Keith’s High Cholesterol

This is Keith. Keith has high cholesterol. He likes to eat anything breaded, battered, buttered, basted, baked, creamy, smothered, savory, dipped, rich and fried. He also thinks that fudge and Oreo cookies are a suitable after – meal dessert. Everybody at Keith’s job is worried about him, the only thing is, he’s not really worried too much about himself. They try to steal all of his goodies and he just locks the door to his office so nobody can get to his stash.

Here’s how Keith ranks with his cholesterol numbers. The numbers on the left represent when he was 26, the numbers on the right are present day, at age 33:

HDL: 32 63

LDL: 180 199

Overall: 295 288

Pretty bad, huh….What can Keith do to lower his cholesterol so he doesn’t die of a stroke or a massive heart attack at age 42? Let’s start with diet.

What Keith pretty much likes to eat, and what he should seriously limit is whole milk, cream, ice cream, butter, egg yokes, cheese, bakery goods made with yokes and saturated fat, anything with saturated oils, high – fat processed meats (sausage, bologna, hot dogs…), fatty red meats, solid fats like shortening, soft margerine and lard and fried foods. All of these things are very high in cholesterol as well as fat.

What Keith should be eating is a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, high – fiber foods, lean meats and poultry, fish at least twice a week, fat – free or 1% milk and dairy products, beans, peas, nuts and seeds (in limited amounts) and unsaturated vegetable oils.

Overall, the AHA recommends that your total daily intake should look like this:

total fat: 25 – 35%

saturated fat: less than 7%

trans fat: less than 1%

Keith should also start an exercise regimen. He says he runs now. Running is good, but running by itself won’t lower cholesterol. Besides, with the way it looks, Keith intakes more calories than he burns by running. He should step up the running along with a strength training program to build muscle. Remember that muscle burns fat. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. The way to increase muscle is by strength training. Strength training will help you burn the fat away and also help you keep it off.

Let’s hope that Keith gets his act together. Everybody at work is worried about you and wants you to live a long happy life. Good luck, Keith!