The FastDay Forum

Anyone tried daily plant sterol yogurt drinks to drop cholesterol? I bought some Benecol fruity ones today as I've got a follow up blood test in June after getting 7.4 recently and wanted something to help.

I tried these, then realised you can buy plant sterol capsules which are supposed to be just as effective as the yogurt drinks, but cheaper and (crucially!) don't use up a big chunk of your day's calories!

[carorees]

This article explains (with refs to source materials) a lot of what you need to know about cholesterol. https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/ ... t-idm-4-2/
The last paragraph is especially important (numbers in brackets are to the relevant studies):

When your doctor checks your serum cholesterol levels the lab reports it by weight. When your serum cholesterol level is high, this means in a given measure of blood volume the total number of cholesterol-carrying lipoprotein particles weigh more (9). This could mean one of two things: you have more particles or the particles weigh more because they are carrying more cholesterol. Large LDL particles that weigh more (carrying more cholesterol) are actually very safe. Small, dense LDL particles are the pesky ones (carrying less cholesterol) that can increase your risk heart disease. This is because these particles are more susceptible to oxidation, thus, triggering an unwanted inflammatory response. These smaller LDL particles are often found in processed and refined carbohydrates. Diets high in these carbohydrates and in the presence of excess insulin are responsible for the production of the small, dense LDL particles. Diets rich in natural fats and moderate protein with low carbohydrate intake result in normal LDL levels (2). The only way to avoid these small LDL particles is to eliminate your consumption of refined and processed carbohydrates.

And you should also remember:

[The large Framingham Heart Study] ...found cardiovascular related mortality rates to be much lower in individuals with high serum cholesterol levels, and much higher in those with low serum cholesterol levels (5). Unfortunately, these results were never published because researcher could not believe the findings at the time (6).

And here is an article that explains more about cholesterol and how fasting can help reduce heart disease risk here: https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/ ... asting-16/

From my readings, the most useful value to take away from a blood lipid panel is the ratio of HDL to triglycerides. In the article quoted by @ADFnFuel the woman who was stopped from taking coconut oil showed a worse TG to HDL ratio after stopping the oil.
For a much more accurate measure of heart risk you need your arterial calcium score which goes straight to the "heart" of the problem by revealing the state of your arteries rather than guessing based on irrelevant cholesterol tests. But this is a test not available to most.
Rather than looking at cholesterol and in view of the effect of glycation of cholesterol particles in increasing risk (as explained in the article above), the most relevant blood tests you can take is your HbA1c and your fasting insulin level. High HbA1c suggests your cholesterol particles are being glycated and therefore are being made more atherogenic. High fasting insulin shows that you are on the path to developing diabetes which is associated with a 3x increase in risk of heart disease. If you also have high fasting blood glucose then you need to take rapid action to lower insulin through fasting and low carb.

Finally, there is more and more data showing that statins are of little benefit to most people and actually are likely to harm many because of the increased risk of developing diabetes when taking a statin and also the high risk of muscle problems and mental problems. Cholesterol is an essential part of our bodies and without it we get sick.