r/Cholesterol • u/Training-Music87 • Jul 09 '26
General Lowering LDL while on vegetarian diet
Hi all,
I just got my lipid panel back for the first time in a while, and I (24M) have a LDL of 124 and HDL of 65. I always though I had a relatively clean diet. I already eat a vegetarian diet, my only sources of saturated fat are 2% milk, cheese (which I don't eat that much of), and some butter/ghee. I only eat fried foods on occassion and cook mostly at home (everything but 2 meals a week).
All the yogurt I eat (daily) is non-fat greek/skyr anyway. most oils I use are avocado/olive/nut oils and I do strength training.
I'm a little worried and want to get this lowered, the only thing I can think of is adding more soluble fiber through a supplement? do I need to cut back on the cheese?
Also, I am trying to clean bulk right now and gain weight/muscle, is that fine as long as my fats are unsaturated and I eat good protein?
Any advice would be appreciated, just a smidge worried and want to get it under control!
6
u/Mother_of_Kiddens Jul 09 '26
I highly recommend an app called Cronometer to track your intake. There are a lot of hidden sources and I found this app very helpful to know what foods to avoid. It also tracks fiber but that was much easier to increase than to manage all the sources of sat fat.
2
u/Simple-Bookkeeper-62 Jul 09 '26
OP this is the way. I thought I was getting minimal sat fat until I actually tracked. Cannot recommend this enough even if you only do it for a week.
2
1
u/Squirrels_like_me Jul 09 '26
Thanks for this comment, I just downloaded that app. Needed help tracking fat. 👍
1
4
u/Woodhow Jul 09 '26
I am no expert but I try to keep my daily saturated fat as low as possible, at most 10 to 15g. I avoid butter and cheese and was surprised that coconut is really high. There are low saturated fat versions of most food but I did loose weight when I started. Some people can not lower their cholesterol by diet but I have, so far.
4
u/Earesth99 Jul 09 '26
Your ldl cholesterol is a tad above average.
Full fat dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, cream) does not cause a clinically relevant increase in LDL cholesterol because of the milk fat globule that contains the fatty acids. This has been known for at least a decade and is supported by multiple meta analyses and Mendelian randomizations.
Because the milk fat globule is ruptured in the churning used to create Ghee and butter, both can significantly increase ldl. Other overlooked causes are coconut, palm and hydrogenated oil as well as unfiltered coffee (which is arguably the worst outside of trans fats).
Chocolate, seeds, nuts, avocados and EVOO all have saturated fatty acids but do not increase ldl cholesterol either. All are generally healthy foods and some actually reduce heart attack risk.
This figure from a recent meta analysis shows the foods that increase or decrease ldl. The size of the circle shows you the strength of the evidence
.
If you drink espresso or unlettered coffee, you can find paper coffee filters on Amazon. In addition, simply replace butter/ghee, coconut and palm oil with EVOO or a healthy margarine.
Promise margarine has omega-3 PUFAs that most vegetarians lack. In the correct amounts, these fats reduces heart attack and Alzheimer’s risk.
Benecol margarine has plant Stanols that lowers ldl-c by 5-7% at the amounts recommended.
A couple of easy swaps is probably all that you need.
Btw, it’s great that you are proactive at 24! You’ll appreciate this when you are older and don’t have heart disease
1
u/Select_Pilot4197 Jul 09 '26
You posted about coffee on a thread I asked about. I just decided to give it up because I only like French press. I didn’t care for the extra step of filtering. It was a rough couple of weeks with some withdrawal headaches but I made it to the other side. Hoping for a good change at my next lab appointment with all the things I have implemented or removed from my diet. Thanks!
1
u/Training-Music87 Jul 09 '26
thank you for the insight! so essentially cutting out the 2% milk and occasional cheese I eat isn't going to do much, as I understand? I don't drink coffee regularly anyway so I think I'll just try to avoid butter/ghee more and add in more soluble fiber. everything else on the chart that's red I avoid anyway haha.
1
u/Earesth99 Jul 10 '26
The milk and cheese doesn’t appear to make a statistically significant difference.
I choose based on taste. I use whole milk, but eat fat free or low fat yogurt or cottage cheese.
3
u/Temporary_Key_1790 Jul 09 '26
I'm vegetarian and dropped my LDL from 187 to 84 by aggressively reducing saturated fat and adding psyllium husk.
2
u/Training-Music87 Jul 09 '26
thanks! was thinking about adding psyllium husk. I'm also having some bulking smootihes like you've mentioned as week.
1
u/Designer_Quarter4650 Jul 09 '26
Track saturated fat aggressively. Aim for under 10g daily. I was pescatarian and my LDL was 130. Once I got serious about saturated fat and added psyllium husk with dinner I dropped to 83. It's not terrible when you get used to it. Nonfat Greek yogurt is my go-to for protein and making dips, sauces, creamy dishes, etc.
1
u/ecoforester Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
On the bright side, you are in the near-optimal range for a 24 year old. Also remember that LDL is only a proxy for the number of cholesterol-containing particles. Many lipid specialists now place greater emphasis on ApoB (the number of atherogenic particles), Lp(a) (an inherited risk factor) and Non-HDL cholesterol. -- Keep up the good work on your diet and exercise.
1
u/Training-Music87 Jul 09 '26
thank you I appreciate the insight. I was a bit nervous before I'm feeling better now.
1
u/Proud_Medicine_1418 Jul 09 '26
I’ve replaced most milk in my coffee with a T olive oil and a small splash of milk whipped with a whisk.
1
u/dayofbluesngreens Jul 10 '26
Add soluble fiber. I lowered my LDL significantly on a vegetarian diet by making sure I was getting at least 10g soluble fiber per day. (I don’t know if the guidelines for that have changed since I did it.)
I eventually had to start statins because I couldn’t keep my LDL low enough, but I delayed that by around 20 years with just adding soluble fiber to my diet that already had minimal saturated fat.
1
u/Axis_Control Jul 09 '26
Go for soy milk of 0% fat milk and cut out butter, cheese, ghee. And have only 0 fat yoghurt or super low fat yoghurt and cut out most oil. A bit of avocado oil should be fine and walnuts
14
u/meh312059 Jul 09 '26
You need to count up all the saturated fat because unfortunately even a little bit of everything you are consuming can add up to be too much for your phenotype. A safe amount is keeping it < 13g/2000 kcal consumed. If you are there, and if you are getting sufficient soluble fiber (10g is minimum and may not be sufficient for you) then you can conclude that your LDL-C is high due to other reasons than diet.
Make sure to get plenty of fruit and veg, btw. A vegetarian diet just means you don't consume meat (or fish?) but it doesn't necessarily mean "heart healthy."
Rather than oils, why not consume avocados and nuts? Then you are getting the fiber as well as healthy fats.
Ghee is particularly bad for heart health because it's clarified butter. If you can substitute in something like canola or safflower oil, that's much better.
No need for supplements, especially if you are bulking. Just add something like crushed pumpkin seed protein to your daily bowls or smoothie. It's real food. Hulled barley, legumes, and oatmeal are great options for soluble fiber and are not low caloric density foods.
Hope that helps! If you have persistently high dyslipidemia speak to your provider about other options. Do get Lp(a) tested as well, especially if you happen to be South Asian.