low cholesterol, low sugar, high protein diet

Question
Hello,
I do a three-times a week high intensity hour workout, plus some running or biking on other days, and have just learned from my doctor that I have high bad cholesterol (150), high blood sugar (one point over normal), and low protein. What foods can/should I eat to help these problems? I am 50 years old and weigh 150 lbs. My doctor says I don't need to lose weight (but I wouldn't mind losing a little). I'm more concerned with finding foods with high protein but low cholesterol and sugar.
thank you!

Answer
Sarah,
First of all, forget about dietary cholesterol. The official recommendation (based on opinion, not research) is that you should be eating about 300 mg of cholesterol daily. Unfortunately, your liver manufactures about 4,000 mg of cholesterol daily... so your 300 mg that you ate is not even a drop in the bucket.
You're much better off figuring out how you can affect all that cholesterol made by your liver. Eat plenty of oily fish, olive oil, walnuts, almonds, and flax seed oil. Watch saturated fat very carefully. Ignore cholesterol.
But please also remember that the way doctors measure "bad" (LDL) cholesterol is deeply flawed. We measure the total volume of "bad" cholesterol. Far more important is the number of particles of LDL cholesterol. We know that when LDL particles are large, they are not dangerous and do not contribute to heart disease. Small LDL particles are very dangerous and readily cause damage to your coronary arteries. Right now, LDL particle size and an additional marker, ApoB, can't be measured at most hospitals, only at sophisticated research centers. But the technology is developing quickly. Daily exercise increases your LDL particle size, and I'd bet good money that if you were to undergo more advanced cholesterol testing, you and your doctor would be very happy with the numbers.
In the meantime, though, eat the fish, skip the hamburgers, and expect to be able to get the new, better, cholesterol testing in the next five years or so.
Melissa

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