Jo,

I think this will be a great thread, a benefit to all.

I want to say this first. You are incredible. I remember seeing a picture of your family. You have the healthiest looking family.

Whatever you are doing food-wise, you have done it right.

I will post more later.

dcarch

Never fatty foods any more. I had a gall stone a couple of weeks ago when I met doucanoe at the Farmer's Market. I thought I was dying. GB's don't like fat. I realized a couple of years ago that fatty foods upset my stomach. A friend that had her GB removed told me it was probably my gall bladder.

It's not hard for me to avoid them due to the pain involved. My sister lives on a lake and had a gathering yesterday. She has been fishing and freezing the fish all summer. We had batter fried bass, and pan fried walleye and other small pan fish. I had two bites of bass on one bite of walleye. Paid dearly for it - but it was worth it! :-)

I would think once a week would be fine for a little variety. And of course, it sounds like you are watching all the other things the family consumes. I think as long as your family is getting plenty of fruits and vegetables along with exercize that also contributes to heart health. Think about all the fatty foods farm families ate years ago. The amount of exercize off set the diet.

Although my grassfed beef has about 1/3 to 1/2 the fat content of grain fed beef, approximately the same as skinless poultry, and Dad's cardiologist referred people to us to buy it, I still imit my consumption to a couple of times a week.

I really think that part of the problem is that a serving of beef should be 3 or 4 ounces, and it's become 10 or 12 ounces on a regular basis, so I try to keep my portions smaller. Heck, I saw a restaurant advertising a 24 ounce porterhouse steak as a special! That's at least 6 meals worth...

I do have eggs 3 or 4 times a week, my doctor said an egg a day will have virtually no impact on my cholesterol levels. Any changes would be "scientifically insignificant" according to the Boy Wonder.

I refuse to eat margarine at all, it's just too icky. I have finally caved in and have been using the Land O Lakes butter/olive oil combination and it's tolerable for most uses.

I seldom eat cheese because I just don't care about it and I use low fat (or at least lower fat) dairy products like skim milk and low fat cottage cheese. I make my own yogurt from skim milk.

I try to eat no meat at all a couple of days a week, and I have lots and lots of vegetables and beans.

My big issue is actually baked goods, they are often high in fat, and things like salad dressings.

So, the cardiologist would shake his head at me once a week or so, probably, usually not over beef or cheese but over hot bread dripping with butter and just out of the oven, or my copious use of the salt shaker on those lovely freshly roasted vegetables.

Annie

I try to listen to my body. Too much high fat foods at once make me feel yucky in lots of ways and who wants to feel bad?
I don't take any meds and have good weight, bp and cholesterol. If any of those were to get out of balance, I would change what I eat.
It helps that I love most of the power foods.
But still, I eat what I want for the most part.
It also helps that I never fry- too much grease in the kitchen!

Being retired, we can chose to live inactive or active lives. I garden (when it cools down a bit, I'll be outside 8 hr/day). My husband works on cars, does heavy tree cutting in the garden, and walks 3-4 miles a day. I do too. We go out for lunch most days--we are very picky about quality and that limits where we go. No beef, lamb, sausage, but we do eat chicken breast (no dark meat), fish, and lean pork. Also limit salt. We eat lots of veggies due to an excellent farmers market, and I bake occasionally. Neither of us is on cholesterol or blood pressure medication, Oh, red wine more often than not in the evening.

I like meat.....but really don't eat enough...I have to remind myself to eat some emat about once a week, and eggs.
I love fried potatoes, but seldom...like perhaps once every 2 years eat them.
Can't bear canned veggies, frozen are oK but fresh is better.
When I fix a meal I never fix one without leafy greens.
But a 4 oz steak and a big salad makes me very happy.
I do however eat a lot of cheese, but very little salt.
I have to remember to put salt on the table for guests.

My grandmother fried everything but the thanksgiving turkey....chicken, pork chops, steaks, fish potatoes and even vegetables. She lived to be 85....but her husband didnt'
Yeah...I too noticed all the fried foods and meats....but I figured we may not see every meal.
Linda C

I am a major meat lover. Luckily, I like almost all of it.
Our consumption varies from week to week, but I have beef (lean, local, grass-fed), pork (same), chicken, fish/shellfish in my freezer all the time. We also keep a large variety of beans on hand. I raise chickens for eggs and that's another protein source. When they've passed their prime egg-laying life, they're butchered and frozen for stock or loooonnnngg cooked soups, pate', etc.

I use fat free or low fat cheeses, but buy some full fat for DH and to mix with fat free (makes it melt if you have just a littl fat in there).

We eat tons of fresh, frozen and home-canned fruits/veggies.
I bake with my own, fresh ground flours as much as possible.
I don't buy prepared mixed but rarely.

Bread is limited to just a few servings per week, as is cheese. Meat is probably 2 servings per day, but mostly all lean. I don't "exercise" per se, but I rarely sit down at home. Unfortunately, I sit 8 hours at work. I probably get another couple of hours of "walking" in at home before and after work (kitchen to bedroom to bath to kitchen, repeat....ha ha). We don't watch TV. Period. I surf the 'net for an hour or so just before bedtme.

It seems to work. I have maintained my goal weight (Weight Watcher's) for almost 2 years with this plan.

What did I change?
Gravy, lots of whole milk, butter, full fat cheeses.
Less bread and healthier. and waayyy less chips and fatty snacks.

My cholesterol and tryglycerides dropped from "concerning levels" to well within "good" ranges with the loss of 30 lbs. Yay!

Deanna

WQe eat beef once or twice a week, have several meatless meals a week, and tend to eat more chicken than anything, occasinally sausage, but I do love a good steak. I buy 4-5 oz steaks from Omaha Steaks (yeah, I know, I know) but we love them and they are just the right size and much better than what we buy locally. But we only have steak once every month or two. We eat lots of soups that have small amounts of meat in them.

Not sure what the balance is, but for our family, we eat lots of grains, cooked veggies, fruits. We're a dairy consuming family --- milk, full fat cheeses, real butter, creme fraiche, sour cream, yogurt --- usually one or more of the above are in 2 out of 3 meals in some quantity. We eat fish about once a week, chicken or pork a couple of times a week (a roast chicken will be enough for 2 dinners plus 1 lunch), and the rest of the meals are usually all vegetarian or with a very small amount of meat for flavoring (i.e. 1/4 cup pancetta, or one lamb sausage for a meal for three of us), though DS eats more lunches of sandwiches with meat. I never deep fry, but do use bacon or pancetta grease, butter and/or olive oil for sauteing. We rarely have any processed salty snack foods, and dessert is maybe twice/month on average (2x/week for DS).

Our diet is probably most lacking in raw veggies. My cholesterol and trigyceride levels are excellent, with HDL in the high range to "help lower risk of heart disease". DH will order a steak, hamburger or veal chop in a restaurant maybe once every couple of months. I almost never buy beef. For meatloaf or meatballs, I use a mix of ground turkey, lamb and/or pork and oatmeal or whole grain breadcrumbs.

I am quite skeptical about the whole dietary fat/cholesterol link to one's blood cholesterol. I think genetics has far more to do with such things than anything else. If someone is healthy and relatively active, I can't see that beef is any worse than any other meat, and we were designed to eat meat, after all.

But Annie made a good point about portion size if only because eating huge portions of meat at every meal likely means that you are not eating enough of other foods. Vegetables, fruits and grains are important parts of our diet, and if we're sitting down to a 15 oz steak, we aren't likely going to get our necessary servings of those foods down too.

We have meat at almost every dinner, but I cannot serve dinner without at least 2 vegetable sides, and we likely start with either a salad or a soup (containing more vegetables) to boot. We do a lot of whole grain hot cereals in the morning, and it's a rare lunch box I pack that doesn't have fruits as well as some form of vegetable (I LOVE V8 with my lunch) in it.

I think the best part about our diet is that we eat a great variety of foods, and they're almost all home cooked from scratch, so we avoid all the corn sweeteners, excess salt and other stuff that's added to processed foods.

I so agree with you, rachelellen on the genetics! I am 46 and weigh maybe 100 lbs, I eat extremely healthy and exercise always....if I don't take cholesterol medication, it is off the charts...really high, not just kind of high, not just on the high-side, like alarming high. My DH, on the other hand, grew-up on a cattle farm. Was raised on red meat, full fat milk, cream, eggs, bacon, ham and fried foods (his mother is from Mississippi and a wonderful Southern cook). He is usually overweight and doesn't exercise unless I make him. He wants the WHOLE steak, not just 4 oz. He eats veggies, not fruits. Snacks on ice cream and Whoppers. His cholesterol is below average always! UGH!! He's mad cuz I look better on the outside and I'm mad cuz he looks better on the inside!!!

Although I love food, cooking and eating, my 'everyday' diet is more about eating to live, not living to eat. Some people that tackle every meal as though it's their last, I think, tend to over eat and over indulge.

Genes, genes, genes....and of course, a little common sense!

dreamhouse, like you, I have a genetic tendency to high cholesterol, it was over 500 and is now in the 280 range on a full dose of statins. It doesn't matter what I eat or how much I exercise, it's there.

My brother has already had two heart attacks, a cousin died at 36 from a heart attack, two more had heart attacks before they were 35.

Given all those genetic issues, I limit my intake of saturated fats whether they affect my cholesterol level or not. I want to enjoy what I eat, so I won't do margarine, I'd rather do without completely than eat that stuff!

I do love vegetables and eat a lot of them, but I don't care for fruits much, so I just eat more vegetables!

Annie

I'm mostly vegetarian. I don't much care for meat, don't like to digest it, and don't like the taste. When I do eat meat it is poultry or fish. I use bacon occasionally as a flavoring, more often pancetta or proscuitto. My "problem food" is evil cheese. I just love the stuff and can't get enough of it. Cheese has some kind of addictive chemical in it I read. I have to work really hard to limit my consumption of cheese. The kinds I like are full of saturated fat. I do mix the fatty kind with lower fat kinds to try and mitigate some of the damage. I have no heart or cholesterol problems, and have been in generally good health my whole life. I have fairly decent genes. But I think the main issue with eating for health is to eat a balanced diet. It does no good to eschew red meat and then eat tons of sugar and fatty junk foods, which is what I see some young "vegetarians" doing. And these sugary drinks also are terrible for your health. I would be much more concerned about someone eating lots of sugar and junk foods than occasional red meat or eggs. I think that is what does people in, a diet of very little fruit or vegetables, and high in the saturated fat, including bacon, sausage, etc. I don't see a problem with maybe two strips of bacon if you're eating it with whole grain waffles topped with fresh fruit and yogurt. But that's now how most people eat. They eat processed foods. Also, a huge culprit in our national heart disease epidemic is lack of exercise. We lead such sedentary lives that it's almost impossible to control one's weight just with diet. I would say it's not beef per se that is killing us, it's how we raise the beef, how we cook it, and how much of it we eat, and what else we eat (or don't eat) along with it. For most of time, red meat was an occasional treat, and sausage was used as a flavoring for potatoes or beans, and it was a struggle to get ENOUGH calories for folks, not what we're facing today. Most people ate some kind of grainy gruel every day, not the rich dishes that have survived in the cookbooks and literature.

My dad's four main food groups are meat, fat, sugar and white carbs. He always goes shopping and lays in a supply of junk food when he comes to visit me. Also suggests that we go out to eat all the time. Once Christmas I cooked and ate like he likes just to keep the peace. I felt really bad after a week of it. Poor sleep, and generally sluggish with mild digestive upset all the time. Of course I guess one's body does kind of "adjust" over time. Anyway, dad had been plagued by digestive problems all his life, and has clogged arteries, yet for whatever reason, cannot change his eating pattern, even though it makes him suffer. He's kind of like an alcoholic. He thought he could get away with it when he was younger because he was an athlete and not overweight. He's still only a little bit overweight, but has terrible acid reflux along with colon and artery problems.

Shy of genetic conditions, I would say my dad is fairly typical of what's out there. BF's co-workers are dropping like flies now that they are in their late 50's and sixties. They all smoke, drink and eat like my dad, and are overweight. I would say eating a lot of red meat is in most cases part of a general pattern of poor health habits. Folks here are probably not typical American eaters.

I find that carbs (which I LOVE) run my cholesterol, and my weight, up. When I do my modified Atkins, my cholesterol, and weight go down. I love meat - red, pink and white, but I try and keep my portions small. I don't like/eat fish. Since meatless meals are mostly carbs, I try to stay away from them. I eat meat, eggs, cheese, etc, and make my own bread.

I don't like salad with big lettuce leaves, or even much lettuce, but I've developed a chopped salad that even my grandchildren will eat. I like my veggies, fresh or frozen, cooked to within an inch of their lives, but I like them. And I love trying new foods.

Genetics and eating habits are a funny thing...I grew up in a Greek family, very Mediterrean diet. My husband's father grew up in a Latin family (!) and his mother in the south (!!)...how it all seems so backwards to me...and so not fair! I grew up eating fresh green beans cooked in olive oil and fresh tomatoes, his were cooked in bacon!! Ya just never know....haven't had my kids' levels checked yet, kind of scared to :(

Here is a question to those of you that posted. Do you eat the skin on chicken? Particularly chicken wings? I don't eat much chicken - maybe a rotisserie chicken from Costco a couple times a year. And that skin looks so tempting! But fatty foods started to bother me a couple years ago, and as I found out recently - it's the gallbladder that does not like fat.

No, Teresa, I don't eat chicken skin, which I why I usually don't bother with chicken wings, there's not much after I peel off the skin, LOL.

Not because it's not good for me, though, it's because I just don't like it. I'll cook it with the skin on for those who like the skin, but I always peel the skin off and won't eat it, no matter if it's baked, fried or grilled.

Cooper loves it, though, so he's a very happy Sheltie if we have chicken. He likes it best fried but has to settled for roasted most times.

Annie

Mmmmmmmmm....chicken skin! :D