High cholesterol and high blood pressure

[snowborden1]

I am just opening up the doors to the exciting world of traditional foods!!! Yay!!! Anywho, my husband has been dealing with high blood pressure and high cholesterol for about 3 years now. We have done all the main stream stuff recommended to use by doctors, friends, gym guy... We have been successful at lowering both at times but it never lasts and is not that much of a change. He is now on blood pressure medication and was on cholesterol meds for about 1 month until I pulled my head out of my bum and realized how bad they are. My question is this: What would you all remove from and add to his diet if it were your husband? I have switched us over to all organic fruits and veggies, grass fed beef, farm fresh free range chicken eggs, and raw whole milk. He LOVES cereal, bread, tortillas, chips, cookies, etc, etc, you get the idea... all that is bad for him. Oh, also he is taking an asprin a day, a vitamin a day,  and fish oil in the summer and will be taking cod liver oil in the winter. Any help advice is appreciated!!!

[Piglet68]

I would cut out all grains and sugars, except some fruit in whole form and the occasional bit of real maple syrup or honey (in moderation). Use lots of good fats with your cooking (raw butter, lard, coconut oil, etc) and cut out all processed foods. 

As you can tell, me and DH are on the Paleo diet (but we do eat dairy; raw milk and products we make from it). No exercising regimes, no counting calories, eat when you are hungry, etc. It's pretty easy. I've already lost 12 lbs in 6 weeks and DH has lost 30 lbs in 3 or 4 months (he started before I did). 

Gary Taubes (author of Why We Get Fat, and Good Calories, Bad Calories - both excellent books) has a blog and his latest post was about cholesterol etc. It's really all about the sugar, but once you've thrown your insulin system out of whack starchy carbs and grains become a problem too (assuming you don't already have gut issues with grains). If you can get him to read the book you might get him to consider ditching the grains (you can cheat a bit, of course; life with a total ban on any food can be dull!, so it's not like he can never eat another cookie, etc.). The best part is that after a while you don't crave those kinds of food anyways.

[martaluna]

I would start cutting all the things you said he loves. I know, easier said than done. Stress and lack of exercise can play a big role too.

There are couple interesting articles on WAPF website about heart disease you may want to look at.

[Milkymommi]

I totally agree regarding cutting the sugars!! Numero uno! I also say cut the grains but if it's too huge a stretch at first, maybe make the switch to a moderate amount of sprouted grains. We are very very low grain basically keeping our consumtion to sprouted grain bread and a bit of oats. Giving up cereals is a tough move but so worth it in the long run. We managed to get ourselves and all the kids switched over successfully. Now it's as if we never ate it. None of that stuff is doing him any favors. You could do soaked oats as well to keep him feeling sane. I was also a sufferer of high bp and cholesterol. Don't forget the FATS!!! coconut oil and other coconut products, butter from grass fed cows and the CLO for sure. Coconut oil has wonderful effects on cholesterol! Sounds like you're heading in the right direction. Not sure if he's into coffee or other stimulant beverages but that' something to consider cutting right away too. Hardest thing I ever did. I still miss it to this DAY but not more than I love feeling and being healthy! Happy trails.

[tinybutterfly]

Hi!

We are not TF. I found this in new posts.

Our doctor put dh on fish oil supplements for his cholesterol due to bad reaction to normal meds for cholesterol. I think he takes three of them? I can't remember. Anyway, the fish oil worked lowering his cholesterol numbers fine...which makes me wonder why the doctor didin't just recommend that in the first place. ;)

[HappyTomato]

400 mg of CoQ10 daily and the WAPF recommended high vit cod liver oil dose has helped me return my BP to normal after 2 episodes of PIH with my last two pregnancies. After my most recent pregnancy, my BP was still high at 6 months pp. I had stopped taking my supplements because I got lazy about it and I didn't realize just how well they were working for me. Doc in the box started me on BP meds after I went in for a headache and found that my BP was 190/110. Yikes! I thought I was doomed to take BP pills for the rest of my life at that point so for the next 6 months I took them and saw side effects I didn't like such as weight gain around my belly. So I decided to give the supplements another shot and weaned myself off the BP meds. My BP has been beautiful for 4+ months now and I could kick myself for stopping them in the first place. Normally when a woman has multiple cases of PIH or pre-eclampsia her BP will rise and stay there indefinitely. Fortunately TF and the supplements above are working for me. As a side note, in case men are different than women when it comes to reducing BP, a male co-worker of mine had luck lowering his BP by going on a raw food diet. That was the only thing that worked for him. Good luck!!!