I am eating instant oatmeal at a motel in Wisconsin, looking out at the pouring rain.*
I have high cholesterol, I found out a few days ago. What an indignity. I never had it before.
Could my plan to EAT MORE RED MEAT last year have anything to do with it?
I looked it up, and, yes.
I started eating more red meat because the butcher on my way biking to work and near the gym I went to during Covid Winter (should that be Covid Winter, 1?), this butcher sells hot, cooked pork chops and beef ribs.
I started buying some every few days.
Except for going out for occasional hamburgers, before that I rarely ate meat.
The meat was good.
Energizing.
You can eat a pork chop while biking!
Of course I knew about cholesterol and diet––Americans can quote chapter and verse about the things that kill us––but since it'd never been a problem, I figured it would keep not being a problem (= Cognitive Bias no. 38).
(Other things too are a problem, like storing extra fat.)
So, it's back to oatmeal. I like oatmeal, but it's no pork chop.
* I am coming back from an emergency visit to auntie. She was in the hospital with a serious infection but was released with a clean bill of health (relative to her age) in time for her 96th birthday on Saturday.
Welcome to the club. My cholesterol is usually high, even though I'm mostly vegetarian. I think it's hereditary. Fortunately no one in my family has heart disease.
ReplyDeleteHooray for Auntie 🎉♥️!
ReplyDeleteInstant oatmeal is no better than pork chops.
ReplyDeleteI also have high cholesterol and think it is hereditary. My ancestors are from the icy north where people needed extra fat for the warmth, so my body produces it just like my great-greats did. I used to not eat much meat at all, so that wasn't the problem, and since then have been told I should eat more protein and more red meat each week. I tried it for a while and did feel better, but the cost of meat has recently skyrocketed.
ReplyDeleteI like oatmeal and have hot porridge for breakfast every day.
STEVE: Ha, thanks for the welcome to a club I'd rather not join... :)
ReplyDeleteGZ: Indeed--auntie is a champ!
JOANNE: I looked it up, and that is incorrect:
Instant oats have all the cholesterol-binding fiber of other oats.
Instant does have a higher glycemic index (because it digest faster), which isn't as good, but it's still way better than pork chops.
At any rate, I only eat instant oatmel in motels---I prefer the chewy texture of whole oats.
RIVER: I am learning a lot about cholesterol.
I wrote an earlier comment that may be wrong, so I deleted it.
At any rate, Harvard says, Only about 20% of cholesterol comes from the foods you eat.
But what you eat can help lower it--like oatmeal,
so I am going to join you for porridge every morning! :)
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/high-cholesterol/cholesterol-in-the-blood