Bigger not always better (women say "yeah, right")

Well, today I checked with Carter BloodCare to see if they had my blood type & cholesterol information (from my donation Tuesday); they did. There's good news, and bad news:

Good: my blood type is the same as it was 20 years ago (!), when I last donated blood. Mine is [O Pos] which is the most common type.

Bad: my cholesterol is significantly above the recommended 200 (and no, they didn't break it down by HDL (good) or LDL (bad) cholesterol). It's time to get serious about getting this fixed (all things being equal, I'd prefer to be in the majority groups which do not have high cholesterol or high blood pressure).

I am not alone: 1 in 5 people has high cholesterol, and 1 in 4 has high blood pressure. Theory: this high cholesterol could also explain why my pulse is higher than it should be (acceptable range is 50-100 and mine's around 90).

I went to the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute website and got this info:
"Based on the information you provided, the number of calories estimated for you to help you lower your blood cholesterol level is 2000. Based on your estimated calorie level, your daily limit for saturated fat would be 13 grams and your daily limit for total fat would be 66 grams."

That is very good information: I always seem to work better when I have hard targets for which to aim.

According to the DASH Eating Plan (hey, they avoid the D word, too!) a BP higher than 140/90 indicates hypertension. Mine is in the prehypertension category, and won't be considered good until it is consistently below 120/80.

Today's acronym:

DASH   Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension

Today's abbreviations:

CHD    Coronary Heart Disease

HDL    High Density Lipoprotein

LDL    Low Density Lipoprotein

NHLBI  National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

NHBPEP National High Blood Pressure Education Program

RD     Registered Dietitian

TLC    Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes

Spotted on health.discovery.com:

What's the bottom line? At 9 calories per gram, fats are our most caloric energy source, so we need to keep track of how much we're eating, no matter what type. Still, you'll improve your health greatly by eating more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, including omega-3 fatty acids. Make an effort to cut back on saturated fats and try to avoid trans-fats. How can you scout the supermarket aisles for products with trans-fats since they're not yet on food labels? Look for the words "hydrogenated" and "partially hydrogenated" and steer clear of these products.