Born in 1979 can only mean this year I turned 40! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to it, but since being here, it’s actually ok. In fact, I’m grateful I made it and look forward to what is said to be an amazing decade (according to many older and wiser friends!)
Not long after the milestone arrived and went, I received the standard letter from the NHS informing me I should get my health checked out to assess any potential risk I may have for heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and diabetes. Gladly I arranged my appointment for the following week.
I made a conscious effort to arrive in my civis rather than active wear. I’m not entirely sure why I did this, probably to swerve the ‘have you been to the gym?’ question and avoid the ‘Yes, I’m a Personal Trainer’ answer. Anyhow, I arrived as planned and was greeted by a friendly health care professional.
Height, weight, BMI (Body Mass Index) and blood pressure were all normal as I thought they would be. Cholesterol however, I knew would be very interesting.
Eating a diet high in natural healthy fats could potentially give me a high cholesterol reading and indeed it did. The nurse informed me that my HDL (High Density Lipoprotein – the good one) was the highest she had ever seen.
Normal levels for HDL cholesterol in women of my age should be around 1.2mmol/L. My reading was 2.91mmol/L!! This pushed my combined reading to over 6 meaning it displays as high.
Am I concerned by this? No not at all. Was the health care professional concerned? Not overly as it was the good cholesterol, but she seemed alarmed when I mentioned my diet is high in fat.
I felt it necessary to mention my profession now and we went on to discus nutrition and the effects it has on overall health…. Uncanny really! The outcome of risk I have of stroke or heart attack in the next 5 years is 0.51% so I would say my high fat diet and regular exercise is the way forward and plays a huge role in my overall wellbeing.
So there you have it, eating fat is OK! My arteries haven’t clogged nor am I overweight. Fat is not to blame for all the worlds health problems.
I would urge anyone reading this to stop using low calorie cooking sprays, low fat versions of cheese, milk or yogurt. Swap margarine for butter, use cream in your coffee, cook in coconut oil and certainly don’t let anyone tell you eating an avocado is a syn!
