Is being vegan bad for your health?
Posted by Glen Ellyn Serv... on Sep 26, 2009 · Member since Aug 2007 · 315 posts
So I had my first full physical recently and since the last one I had I have been vegan the whole time. The last one I had I had been vegan maybe 6 months.
So the results can back, everything normal apart from my colestoral which is up quite a bit!!!!! WTF I have no history of these issues in my family and my diet has been great this past year.
Overall up from 182 to 203
LDL up from 117 to 135, it should be below 100!!
I was not expecting this at all!!!
I have always had high cholesterol, even as a child. It was over 200 when I was twelve. Every time I had it measured when I was vegetarian, it hadn't really budged at all. So I was also curious, and excited, to see what it was the first time I had it measured when I had been vegan since the last test. I was really hoping it had dropped significantly.
No such luck. My total was 203, four points higher than the last test when I was veggie. I don't remember my other counts, other than that my good cholesterol has always been really high but so has my bad cholesterol. I don't get this at all.
Any insights would be great for me as well.
Hmm. My cholesterol dropped by about 100 after I went vegan. All the things I know about (healthy weight, exercise, don't smoke, avoid saturated fats), you're already doing. Stress affects cholesterol.
Stress affects cholesterol.
Well I have had plenty of that in the last 12 months!!!
I was just adding an eta while you posted that. I went from this thread to the career thread and found you mentioned stress. That could be it. When I'm stressed I also make less healthy choices - like less regular exercise 'n things (especially exercise because I'm so tense that I can't take full breaths). It could be the craziness that was your life this past year.
I'm not vegan but a couple years back they discovered my cholesterol was like over the max. I said, "What? But I don't eat meat!" They did some more tests and discovered I have thyroid disease. Apparently it can increase your cholesterol. Have you asked them to check TSH, T3 and/or T4?
I'm not vegan but a couple years back they discovered my cholesterol was like over the max. I said, "What? But I don't eat meat!" They did some more tests and discovered I have thyroid disease. Apparently it can increase your cholesterol. Have you asked them to check TSH, T3 and/or T4?
They did the thyroid check and said it was fine.
Exercise! Mine has always been low, but it got a lot lower when I started regular exercise. My ratio of HDL to LDL greatly improved too (which is more important than your total number, actually).
I'm sure that I'm prolly gonna get some people mad at me for saying this, but do you eat a lot of soy? I have been doing a bunch of research on the dangers of soy (for a paper I need to write) and while everyone keeps saying that it's not dangerous, I feel like if there is that much information out there (and doctors) saying that it is, maybe it really is. The soybean industry is huge, and thus they have a lot of money to market their products and make them seem really awesome, just like the meat and dairy industry do.
Anyways, I thought I had seen something in an article I read about cholesterol, and here is it:
"The published report suggested that individuals with cholesterol levels over 250 mg/dl would experience a "significant" reduction of 7 to 20 per cent in levels of serum cholesterol if they substituted soy protein for animal protein. Cholesterol reduction was insignificant for individuals whose cholesterol was lower than 250 mg/dl.
In other words, for most of us, giving up steak and eating vegieburgers instead will not bring down blood cholesterol levels. The health claim that the FDA approved "after detailed review of human clinical data" fails to inform the consumer about these important details.
Research that ties soy to positive effects on cholesterol levels is "incredibly immature", said Ronald M. Krauss, MD, head of the Molecular Medical Research Program and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.35 He might have added that studies in which cholesterol levels were lowered through either diet or drugs have consistently resulted in a greater number of deaths in the treatment groups than in controls - deaths from stroke, cancer, intestinal disorders, accident and suicide.36
Cholesterol-lowering measures in the US have fuelled a $60 billion per year cholesterol-lowering industry, but have not saved us from the ravages of heart disease."
Here's the link to the rest of the article, if you want to read it:
http://www.mercola.com/article/soy/avoid_soy.htm
Again, I'm not trying to say that everyone should go off soy entirely, just be careful maybe if you eat a lot and are expecting it to do wonderful things for your health.
I did not have my cholesterol checked before I went vegan, but it is now 145. I have been vegan for 9 years, vegetarian for 2 prior to that, and (at the time of the cholesterol test) I exercised pretty regularly - I ran 5-10 mi per week (more like jogging... I'm pretty slow and struggle at exercising!). And, I was pretty stressed :/ But, also, I'm 21, and there's a correlation between age and cholesterol (but that may have to do more with the accumulating effects of a diet high in cholesterol and saturated fat, but who knows. Liver function probably does normally decrease over the years, though probably not by much in a healthy, non-drinking person).
Maybe you can monitor what you're eating on a weekly basis to see how much fat and saturated fat you're eating, since dietary saturated fat contributes to the synthesis of (endogenous) cholesterol. I like to use:
http://www.mypyramidtracker.gov/
But there are plenty of other sites, like The Daily Plate and Nutrition data (which are both cool because you can do a "custom entry" for items not listed).
I don't think being vegan can bring down cholesterol drastically if it's been high for decades, but I'd think it would reduce it.
Another idea is familial hypercholesterolemia, where the liver can't "sense" the amount of cholesterol in the blood stream, and just keeps synthesizing it (resulting in high cholesterol regardless of diet. though it would probably be even higher than 200). I know someone with this... it's a pain, since he basically has to eat as healthy as possible (he was told he should basically be vegan + whole grains, which doesn't usually happen...), but will still have high levels. He (and other people with FH) get little bumps/pockets of cholesterol deposits under the skin too. It's not super common but not entirely rare either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familial_hypercholesterolemia
There's also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familial_combined_hyperlipidemia
"The published report suggested that individuals with cholesterol levels over 250 mg/dl would experience a "significant" reduction of 7 to 20 per cent in levels of serum cholesterol if they substituted soy protein for animal protein.
If my life is shorter because I don't eat animals, then so be it. I won't fucking eat meat again. EVER!
I'm sure your trying to help. But still. FUCK OFF!
"The published report suggested that individuals with cholesterol levels over 250 mg/dl would experience a "significant" reduction of 7 to 20 per cent in levels of serum cholesterol if they substituted soy protein for animal protein.
If my life is shorter because I don't eat animals, then so be it. I won't fucking eat meat again. EVER!
I'm sure your trying to help. But still. FUCK OFF!
ouch. that totally wasn't what i was implying at all. that came from the article, not me. i would never encourage someone to eat animals. the whole point is that soy won't lower your cholesterol like it's touted to, and in the case of a meat eater who is eating soy just for the health, they may not be helping themselves any.
When I first when vegan I ate a lot of soy because I ate pre-packaged food and my cholesterol dropped by 60 straight away (now it's down about 100, but I eat more whole foods now).
Posting links touting eating meat is never going to be well received on a vegan site. For the record. And I wouldn't use that article for a paper. It's not primary research. The article was written by a cookbook author and someone who works for a defense contractor. I don't exactly see where the animal protein is sourced from the article, but I think it's this:
Guy, Camille, "Doctors warned against magic, quackery", New Zealand Herald, September 9, 1995, section 8, p. 5.
The New Zealand Herald is a newspaper, so the article authors didn't even source their material from primary research.
I'm not suggesting anything about eating meat. I myself don't eat meat. It's not an article that says eat meat. It's just about how misleading research about soy has been. Over the summer I ate a bunch of soy. I wanted to know more about the food I was eating so I researched it. I'm in agreement with everyone here that eating meat is not good. What I'm trying to say is that there are downfalls and misconceptions about soy as well that not many people know about. So if you don't wanna accept that, fine. That's not my problem. But I'll bet that a big part of your high cholesterol is your sour mood, and that should be the first thing you fix. You don't need to be so mean. Seriously, I'm trying to help. Don't tell me to "FUCK OFF!" when you're the one asking for advice. Understand that I'm not trying to persuade/force you to eat meat. I don't want that. I'm giving you information that I know. Hence the idea of a FORUM!!!
So take that, gesc! :P
"The published report suggested that individuals with cholesterol levels over 250 mg/dl would experience a "significant" reduction of 7 to 20 per cent in levels of serum cholesterol if they substituted soy protein for animal protein.
If my life is shorter because I don't eat animals, then so be it. I won't fucking eat meat again. EVER!
I'm sure your trying to help. But still. FUCK OFF!
ouch. that totally wasn't what i was implying at all. that came from the article, not me. i would never encourage someone to eat animals. the whole point is that soy won't lower your cholesterol like it's touted to, and in the case of a meat eater who is eating soy just for the health, they may not be helping themselves any.
That rude response was totally uncalled for. Moderators shouldn't allow that kind of talk no matter how passionate one is about veganism. People whom replace meat and dairy with nothing but soy products are not making wise choices and indeed could be jepardizing their health. Drinking lots of soy milk, eating a lot of processed soy foods isn't healthy. An abundance of anything isn't healthy. Heck if one substitute meat for only carrots one would get sick from Vit. A overdose.
To the OP: Look at your diet. Are you eating an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy fats like avacodo and nuts, lots of beans, and lots of whole grains, and a bit of soy products? If you can honestly say your vegan diet is like this, then your cholesterol shouldn't be rising and there are other issues you should explore with your MD,
Good luck.
So, I think that among the vegan suggestions, we're all in agreement:
1. Lose excess pounds, if you've got any
2. Eat healthy foods
a. Eliminate/nearly eliminate saturated fats
b. Eliminate trans fats
c. If you eat grains, make them whole grains (you're probably already doing this)
d. Eat a variety of fruit and vegetables
3. Exercise
4. Tests to keep in mind: thyroid level checked (which you've done), familial hypercholesterolemia
Remember, the Doctor is always in.
http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/david-tennant-doctor-who.jpg
Some people have naturally high colesterol all the time, sometimes too high. your body can make its own colesterol from the foods you eat, and even if you are veg it may need meds or other options to bring it down. When my mom stopped eating meat and dairy for a while, even while still on her 3 colesterol meds, it actually went up!
OMG, am such a Dr Who junkie! Drool.