High cholesterol issues

by Christine
(Long Beach, Ca)

Q I have been eating raw food for about a month now to lower high cholesterol. My question is should I stay away from coconut and avocados because of their saturated fats? I thought it would be ok because they are still raw but my blood tests came back higher. What do you think?

A If you are eating a well balanced healthy raw diet it is not likely that the diet is raising your cholesterol. It could be that your new diet is allowing your body to clean house and is throwing off stored cholesterol that showed up in your recent test.

However, for some people over consumption of fruit, actually the fructose in the fruit can create issues and manifest in two different ways. First there’s gout, where inflammation, redness, and tenderness show up mainly in the toes. The other way is raised triglyceride levels which can raise cholesterol. Elevations in blood triglycerides may promote atherosclerosis by altering the size, density, and composition of LDL.

Sometimes excessive consumption of fat can raise cholesterol levels because your body stores the unburned calories as triglycerides. The avocado has very little saturated fat, but perhaps if eaten to excess could raise triglyceride levels as well. It could also be a diet high in fruit and fat that is creating the issue. Generally fruits should be eaten with little or no fat. Sometimes too much fat taken with the evening meal will still be in the system the next morning and create these issues.

Cultures that eat a lot of coconut, a saturated fat, have a low incidence of heart disease

I would look at long term trends, getting tested every three or six months to monitor and make adjustments. Whatever duration you and your Doctor feel comfortable with.