LOWERING CHOLESTEROL DIET RECOMMENDATIONS

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is the prime body of the USA Government, which carries out research studies on the American people on Heart related diseases. Since one of the major killers in America, till date, is heart disease and blood cholesterol is one of the major factor leading to heart disease. In this context, NHLBI formed a special group to recommend "ways to lower cholesterol" and this group formulated some guidelines for diet.

This groups recommendations adopted by the US government, popularly known as National Cholesterol Program (NCEP) found out that the American public consumes very high fat diet, consisting of eggs, cheese, butter, milk products and meat. NCEP calculated that common Americans consume about 40% of their calories from fat and more than 500 mg of cholesterol in a day. This, they felt, was major cause leading to such high number of heart patients in their country.

To control heart disease the NCEP recommended lowering of the fat consumption by the American public. They formulated two kinds of diet (Step I and Step II). For those who do not have heart disease but want to prevent the same in future (in medical terms is called primary prevention) were advised Step I diet (called primary prevention). They recommended a maximum serum cholesterol levels of 200 mg/100 ml for both the groups.

In step I diet daily cholesterol intake was 300 mg/day where as in step II it was 200 mg/day and in both the diet total quantity of fat (medical name is triglycerides) allowed was 30% of the total calories. Different types  of fat (Triglycerides are three types saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) intake recommendations are put in the Table n.2 below. NCEP recommends use of cholesterol lowering drugs only if their diets fail to lower the serum cholesterol levels below 200mg/100 ml.

SAAOL Heart Program, on the other hand, does not have a casual prevention in mind. It wants the reversal of heart disease. Naturally, the recommendations will be different. The recommended cholesterol levels in blood for reversal is 130 mg/ 100 ml. The table No. 1 summarizes the recommendations.

                                                                                                                            

VITALITY OF MILK

IS MILK THAT ONLY SOURCES OF CALCIUM? ARE THERE ANY SUBSTITUTE AVAILABLE? IF YES, WHAT?

" Doodho Nahao Pooto Phalo" that was Grandma's perception. Drink a glass of milk to be fit an fine. Milk has been long considered to be food of Gods, almost the perfect food. Thus, people consume milk and its products in large quantities. But, is it really required?

The old dictums do not hold any meaning in this modern scientific world. Studies were conducted in three North European countries namely Norway, Denmark and Finland. It was found that large quantities of milk and its products (cheese, paneer, curd, butter etc.) were consumed in these countries and that led to tremendous increase in heart problems. But as they reduced milk and its products intake to considerably low amounts, rate of disease started going down. In Finland , heart disease incidence came down by 60% in last 25 years. Whole milk contains 11mg of cholesterol per 100 ml and skimmed milk contain 2-5 mg/100ml. Even, skimming does not make milk absolutely cholesterol free. Thus, it contributes significantly to cholesterol and fat in the diet. This leads to development of chronic diseases such as obesity, coronary blockages (formation of athero-sclerotic plaques) and indirectly diabetes.

SAAOL restricts the consumption of skimmed milk to 200ml per day. This contributes the necessary 10 mg of cholesterol required in the diet daily. Our patients usually enquire that if they stop taking milk, does it harm anyway? Or some of them ask from where will they get the calcium - if they don't take milk?

In this particular article we try to solve these confusions by providing a comparison of calcium content of milk and other foodstuffs. Actually, how much calcium do we require in a day?

According to ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) the recommended dietary allowance of calcium is 400 mg/day for an adult. From the table it is clear that consuming reasonable amounts of foods like leafy vegetables, citrus fruits and legumes etc. can meet the allowances very well.

 

Hope you liked this blog!

This blog is written by Dr. Bimal Chhajer (India's best Heart Doctor)