Thanks to all of you who asked about my friend’s bypass. He’s doing well, according to the VA doctor who saw him about two weeks after surgery. He celebrated with a milkshake and a bag of chips. Good grief!
Even so, it’s a procedure he’s hoping not to need again. Whether this translates to a significant lifestyle change remains to be seen. He’s making an attempt at purging his diet of cholesterol, saturated fat and trans fat. In simple terms, this means ditching butter, whipped cream, cheese and all whole fat dairy products. For a boy from Wisconsin, this is sacrilege.
It would also be a good idea to avoid most marbled meat, ground meats, sausage and the stuff nobody in their right mind even wants to know what’s inside. Also egg yolks, poultry skin and shell fish. He thinks that doesn’t leave much.
But it gets more complicated than that, if you’re willing to do the math and read the labels on everything. And labels are notoriously unreliable because trans fats are not necessarily included. If a product label says it contains partially hydrogenated oil, basically any product that turns oil into a solid or semisolid mass, leave it on the shelf.
And it gets way more complicated when sodium is an issue. That’s because the makers of low fat food products usually add buckets of salt to make up for the missing flavor of fat. My friend must forget canned soups, canned vegetables, processed meats, sauces and most frozen meals. And stay very far away from fast food outlets and restaurants that serve outrageously large portions.
Even though I ordinarily keep to a healthful diet (lots of organic fruits and veggies, low fat dairy, poached or baked fish), my cholesterol level skyrocketed after a six-week holiday feeding frenzy.
Desperate to rid my arteries of all that gunk, I did just about everything I ever heard of. My lipid profile two months later showed a big improvement, but room for a little more. Total cholesterol dropped 30 (with another 25 to go), LDL (bad) was 148 (should be under 130), HDL (good) was 62 (over 45 is good) and triglyceride (bad) level was 98, just under the 100 target.
My friend is getting no help from his doctors, who say he needs to consult a nutritionist.
He keeps saying if it took 65 years for his arteries to get clogged, why won’t it take another 40 or so for them to get blocked again. He’s been told it doesn’t work that way, but he wants to know why and nobody is explaining it to him.
I can’t even find out from my own doctors how long it takes to lower my cholesterol staying on the same diet. Is there a quick change and then a plateau? Will I have to give up even Starbucks Low Fat Latte? Dr. Andrew Weil says an occasional indulgence does no harm. Tiramisu? Chocolate clair? Cheesecake?
My friend needs to change a lifetime of bad eating habits into some sort of healthful regimen, but it may take aversion response training. Picturing ice cream as frozen lard.
Maybe it will help to concentrate on the good food he can eat. Fresh strawberries with nonfat vanilla yogurt. And healthier substitutes for his usual fare. So far, he likes Take Control (which contains plant stanol esthers to whisk away artery cloggers) as a substitute for butter or trans fat-laden margarine. Olive oil is even better for dipping crusty French bread, but absolutely doesn’t make it with cinnamon toast or waffles. If he must have cheese, it’ll have to be part skim mozzarella or just a spoonful of Italian cheese (Parmesan or Romano). Walnuts should replace chips for snacks.
Last week, I went shopping for food low in both fat and salt. Not an easy task because labeling laws favor the manufacturer over the health conscious consumer.
A calculator helps. Trying to keep daily intake of total fat to less than 60 grams, saturated fat to 20 and sodium to 2,440 mg is a challenge even for those of us who cook our meals from scratch.
For a hardcore member of this “Fast Food Nation” with no incentive to do the math, there’s a newsletter that can help. Nutrition Action, published (without advertising) by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, gives full nutritional ratings to brand name products and restaurants. For instance, the April issue rated all manner of frozen breakfast stuff. To qualify for “Best Bites,” one serving can have no more than 2 grams of saturated fat and 480 mg of sodium. Each also contains at least 4 grams of fiber from whole grains. This left Van’s Organic Original or Blueberry, Belgian 7 grain, and Lifestream Mesa Sunrise, Soy Plus, Flax Plus or 8 Grain Sesame leading the frozen waffle parade. Uncle Ben’s Breakfast Bowl, 7 Grain Cereal & Fruit the only Best Bite for Breakfast Meals. Arrowhead Mills and Krusteaz Low Fat Oat Bran atop the stack of pancake mixes. No frozen pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, French toast or toaster pastries made the cut. Oops! Trash the Poptarts.
For mall walkers, another issue featured Food Court food, everything from Au Bon Pain, Cinnabon and Mrs. Fields to Jamba Juice, Starbucks, “TCBY” and Haagen Dazs to Panda Express and Schlotsky’s Deli (their Roast Beef & Cheese Specialty Deli sandwich weighed in at a shocking 34 grams of fat, 14 saturated fat and 2,450 mg sodium).
A year’s subscription to Nutrition Action is $24. Mail: CSPI, 1875 Conn. Ave, N.W., Suite 300, Washington, DC 20009 or www.cspinet.org
Bon Appetit.