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Lipid profile of a lacto-ovo


mccoy

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Since my diet is fat-based (about 60% in energy), and since I'm hearing from many directions (including this forum) cautions against animal fats consumption, this morning I had my finger pricked and had a lipid profile done. The profile turns out to be regular, values in the ideal ranges. I also used the online CVD calculators and my ASCVD risk is 2.7% in 10 years, whatever it means. It appears to be all right though. These the results (fasting values) in mg/dl:

 

Glucose: 86

Total cholesterol: 153

HDL : 59

Triglycerides: <70

LDL : 80

 

Evidently, full fat dairy products if eaten in moderate quantities, by a not-overweight person who ingests lots of phytochemicals, are not damaging. Also, probably there is not any genetic drawbacks. 

Also, since I've diligently recorded on Cronometer all my meals, I can average the characteristics of the ingested lipids in the latest ten days. About 40% of the saturated fats ingested are of animal origin, otherwise they are from plant-based foods. Omega3/6 ratio is on average 1/6 or 1/7. I ate about one egg per day lately, although I'm decreasing this amount. MUFAs are high probably because of my intake of EVOO.

 

MEDIAN VALUES latest 10 days, in grams

 

Total lipids: 124

MUFA: 63

PUFA: 19

SAFA: 36

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Since my diet is fat-based (about 60% in energy), and since I'm hearing from many directions (including this forum) cautions against animal fats consumption, this morning I had my finger pricked and had a lipid profile done. The profile turns out to be regular, values in the ideal ranges. I also used the online CVD calculators and my ASCVD risk is 2.7% in 10 years, whatever it means. It appears to be all right though. These the results (fasting values) in mg/dl:

 

Glucose: 86

Total cholesterol: 153

HDL : 59

Triglycerides: <70

LDL : 80

 

Evidently, full fat dairy products if eaten in moderate quantities, by a not-overweight person who ingests lots of phytochemicals, are not damaging. Also, probably there is not any genetic drawbacks. 

Also, since I've diligently recorded on Cronometer all my meals, I can average the characteristics of the ingested lipids in the latest ten days. About 40% of the saturated fats ingested are of animal origin, otherwise they are from plant-based foods. Omega3/6 ratio is on average 1/6 or 1/7. I ate about one egg per day lately, although I'm decreasing this amount. MUFAs are high probably because of my intake of EVOO.

 

MEDIAN VALUES latest 10 days, in grams

 

Total lipids: 124

MUFA: 63

PUFA: 19

SAFA: 36

 

 

Even if you are able to obtain great lipids with animal products, they would likely be better without.  Have you ever had your IGF-1 and IGF1BP checked? Remember, longevity benefits in mice are NOT experienced when they have too much protein, even in the presence of CR.

 

Personally I don't costume any animal products and have a total cholesterol of 129.  The evidence for consuming minimal or zero animal products is overwhelming. 

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drewab, remaining in-topic with the lipids issue, 

 

....

 

Personally I don't costume any animal products and have a total cholesterol of 129.  The evidence for consuming minimal or zero animal products is overwhelming. 

 

 

Of course this is not a lipids-contest although it would be fun to organize one, I don't know what's the optimum total cholesterol by the way, too low might not be good as far as I know. Also, I'll make it clear that I have no stance on animal versus 100% plant-based diets, that is, results rule in my opinion. And results are often related to individual diversities. A vegan diet has many benefits if done in a reasoned and scientific way as the members of this forum are evidently doing. No doubt about it. I'm a supporter of vegan diet although there is the strong issue of B12, which would suggest that a 100% plant-based diet is not natural for homo sapiens. That's a fact. A diet which needs supplementation cannot be natural. Maybe a different thread can be opened on this, if desired, because this is off-topic.

 

I eat a lot of fats, mainly because I eat a lot of EVOO and dark chocolate and nuts, besides yogurt and moderate cheese. A significant amount of these is saturated fats. Which are mainly of vegetable origin. Today I ate 22 grams of saturated fats, only 7 grams of them is animal, about 30%. Maybe that's a reason why my lipid profile is good, animal saturated fats are not prevalent. When people speak about  the risks of 'saturated fats' it is not always clear whether that includes vegetable saturated fats. If so, then in my n=1 sample 20% energy from saturated fats (animal+vegetal) does not appear to contribute to CVD hazard. But I've been for 40 years a vegetarian and health buff and that may contribute.

 

The IGF-1 issue is also off-topic, and a long one to discuss here. I never had my IGF-1 and IGF1BP checked, that would be interesting as well, to check them after a lacto-ovo period and again after a totally vegan period. My problem with this experimentation is that, admittedly stupidly, I just hate to have my arm pricked by needles. My last arm-prick was about 10 years ago, or 15, I just forgot about it. I can barely stand finger-pricks. 

 

How much is too much protein? Minimum requirement (zero nitrogen balance) + 10% or a little more? How much more? Hopefully not less, by definition of 'too much protein' and 'minimum protein requirement'.

I started another thread on protein restriction where no one expressed a precise opinion on locating ourselves onto the requirement distribution. Where would you put your individual minimum protein requirement in the following histogram, which represents the accepted probability distribution function for protein minimum requirement in people with a mixed diet and no weight anomalies? Let's remember, too much protein depends on individual cases, my 'too much' might be too little for another person, what upregulates IGF-1 to me might downregulate it for another. The ballpark rule is to multiply nitrogen mg/kg/d by 6.25 to obtain grams/kg/d of protein. Modal (most frequent) value is about 0.63 g/kg/d. To remain IT, we should discuss this in the other thread.

 

https://www.crsociety.org/topic/11889-caloric-or-proteic-restriction/

 

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I'm just wondering about the low TRIg values. i should have pretty high values beause of the high amounts of fat I eat.

I'm not on medications but I might have some hyperthiroidism. I do not know.

Unless Dr William Davis is right, saying that dietary fats do not contribute to blood TRIGs levels.

 

 

Triglycerides originate mostly from abdominal fat, followed by contributions from carbohydrate intake. Consuming dietary oils and fats does not contribute to excess triglycerides. While these oils and fats aremade of triglycerides, they do not usually contribute to triglyceride blood levels. The triglycerides that come from fat stores and from liver conversion of carbohydrates to triglycerides outstrip our intake of triglycerides through oils and fats by a long stretch.

 

 

Anyway, <70 is low but may not be anomalous, unless it's actually <20-30.

Unfortunately that was apparently the detection threshold in the used method.

 

That also entails a mistake the lab guys did in the calculation of LDL.

 

Since the Friedewald et al., 1972 formula approximates VDL as TRIG/5, and TRIG<70, 

 

LDL= total cholesterol-(HDL+TRIG/5)

 

hence the correct result in my case would be, since TRIG may range according to the analysis from zero to 69: 

 

80<LDL<94

 

or

 

80<LDL<90, assuming TRIGS > 20 mg/dL, that is ruling out extremely low TRIGs.

 

Ideal LDL is <100 so still good.

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So exciting. I love sour cream. Limit to buttermilk kefir or full fat yogurt on advice of nutritionist now. Five days a week. Cronometer says I still need more calcium. McCoy can I ask what your go to food is when you need to gain weight? I know you detailed in other posts your daily meals. Thanks.

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Hi Paula, I love fresh whipping cream, especially when sweetened with honey and spiked with cocoa powder! Luckily I'm not a hungry man so I don't even taste it lest there is no room left to other more nourishing food.

 

Weight gaining when on a longevity regime is tricky, since the easiest way would be to do all the opposite the science of CR preaches. The least we could expect would be to be banned by this forum.

 

My favourite food when having to gain weight now is full fat yogurt and hi quality cheese like emmentaler or parmesan. These are sources of digestible, leucine-rich proteins. Since we are heading off topic, I'm going to open another thread on the details of my attempts at weight gaining while still restricting proteins, pls refer to:

 

https://www.crsociety.org/topic/11905-weight-gaining-while-on-cr/

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Fair enough point that it's not a lipid contest and fair enough point that results rule opinion - I wish more people out there took this stance - yet most people are completely apathetic when it comes to taking personal responsibility for their health. They would rather leave it up to doctors at their annual physicals, yet what you do on the 364 days in between your physical is far more likely to matter.

 

Because of the B-12 issue, you are correct in that it seems likely that humans have a small requirement for the vitamin. Actually, Thomas Campbell of the China Study made an interesting post in which he acknowledged this to likely be the case:

 

http://nutritionstudies.org/12-questions-answered-regarding-vitamin-b12/

 

Unfortunately, I suspect the animal products we consume to be very different than that of our ancestors who likely got their b-12 from insects, unwashed produce, stream water, and wild game meat.  

 

I find your approach somewhat interesting in that it seems one would likely be able to maintain a higher BMI, and possibly higher testosterone levels.  Given that you have been a 40 year health buff, that puts you in different shoes than others.  I'm only 31 but have experienced a number of health problems, though have now been on a mild CR/plant based diet for about 5.5 years (see this thread).  I cannot in any way, shape, or form, afford to risk coronary artery disease on top of valve disease. So, I opt for the only diet proven to arrest and reverse coronary artery disease - a 100% WFPB diet.  When I spoke with Dr. Essylstyn on the phone, he mentioned that the patients he has treated for CAD who also needed valves replaced, that they did very well, but that there isn't any published data on this issue specifically. 
 

You are right that the effects of saturated plant fat is unclear.  I really wish we had more information here - cocoa/dark chocolate/coconuts are incredible tasting plants. 

 

Personally, I keep protein at around 10-12% of calories, but that's just where it lands, rather than a conscious effort. This helps me hold a BMI of 20.7. 

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drewab, I find Dr. Campbell's arguments pretty reasonable. His conclusions are also sensible. Veganism may be a choice suggested by ethical or health reasons or both. In your case your choice appears to be absolutely the best, given your medical history. Interesting one, definitely. I know about the Ornish and the Esseltstyn diets, as we concur results speak for themselves.

 

I was luckier, since at 16 I decided my diet and lifestyle were crappy, changed them almost overnight and enjoyed a very long stint with no illness at all, compared to many mild illnesses I had before. 

 

I tried veganism twice but in 1979 in Italy there was not much info about it. People still believed that B12 was contained in yeast and to tell the truth I did not worry much about macro and micronutrients. I ended up loosing weight and appetite, so I resumed eating dairy products. I later tried raw veganism but it was just disastrous. Actually, unless it is practiced in a very scientific way similar to how Dean reports here, most cases of raw veganism end up pretty badly. Gandhi in his autobiography describes how he nearly died after following a fruitarian diet (fruits and nuts) and recovered only by drinking goat's milk.

 

Today it would be different, there are so many soy products some of which pretty palatable, but I have no reason nor much will to be a 100% vegan, I try to eat organic dairy products from cows treated 'humanly'. Also, my ancestral diet most probably contained such products, since I'm attracted by them. At times though I only consume plant-based food, when I'm little hungry or when instinct dictates.

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I really wish we had more information here - cocoa/dark chocolate/coconuts are incredible tasting plants.

 

There is a lot of "information" but it would be nice if there were more high quality studies, considering how much disagreement there is.  I've recently stopped using high pufa oils, replacing them with organic unrefined coconut oil and more evoo - at least I think it is evoo as it appears evoo is commonly adulterated.  And I often use undutched cocoa in combination with the coconut oil.  By every biomarker my heart health appears to be improving but only time will tell...

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  • 2 years later...

Interesting to observe that I've experimented with a 99% vegan diet for 1.5 years, then went back to a lacto-vegetarian diet but with more room given to soy products and less to dairy products, which are predominantly fat-free.

My choice to reintroduce dairy products (mainly zero fat greek yougurt and cottage cheese) is practicality, digestibility, budget and the fact that I'm still lifting weight and increasing the loads and I don't liek much those vegan protein powders

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