Looking for meat without cholesterol
Date: 2/12/05 at 6:57PM
There is quite a lot of information out there about lowering cholesterol, and how to change one’s diet to reduce the “bad” cholesterol and increase the “good” cholesterol. There is especially a lot of effort put into educating heart patients about healthy eating habits. Most of those heart patients (85% of them?) had heart bypass surgery because of blocked arteries. Now, seriously, telling these patients to lower their cholesterol is a good thing.
However, after heart surgery, one of the first things you are told is to eat lots of protein. In cases like mine, of course, this is to give the body all the amino acids it needs to repair itself, and especially the heart as it reshapes itself. In fact, I am supposed to eat meat every day (every meal?).
So, on one hand I’m hearing:
- Limit your sources of cholesterol (meats, fats, and hydrogenated oils)
On the other hand, I’m hearing:
- Eat more meats
I’m O.K. with the ban on hydrogenated oils. I can live without margarine (mostly). I’m O.K. with eliminating the fat. But how do I eliminate the meat, and the fat that’s in the meat if I’m supposed to be increasing my meat consumption?
Perhaps I should note that before the surgery, I wasn’t much of a meat eater, and consequently had very good cholesterol levels and no clogged arteries. It has been quite an adjustment to make sure I have some kind of meat every day.
And so my dilemma: how to increase protein in my diet without sending cholesterol levels off the chart?
I hear fish is good for us (some fish, anyway), but there are those warnings to limit fish to a couple times a week. I suppose there’s chicken, but even “white meat” (including the “other white meat”) has fat in it.
I suppose this means another quest.
