My first book began with the idea of sharing my personal cholesterol-lowering experience. A few years ago, I accepted a position as a pastry and baking instructor at a culinary school. It sounded like a perfect fit for me; after all, I had been a pastry chef for more than 30 years at the time.
What I did not realize was that this was a whole new career. I had never been a teacher before, nor had I ever trained to be one. I had to learn, very quickly, to create a curriculum, write lesson plans, speak in public and actually explain how things are done in a professional kitchen. It was a new and very stressful situation.
Cholesterol Cake
Stress is a known factor in increasing cholesterol levels. To make things worse, I had to grade my students on the quality of their work. That meant having to taste pastries and baked goods more or less every day. I know what you’re thinking: What a job! Who wouldn’t want to eat sweet desserts every day?
In the beginning, it was fun, but then I noticed that my body started to resist tasting pastries. The taste and even the idea of eating sugar made me gag. A normal reaction to any overdose, whether an illegal drug or sugar. In fact, some people believe that sugar is a powerfully addictive product.
What I didn’t know was that, unbeknownst to me, my cholesterol level was going higher and higher. Excess sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides, promote an elevation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL, the so called “bad” cholesterol) and reduce high density lipoproteins (HDL, the “good” cholesterol).
On top of that, my daily diet was erratic. To deal with the fatigue and stress of a new job, I got into the habit of drinking too much coffee–the mountain-grown type–brewed in (what else?) a French press, of course. I learned much later through personal research that coffee brewed as espresso, Turkish-style or French-style, although very flavorful, contains a compound called cafestol. Cafestol is known to elevate LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. It appears that using paper coffee filters take most of the cafestol out.
To add insult to injury, because I was working hard to learn my new trade, I made a habit of working through lunch, eating canned soup directly from the can. As you can imagine, these bad habits did not help my health.
I started having terrible heartburn and, to my dismay, at my annual check up, I discovered that my cholesterol level had shot up to 240. While it’s not terribly high, it was still 40 points above what is considered to be “normal”. What’s more important, it was way higher than it had been. My job was damaging my health.
Through my side business as a Nutritherapist, I met my next boss, Bill Swail, the owner of People’s Pharmacy. In addition to being a regular pharmacy, People’s has a great reputation in Austin for it’s alternative healing programs, such as nutritional advice, chiropractic services, supplements and homeopathy. It also provides custom-designed pharmaceutical compounds and offers wholesome quality food.
It was a match made in heaven. Bill offered me a position as a chef and Nutritherapist. My responsibility is to create healthy dishes as well as custom-designed food and desserts for people with certain food allergies such as gluten and dairy. I also create low-sugar desserts for customers with hypoglycemia and diabetes. I am able to continue to consult privately with people needing special dietary assistance, as well.
How I Lowered My Cholesterol Levels
When I began my new job at People’s Pharmacy, I decided to mend my ways and return to the healthy road I should never have left. Knowing my cholesterol had gotten too high, I resolved to use myself as a guinea pig and lower my cholesterol through diet and lifestyle improvements alone.
I went back to what I knew best, the French Mediterranean home cooking of my youth – and it worked. As you can see from the chart below, I still have some work to do, but I made remarkable and significant improvements.
After a year of improving my diet and lifestyle, my numbers looked as follows:
My Cholesterol Chart
My own short analysis:
Total Cholesterol: Good, but still some work to do. Continue to watch my diet.
Triglycerides: Very good. A good drop, due to the fact that I stopped eating sweet pastries daily.
LDL (“bad”) Cholesterol: Very good. A good drop, but can be improved. Keep on going!
HDL (“good”) Cholesterol: Could have been better. It should have increased. I’ll have to keep working on it.
Total Cholesterol/HDL and LDL/HDL ratios: Both of them are very good. I like to look at these numbers, as they are a better indication of the whole picture.
Although the goal is to decrease your total cholesterol level, the more important goal is to decrease LDL, increase HDL and lower your ratios.
And remember, I did all of this without the help of statins or any other drugs. The only changes I made were to my diet and my lifestyle.
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[...] on fabulous French gourmet recipes, his cholesterol levels were back to normal. Alain documents his cholesterol story along with tons of nutritional advice, meal plans, info on healthy foods and cooking methods, and [...]