I've been on the fence about going 100% raw. I eat very little meat, very low fat, and yet I have high cholesterol which I've been told is genetic.

Anyone here bring high cholesterol down with eating raw?

have you tried inputting your food into something like fitday (free) ? its amazing how much we think were eating low fat and yet ive found on some days i can eat alot of fat very easily

all fat can cantribute to cholesterol .. even from vegan sources n try fitday for a week an see what your fat is .. i thought i was lowfat and discovered a few years ago that i was up to 50% fat a day lol ..shockaroo

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I was 50-70% raw for a couple of years... didn't lose any weight, my cholesterol didn't go down, and my blood pressure didn't go down. What I was eating that was cooked would be considered high quality for cooked food. (No fast food type stuff.) I wasn't eating any heavily processed food.

Honestly, I have read lots of stories of people who had success at 50% raw and I was frustrated. Then, after a personal trauma... <sigh> unfaithful spouse... and a really hard time emotionally, I started doing 90-100% raw.

In two months, I have lost 25 pounds, my cholesterol is now below "normal," and my blood pressure is slightly below "normal." I put that word in quotation marks because normal = average when it comes to medical science and you have to realize that MOST people eat processed food.

For the first time since I started this journey, I have no cravings for cooked food. I have eaten some, but most days I am 100%. On the days that I have eaten some cooked food it has been because I was hungry and didn't bring any of my own food to work. My well-meaning co-workers often bring in food to share with everyone and I have occasionally been tempted by the less toxic choices among the non-raw food.

I would encourage you to give 100% a try for a week. See how you feel. Keep going if you feel like you can... Don't pressure yourself though.

I don't know why things didn't work out for me with less than 100%. Anyway, now and since I went to this level, I feel better than I have in years. For the first time in years, I have the energy to exercise. I was unable to incorporate that into my lifestyle for about five years due to chronic exhaustion. I had to just stop exercising because I was so wasted all the time.

Keep hanging out and asking questions and reading. I keep coming back to this site for fellowship and information.


Lee

You don't need to be raw to lower your cholesterol, just quit eating animal products and any saturated fats like coconut oil/butter. A low fat raw vegan diet like the McDougall plan with cut your cholesterol.

Jgunn,

I have been using fitday for about 6 months now and my fat is almost always low, around 15-20 per day, one day out of the week it may be as much as 30. Thanks for recommending this site I've recommended it to others who have believe they have issues with copper toxicity.

I had high cholesterol even though I was a vegan. I was shocked, but the specialist I was seeing at the time (an endocrinologist specializing in PCOS/IR) explained that it wasn't shocking at all to her--high cholesterol is one of the things that happens when your body isn't working well with insulin. For me, the PCOS that is caused by the IR is hereditary--I've had symptoms of it since I was a kid (and I was vegetarian--off and on vegan). There was no reason for me to have high cholesterol from the things I was eating.

Anyway, when I went raw I started off consuming large quantities of young coconuts (at least one a day). In one month my cholesterol was at a very healthy number! The holistic doctor I see asked what I was doing differently with my diet. I told her I was going raw--I think I was transitioning at that point. She said that eating only raw for such a short time couldn't have been responsible for such a quick improvement in my cholesterol level and she wanted to know what else I was doing. That's when I remembered about the coconuts. She smiled very big and told me that the coconuts were surely what lowered my cholesterol--that she's had many patients respond to coconuts (not the young ones, though--I'm the first one she knew who ate young ones).

So, I don't know what this all means. I have always agreed with everything that Bryan shares on the forum. Since he's saying to cut back on coconut oil, maybe he's only referring to the oil and the young coconuts are okay? For me, the coconuts seem to have worked (but there is always the chance that it was something else and the doctor just thought it was the coconuts). Maybe try it yourself--eat a young coconut every day for a full month and get your cholesterol checked again? If you do it and it works, please share with us! ;-)

Love,

Gypsy

I'm 95-99% raw and I eat raw,unprocessed coconut fat daily (about 2-3 Tbls per day).
What I have learned about pure raw coconutfat is that the liver uses it and boosts the bodys energy level. So body does not collect the raw coconut as a fat in you body.
There are some more information in www.tropicaltraditions.com about this.
I think its most important that the cocnut fat you are using is raw and unprocessed. Some commercial coconut fats are highly processed garbage which are poson to the body.

Cheers,

MH

Is the McDougal plan all raw? I thought it included cooked foods... ?

Blood sugar definitely affects cholesterol. My cholesterol used to be over 300 when my A1c number (an indicator of blood sugar) was in the double digits. Now my A1c number is in the single digits (I have Type 1 Diabetes) and my cholesterol is much better.

Even before going 100%, just eating more raw and no sugar helped to get my LDL down to 131 and my HDL was 78. I am hoping my blood tests on October 12th, after over 3 months raw will be even better.

Coconut oil has been wrongly classified as a saturated fat, or so I read on a website about it that explained that there was a lot of misinformation about coconut oil.

coconut oil, 1 tbsp (13.6 g):
11.8 g saturated fat
0.8 g monounsaturated fat
0.2 g polyunsaturated fat

It's more atherogenic than olive oil, even when it's "virgin."

I'm confused is conconut oil good for you? Young coconuts would be very hard for me to get where I live. Can it really lower cholesterol? Thanks everyone for sharing! I really appreciate the feedback. Food for thought.

It is saturated fat, but what kind of saturated fat? It is so different from other saturated fats that it should almost be in it's own catagory

[www.thaifoodandtravel.com]

Coconut Oil as Saturated Fat
Another reason people believe coconut oil must be bad for you is misguided association: it is a saturated fat and "saturated fats are bad for you." Dietary guidelines inevitably fail to distinguish between different kinds of saturated fats and insist that saturated fats (meaning all saturated fats) are harmful.

This is not just misleading. It is bad science. Leading scientists now recognize that just as there is good cholesterol, there are also good saturated fats.

Fats are classified as short-, medium- or long-chain based on the number of carbon molecules they contain. Nearly two-thirds of the saturated fat in coconut oil consists of medium-chain fatty acids.

When we eat long-chain fatty acids, they must be emulsified by bile salts in the small intestine before they can be absorbed into our body. Short- and medium-chain fatty acids, such as those in coconut milk, are absorbed directly through the portal vein to the liver, where they are immediately available to the body.

In other words, most of the saturated fat in coconut oil is easily digestible and converted into quick energy. And these types of fatty acids are less likely to cause obesity because they are immediately used by the body and have no opportunity to be stored.


Goes into how there has been a big propaganda war against coconut oil waged by it's competitors like the American Soybean Association.
[www.coconutoil.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2007 10:45PM by tropical.

My cholesterol is 106 and that might be too low. Lately, I've been reading that too low of cholesterol is bad. I always thought it was great to have low cholesterol, but now I'm wondering if it really is.

Okay, I have Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil so I'm assuming it is okay to eat. I've been using it as a moisturizer. LOL

tropical,

The fat in coconut oils is 86% saturated, the rest being unsaturated. Compare that to lard, which its fat is 40% saturated, the rest being unsaturated.

Percentage wise, coconut has more saturated fat that lard.

We don't need dietary saturated fat. We can create all the saturated fats we need from the essential fatty acids.

Dietary saturated fats are a waste product as they are unusable by the body. What make a fat usable is its capacity to hold nutrients, be it proteins, carbohydrates, or other micronutrients. Saturated fats are unable to hold nutrients as all of its bonds are taken (this is where the term saturated comes from), and thus is viewed by the body as a waste product. When you eat the saturated fat, the body promptly moves it to it elimination system as it has no use for it.

Does anyone know of any essential fatty acids found in coconut oil that are not found in all other fruits and vegetables?

>>We don't need dietary saturated fat. We can create all the saturated fats we need from the essential fatty acids.

The same argument can be made about carbs... that we can make all our carbs from fats and proteins through glucogenesis.

My thinking is that saturated fat isn't as evil as it's been made out to be. Rather, high cholesterol and atherosclerosis are caused by chronic oxidative stress. It's possible then that dietary saturated fats may help reduce oxidative damage because they are more resistant to oxidation.

jono,

Metabolizing protein creates an acidic condition in the body because of the uric acid byproduct of the metabolism of protein. Metabolizing fats in the absence of carbs creates ketone bodies, and there are some nasty byproducts like acetone from this process.

These processes also take a lot of energy. On the other hand, eating fresh fruit puts energy quickly into the body with very little work or toxic/acidic byproducts.

Dietary saturated fats are unusable by the body. The body sees them as waste products and they are eliminated.

Jono, do you know of any essential nutrients found in coconut oil? By essential I mean the body can't manufacture these nutrients from other nutrients.

>>Metabolizing protein creates an acidic condition in the body because of the uric acid byproduct of the metabolism of protein.<<

Uric acid is an important antioxidant in the bloodstream but in high amounts and in a dehydrated body it may form kidney stones.

>>Metabolizing fats in the absence of carbs creates ketone bodies, and there are some nasty byproducts like acetone from this process.<<

Ketone bodies like acetone are primary fuel for the heart and some other tissues, and are fuel for parts of the brain especially during times of fasting. Ketosis is a normal metaboloic state which we enter during times of low-carb intake, and of food shortage(a common occurrence just a couple generations ago).

>>These processes also take a lot of energy.

I haven't seen any evidence that ketosis is less efficient than non-ketosis metabolism.

>>On the other hand, eating fresh fruit puts energy quickly into the body with very little work or toxic/acidic byproducts.

Fresh fruit is a great source of quick energy, vitamin c, and other nutrients, but not everybody is adapted to eat a diet of predominantly fresh fruit. For some people, too much sugar does cause toxic imbalances like high triglycerides and fatty liver. Maybe eating nothing but bananas works for you but it's not true for every person on earth.

>>Dietary saturated fats are unusable by the body. The body sees them as waste products and they are eliminated.

I'm no biochemist but this statement is absurd. Both saturated and unsaturated fats can be used for energy, plus they aid assimilation of lipophyllic nutrients, and if saturated fats are so unusable then why are they found in human breastmilk.

>>Jono, do you know of any essential nutrients found in coconut oil? By essential I mean the body can't manufacture these nutrients from other nutrients.

If you're talking about "essential fatty acids", yes coconut oil contains linoleic acid.

The point I'm trying to make is that nothing is as clear-cut as it seems. You almost need a PhD and hundreds of hours to evaluate all the data out there. From what I've read, much of the research into saturated fats is biased and poorly designed, for example, hydrogenated and refined fats being used instead of unrefined fats. Anyway, that's all.

Jono,

It is pretty much understood in the nutrition arena (except for a few coconut oil salespeople and their consumers base) that saturated fats cause cholesterol problems and its consumption should be limited.

Given that coconut fat is 86% saturated fat, its linoleic acid content is included in the remaining 14% unsaturated fat. Also, this fatty acid (omega-6) is overconsumed by most people and is compeletly overabundant in the standard diet. For people in a state of overnutrition, consuming even more fat will not lead to health but to illness.

The fruit sugar in many fruits are aborbed by the body in the mouth and are in the blood and in your cells with no necessary chemical reaction, no enzymes are necessary, and it just requires insulin to carry the sugar into the cells. For the protein and fat metabolism, it also requires this same insulin mechanism PLUS a whole lot more. If you don't think this requires energy and resources, you don't understand this aspect of physiology.

Fortunately, one doesn't need a PhD to realize that coconut oil is unhealthful. Anyone can have their own experience of this very easily. One can simply on on a coconut oil fast to see how healthful it is. Quit eating all foods and water except coconut oil, and see how long it takes before you desire something else. My guess is less than one day. Compare that with a watermelon fast, of eating only watermelons. Anyone could have this experience and see the difference, no PhD required.

Mature coconut fat is hard on the liver. Young coconut water & meat, is healthy, especially if organic.

But if you had to go on an oil fast, which oil ould you choose? I actually did an oil fast recently when I did a liver cleanse. The only things I ingested in a 24 hour period was epsom salts and 3/4c of grapeseed oil, it did not digest well, and I think if I had to do an oil fast I would choose the most easily digested oil I could find which, I believe, would be coconut oil.

All I know is coconut oil is the best oil to slather your outside with, and it has great results, so since my insides aren't too different from my outsides why wouldn't I want to slather my insides with it too.

That was such a bit profound science wasn't it ;-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2007 03:12PM by tropical.

It's hard to know for sure if saturated fat actually causes all the problems they thought, because many of the studies in the past put transfats and saturated fats in a category together and so it could have been just the transfats doing the damage.

Just my 2 cents from what I have read...

Now I'm really confused.

One thing I have learned is not to believe everything you read on the www. I will buy into personal experience much more than what someone is touting on the web. You never know who has an agenda (selling a product). Just sharing my thoughts here and I am not saying anything posted from the web cannot be true. I really appreciate all the feedback and will weigh any advice/comments given. Thanks.

faithfully,

thats one of the reasons i like this particular forum, reading aobut peoples personal experiences and not being influenced by guru sponsership

your best measure of wether something is going to work foryou or not is your own experience with it

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

hi faithfully,
before i went raw my cholesterol was in the 300s. i was eating a standard vegetarian diet. my doctor wanted to put me on medication but i decided to try it naturally first. by changing to a raw food diet i brought it down to 169.

Hi Lotusblossom,

Did you consume any coconut once you started eating raw? If so, in what form was the coconut?

Love,

Gypsy

lotusblossom9 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> hi faithfully,
> before i went raw my cholesterol was in the 300s.
> i was eating a standard vegetarian diet. my doctor
> wanted to put me on medication but i decided to
> try it naturally first. by changing to a raw food
> diet i brought it down to 169.


That's unfortunate. With a vegetarian & vegan diet for around 20 years, and my cholesterol was/has always been very low, always between 105-112. I have always, since I was 18, been strict organic, homemade from scratch, mostly, pure & unprocessed, except for when I used to eat soy, because soy is always processed. There are other factors that increase cholesterol, like eating processed food that makes the body say, "what the hell am I supposed to do with this!" It gives the domino effect, and stresses other body systems, even if it is vegan or vegetarian, over processed with chemicals, like the crap that is in much of the packaged & canned vegan/vegetarian foods, today. Homemade & organic from scatch is best.

I didn't mean to confuse the issue with the saturated fat/transfat post. It's just that before I switched to 100% raw I had read up on coconut oil. I used to cook my eggs in it. The native Hawaiians used to have much better health before they switched from coconut oil to vegetable oil because they were told it was better for you. I still occasionally put some in a dressing for a salad. I guess the point is, that if you are eating cooked foods then coconut oil is going to be much better than the alternatives. But on a 100% raw food diet I guess it's not much of an issue because we don't need a lot of fat.

Anyway, I think I am just confusing myself now... ;-)