenol for it and it helped. Drank my water and stayed on plan and I am down1.5 lbs. probably water but I'll take it. Fitness class is at 8 tomorrow morning and I am looking forward to it.

Made Sweetie sauce for pasta and there should be plenty for tomorrow as well. I'm going to eat fish instead. Need to attack my water today. I'm behind and I don't want to be getting up all night long.

[Nancy]

Had an interesting twist on a walk toddlerN wanted to push her stuffed toy in the stroller so we did that for first block of the half mi. Walk today. Some walking was at the local market shopping and doing outside stuff.

[Harriet]

Well, Harmony, I do trust they're (finally) right that cholesterol can't be lowered by omitting high-cholesterol foods, because I've seen various relatives over decades try it and it never worked. Some were perfectionists, and really efficient and determined people and still couldn't make much difference in their cholesterol numbers. I think they were never told what TO eat, and so they had breads and such to make up for it, such as my aunt who would have sweet cinnamon toast at breakfast and say she wished she could have an egg, but the dr said it wasn't healthy. And other similar decisions all day long. Of course, bread just acts like sugar in our systems, causing the liver to make more cholesterol. My aunt would go for blood work and feel bad about herself because she couldn't make the number go down like she "should".

I think it's a shame that now they come out with this, as if it's no big deal, kind of swept under the rug. Something like 4 or 5 decades of being told the wrong thing.

For medications, I assume drs are evaluating on a case by case basis who needs it. I think some doctors would look at my numbers and suggest it to me, but my own gen prac dr knows my family history of high cholesterol numbers with no adverse effects. And of course I don't happen to have had heart disease. Another person would have a completely different story from me.

Knowing things TO eat does seem to make a difference. Studies on beans were mentioned here by LadyM, for instance. Walnuts and other "good fats" make the headlines.

I think there is a disconnect right now and people don't understand just what the problem is with having high cholesterol. There are so many reasons our bodies need cholesterol. Too low cholesterol number is associated with Alzheimer's. So, how high is bad, and why? And now the conventional wisdom has turned and says go ahead and eat high cholesterol foods, there's no concern. It does make your head spin.

If I really felt pressured by my numbers, I would probably dive in further to Dr. Hyman's plan for blood lipid improvement. (already doing some of this with oodles of room for improvement). He says:

1. Cut out or dramatically reduce flour and sugar, because those are the things that turn on the cholesterol factory in your liver.
2. Eat the right fats—avocados, nuts, seeds, coconut butter, olive oil, and fish oil. These are the good fats that help balance your blood sugar, balance your insulin, and correct lipid problems.
3. Have protein for breakfast and at every meal (nuts, seeds, eggs, chicken, fish, grass-fed meats).
4. Exercise.
5. Manage your stress.
6. Take supplements to help balance the whole system. (He says he likes Fish Oil, fiber such as konjac root fiber, red yeast rice, and "plant sterols like phytosterols")

I'd have to look up that plant sterols thing.

I'm sorry the lab is seeing a high B12 and I wish I had a clue about it. The only time HRH had that it was an error, because they took his blood too soon after giving him a B12 shot. I'm sure the dr will want you to stop the supplement if your level has actually gone high. Hopefully that's something that reduces fast anyway, but if not, hoping the dr can figure out whether it means anything.

[Sunny]

Harmony I'm so sorry your blood test numbers came back too high. I really have no constructive advice to give. I will say this...some time ago my cholesterol test came in too high and dr. put me on L ipitor. I took it for about a year and started getting leg cramps at night and when I told the NP she told the dr. and he took me off the rx, that that was a side effect. They told me to take the Red Yeast Rice. My test #s came back even better. One thing the NP said was that it isn't always the cholesterol in foods that cause the #s to be high, it can be hereditary also.

I'm going to bookmark the links to read later, thanks Harriet.

[Harmony]

Sunny, in the heredity department, I think we can both agree that I got everything that never showed up anywhere in our family line before! DDad left us too soon to know these things, but I don't think DMom ever had cholesterol problems, did she?

Harriet, so here I am, can't eat nuts (ah, nuts!) or seeds or I get bowel problems. And there's the probable real culprit here: MANAGE YOUR STRESS. Yeah, I'm doing a horrible horrible job of doing that these days. Sometimes I feel like if I could just break down and have some sort of breakdown and get it all over with ( or a least a really really good cry) and get better...I'd feel more like keepin' on.

I've been taking red yeast rice and fish oil capsules every day, twice a day, with no fail. Fat lot of good that did me. Sunny, you are very lucky it worked for you.

I got a Dr. who kinda pushes the medicine thing. She did say to try the fish oil first.

I feel for all the people like your DAunt, Harriet, who try and try to manage their diets and nothing seems to work. It's so discouraging.

Going to goo gle plant sterols...

Ok, plant sterols (phytosterols) are plant compounds with chemical structures similar to that of cholesterol. High ones: rice bran, wheat germ, corn oils, soybeans. They closely resemble cholesterol so actually block food based cholesterol from being absorbed into the bloodstream, so both end up excreted in waste matter. Other benefits: reduce enlarged prostate, control blood sugar in diabetics, reduce inflammation. Daily use can lower cholesterol 10% - 14%. So there's something else to think about. It comes in supplements of course. The only thing that I'm familiar with is wheat germ (what would I use that in?). Corn oil, always thought that wasn't good for us!

So, RRose, I just saw your post about the wheat / thyroid and read about it. Had to stop and think just how much wheat do I get. Well, not a lot. I quit eating sandwiches for lunch a long long time ago; I get other grains and some wheat but not a lot. Ha, limit wheat - so there goes my wheat germ! See how difficult this is to figure out?