jukipants

Just wondering what is working for you now! The primal/Sisson ideology just makes SO MUCH SENSE to me, and I've experienced many benefits from staying true and soldiering past my carb-addict tendencies, but weight loss has not been one of them...

IBneanderthal

Just started Paleo! WooHoo!

tandoorichicken

Just posting to clear things up here. It's true that high total blood cholesterol is a marker for heart disease, not a cause per se. The reason this matters is that high levels of LDL cholesterol are produced in response to blood vessel injury. Blood vessel injury in cases related to heart disease occurs when chronic inflammation causes the smooth muscle surrounding the vessels to stiffen and then tear. So the real cause of heart disease is chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation results from several factors, many of which are healed by a paleo-style diet (more below).

LDL-C is actually a cholesterol carrier — the "LDL" is a molecular vehicle that gets the "C" to the injury site, where it acts kind of like a band-aid, sealing up the tear in the blood vessel wall. HDL, on the other hand, moves cholesterol in the reverse direction: peeling off the band-aid once the injury is healed and returning it to the liver for processing. So, I'd argue that cholesterol composition is more important than the actual value. Total triglycerides are probably a better marker of cardiac health than total cholesterol over the long term, with the caveat being when you're working on fat loss - because as you're losing fat your blood will be full of it.

Back to inflammation. One cause for inflammation is high blood sugar. By controlling carbohydrates in the diet, paleo reduces blood sugar levels and therefore controls inflammation well. As inflammation decreases, the body is able to heal more of its blood vessels and LDL levels drop, while HDL levels rise (to clear cholesterol from the bloodstream). Another cause of inflammation is high omega-6 fats, which actually form the signalling molecules that begin the inflammation response. A paleo-diet typically reduces these and incorporates more omega-3 fats, which soothe inflammation. It should also be noted that a few types of saturated fat also soothe inflammation. Examples are medium-chain acids like lauric and capric acids (found in coconut).

Finally, exercise and recovery account for the non-diet aspects of inflammation. All types of exercise tend to reduce systemic inflammation (cardio may exacerbate inflammation in joints associated with the activity, so don't forget to warm-up) BUT ONLY IF you provide for adequate recovery, including active rest such as walking, and plenty of sleep.

In relevance to this discussion, this means that trying to control your blood cholesterol directly through controlling consumption of saturated fat and dietary cholesterol doesn't really matter. What matters is indirect control over cholesterol type by reducing systemic inflammation. And in my experience paleo only helps.



I realize this might be a load of information so let me know if anything needs to be cleared up.

01gt4.6

welcome back Nik!

tandoorichicken

MIKE!

I'm getting married in a couple months, so I'm using FD to diet down. Low-carb paleoish reduced-calorie with exercise and sleep thrown in here and there as usual, blah blah. How are things in this neck of the Internet?

01gt4.6

Big congrats Nik!!! So when is the big day? If you don't mind you should share some pics!

Things have been good, I recently bought a motorcycle which is my biggest news. I need to get my diet in check as well, my exercising has been pretty good though. Thanks for asking.

jptfenwick

I second Mike, welcome back Niki. I miss seeing your posts.

Your writing is reasoned, well-written and informed. Thanks for sharing.

RunbikeSki

BIG CONGRATS NIK! Don't forget about us once you are in marital bliss . BTW very nice post regarding cholesterol. I especially liked your comment that LDL is an indicator, rather than a cause of arterial problems.

RunbikeSki

Hi jukipants,
I am not an expert on paleo, but I have many gym rat buddies who swear by it. It seems to me that when combined with lots of weight bearing exercises (read: power lifting) it works really well. For those of us more into the endurance side of exercising like runners and bikers (the pedel kind, not the motorized kind) it isn't quite as effective because we run out of glycogen that fuels the muscles very quickly, well before the fat burning metabolism has a time to kick in.

That is just my observation over the years. I am kind of a psuedo-paleo person. I avoid all the refined stuff, but still indulge in whole grains, honey for tea and coffee, and the occassional powerbar type thing.

tandoorichicken

Hey Pam! The wedding's in July and then we're taking off for Hawai'i for a couple weeks so I'll be lurking at least till then!

I'm actually training for a half-marathon towards the end of the year and my secondary goal is to do it paleo! I'll probably go low-carb from a few months out to adapt and top off glycogen with sweet potatoes before the race, but I'm hoping to go all-out fat burning on race day.