As I mentioned in a previous post about my cholesterol, the last few times I have had bloodwork, the results show low HDL cholesterol. One doctor told me that there was really nothing I could do about this - that women were often able to raise HDL levels through exercise, but that men with low HDL cholesterol did not have a way to raise HDL levels.
In reading Gary Taubes Good Calories, Bad Calories, I came across the following:
In the early 1950s, clinical investigators began to characterize the physiological mechanisms . . . that could explain the appearance of diseases of civilization going back over a century--the basis, in efect, of this carbohydrate hypothesis. . . . Gerald Reaven proposed the name Syndrome X to describe the metabolic abnormalities common to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, all, at the very least, exacerbated by the consumption of sugar, flour, and other easily digestible carbohydrates. Syndrome X included elevated levels of the blood fats known as triglycerides; low levels of HDL cholesterol, now known as the good cholesterol; it included hypertension, and three phenomena that are considered precursors of adult-onset diabetes--chronically high levels of insulin (hyperinsulinemia), a condition known as insulin resitance (a relative insensitivity of cells to insulin), and the related condition of glucose inolerance (an inability to metabolize glucose properly). Over the years, other abnormailities have been added to this list: the presence of predominantly small, dense LDL particles, and high levels of a protein called fibrinogen that increases the likelihood of blood-clot formation. Elevated uric-acid concentrations in the blood, a precursor of gout, have been linked to Syndrome X, as has a state of chronic inflammation, marked by a high concentration in the blood of a protein known as C-reactive protein.
Taubes goes on to say that Reaven's "Syndrome X" is now known as metabolic syndrome.
Did I have Syndrome X/metabolic syndrome? Probably not. Because I only had low HDL, but did not have high blood pressure, was not obese, and did not have elevated triglycerides, I probably did not have metabolic syndrome. But, was eating a low fat diet including things like a breakfast of skim milk and grape nuts cereal, a turkey sandwich with wheat bread, Sun Chips, and an apple, and a dinner of baked sweet potato, a salad with no dressing, and grilled chicken breasts leading me down a path towards metabolic syndrome? Maybe.
Thankfully, I have seen the error of my ways and switched from a low-fat diet high in carbohydrates to a low-carb diet that involves obtaining more of my calories from fat (protein is essential, but low in calories, so reducing carbs almost necessitates increasing fat intake). One example of the transition was a change from skim milk to low carbohydrate, high fat dairy such as Fage Total yogurt, heavy cream, and Lifeway plain "Krestiansky" Real Kefir.
I hope and believe that I am taking the right path. I have lost weight since making the transition, but I also have abandoned exercise (not consciously or intentionally, but have done so nonetheless) so that is partly due, I expect to muscle loss. Many would say my diet of bacon and eggs and high fat foods would result in weight gain; it just hasn't happened, and I don't think it is because I am some genetic anomoly. Rather, I expect the carbohydrate-hypothesis is correct and refined carbohydrates cause weight gain rather than fat. I really need to schedule a blood test to see if my cholesterol numbers will prove this out. I'll share the numbers when I get them.
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