Top ten dietary taboos for hyperlipidemia

Foods high in saturated fat, food high in trans fat, excessive high-cholesterol foods, excessive refined carbohydrates, excessive intake of added sugar, high-salt diet, long-term alcoholism, excessive high-purine foods, frequent consumption of high-temperature fried foods, and frequent consumption of processed meat products.

Don’t think this is a cliché. I have been in the nutrition department for almost 5 years and have seen too many people think they eat very healthily, but their blood lipids have soared all the way during the review. The pitfalls are all the details that no one pays attention to.

Let’s start with the most easily overlooked trans fat, which is simply an “invisible cement block” in blood vessels. Do you think it’s only found in fried chicken burgers? Shortened bread that you can grab in a hurry in the morning, milk tea with milk cap for afternoon tea, quick-frozen egg tart shells that your children love to eat, and even many whole-grain biscuits marked with "no additives" are included in them. The ingredient list includes "non-dairy creamer, margarine, shortening, and hydrogenated vegetable oil." It’s all because of it. A normal person’s daily intake of trans fat cannot exceed 2g. A cup of full-sugar bubble milk tea can directly exceed it by three times. People with hyperlipidemia consume too much, and low-density lipoprotein (also known as “bad cholesterol”) rises faster than anyone else.

Oh, by the way, here we have to talk about the cholesterol issue that is currently controversial in academic circles. Don’t be frightened by the statement on the Internet that “eating egg yolks can increase blood lipids”. In recent years, many studies have confirmed that for healthy people, the impact of dietary cholesterol on serum cholesterol is only 10%-20%. However, if you are a hyperlipidemia patient with abnormal lipid metabolism, especially if you have familial hypercholesterolemia, you still need to keep your mouth shut. Try to eat as little as possible foods with extremely high cholesterol density, such as pig brains, foie gras, and caviar, and don’t argue with doctors based on online popular science. Individual differences are inherently large, and what works for others may not be suitable for you.

I just met a very typical patient last month. He is a 52-year-old patient with high blood lipids for 3 years. He dare not touch a mouthful of fat and only eats white porridge with pickled radish. However, the triglyceride was 0.8mmol/L higher than last time during the re-examination. It is extremely unfair. In fact, it is a double pitfall of refined carbohydrates and high salt: refined carbohydrates such as white rice and white noodles are digested quickly and have a high glycemic index. The glucose that the body cannot use up will be directly converted into triglycerides and piled up in blood vessels and internal organs. In addition, the salt content in pickles exceeds the standard, which will damage the vascular endothelium, which is equivalent to building a "convenient bridge" for blood lipid deposition. It would be strange if it does not rise.

There is also the assassin of added sugar. The "sugar-free eight-treasure porridge" and "health-preserving honey water" that many elderly people love to buy, as well as the ice cola and fruit tea that young people show off in summer, are all hardest hit areas. The World Health Organization recommends that the daily intake of added sugar should not exceed 25g. A 500ml bottle of Coke has 56g of sugar, which is twice as much. The excess sugar will not only raise triglycerides, but also reduce the content of high-density lipoprotein (also known as "good cholesterol"), which is equivalent to adding blockage to blood vessels and removing them at the same time.

Many people still have the habit of drinking a few sips of wine before going to bed to "soften their blood vessels." Don't believe this. Whether it is white wine, beer or red wine, alcohol must be metabolized in the liver, which will directly disrupt the rhythm of lipid metabolism. There used to be a 40-year-old business executive who drank half a cup of red wine before going to bed every day to maintain health. After half a year, he was found to have twice the triglyceride level and a mild fatty liver. If you really want to rely on the resveratrol in red wine to soften blood vessels, you would have to drink more than a dozen bottles a day, which is not worth the loss.

Friends who like to make soup should also pay attention to the fact that the soup that has been simmered for three or four hours is full of purine and fat. Drinking too much will not only increase uric acid, but also increase blood lipids. Not to mention the "Happy Meal" of seafood with beer. The double blow of high purine and alcohol will directly mess up fat metabolism into a pot of porridge.

Avoid touching fried dough sticks and fried chicken from roadside stalls as much as possible, especially the old oil that is used repeatedly. The fried food not only has an explosive fat content, but also produces a large amount of trans fat and oxides. The fat in one fried dough stick accounts for 1/3 of the recommended daily fat intake. If you eat it two or three times a week, you can't make up for it no matter how much vegetables you eat. There are also processed meat products such as sausages, bacon, and ham that are always in the refrigerator. They are high in salt and saturated fat and have a lot of preservatives added. The World Health Organization has classified them as a type of carcinogen. If patients with hyperlipidemia often eat them, not only will their blood lipids be unstable, but the risk of cardiovascular disease will also increase.

Of course, there is no need to relegate all these foods directly. Sometimes I go out to eat fried chicken with my friends to satisfy my craving. As long as I don’t eat it three or four times a week and control the amount each time, it’s totally fine. The most important thing to avoid in diet control is overcorrection. If you force yourself to eat boiled vegetables every day, you will break down and eat in revenge after half a month. Instead, it is better to relax a little. Long-term persistence is the last word.

Finally, I would like to mention that diet is only one part of controlling blood lipids. Walking two more steps and staying up less late are much more effective than eating hundreds of dollars of deep-sea fish oil. If your blood lipids are too much outside the normal range, just take the medicine as prescribed by your doctor. Don't delay your work by relying on diet therapy.