I Have Low Cholesterol (How Can I Raise It?)

[shine]

TMG increases blood cholesterol, if I remember correctly it does it by stimulating cholesterol secretion from the liver.

 

[tca300]

@Rafael Lao Wai is right about mussels ( shellfish ). If you tolerate pineapple without serotonin like symptoms, they are a good source, also dark chocolate is a good source if you tolerate it. 2300 cals isn't much, nor is the amount of carbohydrates you are consuming. Are you very sedentary? Or weight stable on that amount of calories? @Bushido1

 

[gaze]

consider stopping all supplements, also try buying unhomogenized whole milk and skimming the cream off to get low-fat milk without added vitamins, because the low fat milk your drinking i’m assuming has added vitamin A and D, which can pose problems in some people, along with ur extra vitamin D supplement

 

[Cirion]

Calories way too low. Found your problem. A male, especially of your age should be eating 3000-3500 calories minimum quite possibly more if you have a history of under-eating and need to recover from such.

 

[ANDREW CHIN]

How would you go about raising Manganese? Most of the food containing manganese are anti Peat.

Chocolate and coconut have quite a bit of manganese. I prefer coconut butter over dried coconut flakes. The Polynesians didn't like dried coconut flakes, maybe because the fibers can be irritating to the gut. Also, Ray Peat doesn't seem to be a big fan of coconut in general because of that study that found women cooking with coconut milk were more likely to develop cancer. In my opinion, coconut butter might be okay, since it's been ground into a smooth nut butter (less likely to be irritating to the gut).

Also, hazelnuts, pili nuts and macadamias are high in Mn and pretty low in PUFA.

As far as fruits go, see if your co-op has wild frozen blueberries. Great source of Mn. Much higher in this mineral than cultivated blueberries. :)

 

[Amazoniac]

Thanks for the feedback @tca300. I am just a bit desperate for change because my hair loss has speed up since I started Peating 5 months ago and I think fixing low cholesterol is the culprit in my situation.

How would you go about raising Manganese? Most of the food containing manganese are anti Peat.

Here I attach my Cronometer diet in case anybody wants to make any observations.

Is the venom D added on top of milch fortification? A diet that's high in calcium reduces the need for it and requires robust metabolism. Have you tried to double your magnesium intake? If you've been experiencing constipation, palpitation, cramps, and others related symptoms, its induced deficiency is likely. Otherwise, how carotenes affect you? Because that might be excessive for some people, yet if your condition is good, there won't be clear manifestations that they could be using up magnesium further along with other nutrients like B-vitamins, antidote C and trace minerals, and affecting cholesterol.

 

[Bushido1]

TMG increases blood cholesterol, if I remember correctly it does it by stimulating cholesterol secretion from the liver.

What is TMG? What do you get it from?

 

[Bushido1]

Calories way too low. Found your problem. A male, especially of your age should be eating 3000-3500 calories minimum quite possibly more if you have a history of under-eating and need to recover from such.

@tca300

Could you please explain why eating 2,300 calories of good quality foods could be detrimental?

I never feel hungry through the day and I am not a very active person neither. I even force myself to eat as soon as I wake up to keep glycogen stores full and do 5 meals a day. I don't wanna get fat.

 

[Bushido1]

Is the venom D added on top of milch fortification? A diet that's high in calcium reduces the need for it and requires robust metabolism. Have you tried to double your magnesium intake? If you've been experiencing constipation, palpitation, cramps, and others related symptoms, its induced deficiency is likely. Otherwise, how carotenes affect you? Because that might be excessive for some people, yet if your condition is good, there won't be clear manifestations that they could be using up magnesium further along with other nutrients like B-vitamins, antidote C and trace minerals, and affecting cholesterol.

I have considered supplementing with Magnesium, but not sure if I would benefit from it. Is there any reliable test to know that?

What do you mean by "How carotenes affect you?"? How does the daily carrot affect me?

 

[YourUniverse]

A lot of sweet, delicious fruits are rich in manganese (pineapples come to mind).

How about eggs? Maybe lobster or mussels - or more potently, BRAIN! Brain is the richest known source of dietary cholesterol.

Fructose, saturated fat, (apparently manganese - did not know that) and dietary cholesterol.

Also, I believe unfiltered coffee increases cholesterol, leading some vegan health advocates to advise filtered coffee, or tea, instead.

(I used to watch this guy all the time when I was vegan. Some of his advice is great in reverse :))

 

[YourUniverse]

As per chronometer,

Richest sources of dietary cholesterol per calorie:
Screenshot

Richest sources of fructose per calorie:
Screenshot

Richest sources of manganese per calorie: (!!!!yerba mate!!!!)

Hope this is helpful

 

[shine]

What is TMG? What do you get it from?

Trimethylglycine, also known as betain. It is a common supplement.
Found in beets and a lot of other foods.

 

[tca300]

@tca300

Could you please explain why eating 2,300 calories of good quality foods could be detrimental?

I never feel hungry through the day and I am not a very active person neither. I even force myself to eat as soon as I wake up to keep glycogen stores full and do 5 meals a day. I don't wanna get fat.

Eating that amount may not be detrimental at all. It depends on how many calories you personally need. That's why I asked if you were weight stable on that amount, because if you aren't losing weight on 2300 calories then thats all you should eat, unless you want to add fat to your body that is. I just felt for a Male that you might be under eating and losing weight unintentionally, which might affect your ability to raise cholesterol.

P.s I highly disagree with individuals who make blanket calorie claims. If someone is weight stable on 2300 calories, and then force feeds 1200 extra calories everyday because someone else said that's how much you as a Male you should be eating... well that is a recipe for fat gain and liver issues. Not to mention a bunch of extra unnessesary PUFA accumulation.

 

[nbznj]

3000+ is adapted for a 200lbs (mostly sedentary) muscular man, lol. That said, 2300 seems low.

There’s no such thing as low cholesterol symptoms... especially since you’re all describing totally fine levels like 130ish. That’s ideal to me, if the body is producing good amounts of testosterone, dht, dhea and so on. The healthiest populations in the world and most athletes have similar levels or less. What’s the rationale behind higher LDL? Promoting hypothyroidism?

The best way to keep nice and low levels of LDL is to be very active as humans should be. Eat more burn more.

 

[Rafael Lao Wai]

3000+ is adapted for a 200lbs (mostly sedentary) muscular man, lol. That said, 2300 seems low.

There’s no such thing as low cholesterol symptoms... especially since you’re all describing totally fine levels like 130ish. That’s ideal to me, if the body is producing good amounts of testosterone, dht, dhea and so on. The healthiest populations in the world and most athletes have similar levels or less. What’s the rationale behind higher LDL? Promoting hypothyroidism?

The best way to keep nice and low levels of LDL is to be very active as humans should be. Eat more burn more.

Peat has stated that low cholesterol is not a good thing and recommends people to keep cholesterol levels at around 200. Low cholesterol harms intelligence, stress tolerance, speech fluidity and resistance to toxins. Athletes are a bad example of a paradigm to be followed. Endurance athletes don't age gracefully, and the huge amounts of fat oxidation simulates cancer metabolism, with less CO2, certainly aren't a good thing.

Higher cholesterol doesn't promote hypothyroidism. Yes, hypothyroidism can cause high cholesterol, but not the other way around. If your thyroid is ok, you will use more cholesterol and will produce more protective hormones, but, as I see it, that doesn't mean that turning into hormones is the only funtion of cholesterol.

 

[tara]

I have been eating a strict Peat diet for 5 months now (meat, gelatin, liver, oysters, eggs, coffee, OJ, lots of fruit, milk, cheese, coconut oil, butter, vitamin D, K, etc.).

I'm no expert, but here are thoughts:
"Strict Peat diet" doesn't make sense to me. That is, I'd be surprised if Peat would advise being strict, and I doubt it's helpful. \
Why did you adopt the strict diet? What were you hoping to change/achieve?
Do you have reasons for avoiding starches?

Looking at the cronometer output, my hunch is more food, including more carbs and/or more saturated fats.
Consider varying your diet a bit more. If you don't have trouble with them, you could try adding in some well-cooked tubers - spuds, sweet potatoes, etc.
Are you getting regular sunshine?

Before adding more supplements, I'd make sure you are getting more from your food.

 

[tara]

Could you please explain why eating 2,300 calories of good quality foods could be detrimental?

Unless you are particularly small, 2300 cals may not provide enough energy to sustain a healthy metabolism. It's possible that your system has reduced metabolism to adapt to not fade away on this low food intake, including by reducing cholesterol synthesis. Depression is one possible symptom of chronic energy deficiency.
I'm not an expert, this is speculation informed by reading. There is related comment in the thread linked. It refers to youreatopia, but she has moved the material to edinstitute now.

Recovery From Undereating - Youreatopia

P.s I highly disagree with individuals who make blanket calorie claims. If someone is weight stable on 2300 calories, and then force feeds 1200 extra calories everyday because someone else said that's how much you as a Male you should be eating... well that is a recipe for fat gain and liver issues. Not to mention a bunch of extra unnessesary PUFA accumulation.

I don't necessarily know that OP needs exactly 3000 calories (don't and can't know all the current factors and history), but 2300 seems low, and the low cholesterol could be explained by that, so more may be helpful.

 

[ANDREW CHIN]

3000+ is adapted for a 200lbs (mostly sedentary) muscular man, lol. That said, 2300 seems low.

There’s no such thing as low cholesterol symptoms... especially since you’re all describing totally fine levels like 130ish. That’s ideal to me, if the body is producing good amounts of testosterone, dht, dhea and so on. The healthiest populations in the world and most athletes have similar levels or less. What’s the rationale behind higher LDL? Promoting hypothyroidism?

The best way to keep nice and low levels of LDL is to be very active as humans should be. Eat more burn more.

I can't find the article online, but I read an article years ago, possibly by Loren Cordain, that explained why some tribal peoples had low cholesterol. From what I remember, many of these test subjects had low total cholesterol levels because they were dealing with infections. For example, parasites may be using cholesterol as an energy source.

 

[tara]

For example, parasites may be using cholesterol as an energy source.

Seems plausible.

 

[lampofred]

TMG increases blood cholesterol, if I remember correctly it does it by stimulating cholesterol secretion from the liver.

I'm not sure if Peat would recommend TMG, he's not a fan of increasing methylation.