Give me bacon or give me death?

[Hoosierdood]

We all know that breakfast is in the top 3 most important meals of the day. I’ve been cooking breakfast daily for my wife and I for over 10 years. Most days it consists of 2 pieces of bacon or a sausage patty, 2 eggs cooked in the grease, and sometimes some fried taters (in bacon grease of course).

I just had a physical exam for some life insurance that I am getting and everything checked out mostly. Except my Triglycerides were at 524 (under 150 is good), and they couldn’t even measure my LDL since triglycerides were so high. Total cholesterol was pretty high too.

So, do I give up bacon, or do I continue this course until my arteries gell up into a gooey bacon jam?

 

[Ingomike]

Actually I would go the opposite way the conventional wisdom says. I would go on the original Dr. Atkins diet. You should get his original books and follow it to a T. If one reads the Mayo Clinic they tell you it is not the bacon and eggs, but rather the carbs.

I once met a lady that was looking at low-carb foods in the grocery and we struck up conversation, she put her husband on the Atkins diet after a diagnosis of severe type II diabetes, in a year all his numbers were significantly better and the Dr. was dumbfounded. Please understand there is almost no dietary training for doctors and the dietitians are trained by the government orthodoxy that is from the highest bidder.

“When you eat, your body converts any calories it doesn't need to use right away into triglycerides. The triglycerides are stored in your fat cells. Later, hormones release triglycerides for energy between meals.”

“If you regularly eat more calories than you burn, particularly from high-carbohydrate foods, you may have high triglycerides (hypertriglyceridemia).”

Can triglycerides affect my heart health?

Like cholesterol, triglycerides can cause health problems. Here's how to lower your triglycerides.

www.mayoclinic.org

 

[patience0830]

We all know that breakfast is in the top 3 most important meals of the day. I’ve been cooking breakfast daily for my wife and I for over 10 years. Most days it consists of 2 pieces of bacon or a sausage patty, 2 eggs cooked in the grease, and sometimes some fried taters (in bacon grease of course).

I just had a physical exam for some life insurance that I am getting and everything checked out mostly. Except my Triglycerides were at 524 (under 150 is good), and they couldn’t even measure my LDL since triglycerides were so high. Total cholesterol was pretty high too.

So, do I give up bacon, or do I continue this course until my arteries gell up into a gooey bacon jam?

Might want to throttle back a little.

 

[littletommy]

I agree with what Mike said. Unless you’re training for a marathon, cut out as many carbs as you can.

Side note: my grandparents down in the hills of Kentucky ate fried food for pretty much every meal, bacon and eggs every morning. Everything was either fried in bacon grease or lard, and both of them lived well into their 90s.

 

[MrSmitty]

I agree with what Mike said. Unless you’re training for a marathon, cut out as many carbs as you can.

Side note: my grandparents down in the hills of Kentucky ate fried food for pretty much every meal, bacon and eggs every morning. Everything was either fried in bacon grease or lard, and both of them lived well into their 90s.

Are we related? My Grandparents too!!! Fried every thing, including wilted lettuce ( bacon grease poured over lettuce) mmmmmmm

 

[Expat]

My LDL was too high and I was eating just like you. I eat a good breakfast still on the weekends. 4-5 mornings a week, I eat oatmeal (with some berries, a dab of butter and brown sugar), I also do exercise 30 minutes every morning, and I try to eat more fish and chicken. I lowered my cholesterol and especially LDL by 30-40 points. You have to make some lifestyle changes that you will stick with, from now on. This isn’t some short term diet. Otherwise you know where you are headed.

 

[foszoe]

Actually I would go the opposite way the conventional wisdom says. I would go on the original Dr. Atkins diet. You should get his original books and follow it to a T. If one reads the Mayo Clinic they tell you it is not the bacon and eggs, but rather the carbs.

I once met a lady that was looking at low-carb foods in the grocery and we struck up conversation, she put her husband on the Atkins diet after a diagnosis of severe type II diabetes, in a year all his numbers were significantly better and the Dr. was dumbfounded. Please understand there is almost no dietary training for doctors and the dietitians are trained by the government orthodoxy that is from the highest bidder.

“When you eat, your body converts any calories it doesn't need to use right away into triglycerides. The triglycerides are stored in your fat cells. Later, hormones release triglycerides for energy between meals.”

“If you regularly eat more calories than you burn, particularly from high-carbohydrate foods, you may have high triglycerides (hypertriglyceridemia).”

Can triglycerides affect my heart health?

Like cholesterol, triglycerides can cause health problems. Here's how to lower your triglycerides.

www.mayoclinic.org

I don't know Atkins specifically but my wife has a dietetics degree. Doctors are trained well enough to diagnose from tests but their default is then prescriptions.

She looks at numbers and thinks diet and supplements. I don't mean latest fads like kale or no carbs or eating 100s of dollars of pills, but she told me with low thyroid function cut back on broccoli and cauliflower and expand my vegetable horizon. Then try a little iodine.

Just little things.

She's pretty smart at it. Family and friends show her their annual blood work for advice.

 

[KG1]

She's pretty smart at it. Family and friends show her their annual bloodworm for advice.

Bloodworm? Yikes!

 

[smokingman]

I had stents put in 12 years ago. I was at 105,then. I made loads of changes. Ate like a rabit. 1 year of misery. No red meat ect.
Got it down to 103. Yea. I decided it was not worth it,and something else needed to change. I started hiking again(took almost that long to believe I could as near death scared the crap out of me). Built up again slowly. Started eating what I wanted again as well, but limited carbs. By 2019 I hiked the AT 2192 miles in 6 months 12 days.

I am now at 118,and have changed cardiologist. They say my heart is as healthy as a 30 year olds. I feel great. Side note. I never took a statin, not even my original cardiologist thought they helped reduce your risk or reversed any clotting. I do however never take ibuprofin. It is a vascular dialator that back when I had my heart attack I took often. My original cardiologist made me a part of a study, linking the two. He thought ibuprofin caused around half of all heart attacks, and that it should be a prescription only medication. Before I moved and changed cardiologist I had asked him about his study. He told me no journal would publish it, and he was angry about that. "They just want to push statins right now, hopefully one day that changes"

Both my grandfather and great grandfather had long lives. One lived to be 102 and the other 89. One was a mechanic one ran a farm(later lived to 102). I would wager both had higher numbers than most of us. I think it is more about staying active than diet. Neither were overwieght. That said I avoid excess carbs for reasons some of the posters above me have stated. We have become largely sedentary. Men used to be moving most of the day. Eat what you want, but get moving. At least that is what I am doing. May as well enjoy life, sitting staring at a screen is not really living.

 

[JTKelly]

We all know that breakfast is in the top 3 most important meals of the day. I’ve been cooking breakfast daily for my wife and I for over 10 years. Most days it consists of 2 pieces of bacon or a sausage patty, 2 eggs cooked in the grease, and sometimes some fried taters (in bacon grease of course).

I just had a physical exam for some life insurance that I am getting and everything checked out mostly. Except my Triglycerides were at 524 (under 150 is good), and they couldn’t even measure my LDL since triglycerides were so high. Total cholesterol was pretty high too.

So, do I give up bacon, or do I continue this course until my arteries gell up into a gooey bacon jam?

Get some lipitor. Start with the LOWEST dose, 20mg. If you start getting leg cramps, you'll have to quit the bacon.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Option 3: Pick both. LOL

Because picking bacon gives you both options.

 

[smokingman]

Get some lipitor. Start with the LOWEST dose, 20mg. If you start getting leg cramps, you'll have to quit the bacon.

Lipitor most common side effects...

• Diarrhea
• Upset stomach
• Muscle pain
• Joint pain

I think leg cramps are just part of taking lipitor and have zero to do with bacon or what you eat.

 

[model1994]

call me sacrilegious but turkey sausage ain’t bad, especially when you count macros and consider how many servings extra you can have (or save) compared to pork. turkey bacon can be hit or miss, but not really ever that good by itself. in a breakfast burrito, scramble, etc it’s actually pretty good though. it’s not a replacement but I think a worthy substitution.

 

[rhamersley]

call me sacrilegious but turkey sausage ain’t bad, especially when you count macros and consider how many servings extra you can have (or save) compared to pork. turkey bacon can be hit or miss, but not really ever that good by itself. in a breakfast burrito, scramble, etc it’s actually pretty good though. it’s not a replacement but I think a worthy substitution.

 

[JTKelly]

Lipitor most common side effects...

• Diarrhea
• Upset stomach
• Muscle pain
• Joint pain

I think leg cramps are just part of taking lipitor and have zero to bacon or what you eat.

If you can't take the lipitor, you can't have the bacon.

 

[Ziggidy]

I agree with what Mike said. Unless you’re training for a marathon, cut out as many carbs as you can.

Side note: my grandparents down in the hills of Kentucky ate fried food for pretty much every meal, bacon and eggs every morning. Everything was either fried in bacon grease or lard, and both of them lived well into their 90s.

The old milk carton was always filled with bacon grease, on the counter ready for use at any given moment.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I don't know how much is diet and how much is activity vs cholesterol, but I do know that a stroke is a terrible and life altering event even if you survive it.

There's literally no food I care enough about to increase my risk of such an occurrence.

 

[jwamplerusa]

If you are a coffee drinker consider the following. There have been studies out of scandinavia, sorry right now I can't find the link, which correlated non-paper filtered coffee to high cholesterol. My triglycerides were approaching 1,000. I switched to paper filter in my coffee maker and the next visit was under 600. This year it was under 500.

Consider that everyone is different, what the medical profession calls normal is really an average and people are rarely average. Try things until the numbers drop, but more importantly you feel as good as you can.

Oh, and more fun, I'm statin intolerant.

ETA: https://www.hcplive.com/view/filtered-unfiltered-coffee-contrasting-impact-on-heart-health

 

[smokingman]

I don't know how much is diet and how much is activity vs cholesterol, but I do know that a stroke is a terrible and life altering event even if you survive it.

There's literally no food I care enough about to increase my risk of such an occurrence.

Lipitor comes with a chance of stroke as well.

 

[JTKelly]

Lipitor comes with a chance of stroke as well.

Breathing comes with a chance of stroke. Pepsi comes with a chance of stroke.