Don’t fall for fad diets, eat what agrees with you

Recently, my routine blood test results showed extremely high levels of cholesterol, of the LDL variety. Add to that, a blood group (A+) that is sensitive to allergies, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, I felt like Jerome K Jerome in Three Men in a Boat, flipping through a medical dictionary and experiencing all the symptoms of every disease from A–Z, including the housemaid’s knee (which was the only one Jerome did not have).

Unlike the appendix, it seems that cholesterol is quite important as it helps form the structure of every cell in the body. Low-density lipoprotein is supposed to be bad cholesterol because it tends to build-up plaque in the artery walls and slows the flow of blood, triggering heart disease and attacks. HDL, the ‘good cholesterol’, carries the bad cholesterol back to the liver.

I promptly rushed off to a cardiologist who tuttutted and said I ought to begin taking statins to reduce my LDL level. Is it so bad? Isn’t there a debate about it, I enquired. The cardiologist pointed out my total cholesterol-to-HDL ratio was in the higher range. As for the causal issue, he said that until there were more scientific studies on the matter, he would go along with the conventional view that high LDL showed that something was off kilter. In any case, you only have to take a small tablet, he said. One small tablet taken over a period of months and years can cause side effects such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, difficulty with sleeping, etcetera.

Nope, I want to try and contain it through diet and exercise, I said, having never ever followed a diet. For me, diets equal deprivation, and I don’t do well with being deprived of anything. He looked doubtful but asked me to do it and return after six weeks. Could he recommend a good nutritionist, I asked. He shook his head. Why don’t you design your own diet, he said. Just avoid milk products like cheese, egg yolks, fried food, and sweets. Sigh, no quiches topped with a sharp pecorino cheese, no spaghetti carbonara, no fried eggs or Eggs Benedict — my dinner for the past six months. Arise ye deprivation pangs!

I approached a lower LDL-cholesterol diet by following the principle that eating what folks in one’s genetic lineage ate would be healthier and more importantly, would be deeply satisfying to the cells in one’s body.

The timing of meals may help reduce risk factors for heart disease, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol

Being a south Indian, I would eat dosas, adai, idlis and vegetables cooked from recipes in a 1950s South Indian cookbook, Cook and See by Meenakshi Ammal.

Along with diet, exercise and low stress were key, and came to occupy starring roles in my programme. A month has now gone by. Yes, I played tennis consistently, but did not jog that often. I have tried to not worry about deadlines or stress about things that need to be done.

Also, I had read a New York Times article on the perfect diet — large breakfast, less large lunch, and a small dinner. Your body needs to fast, said the study by Dr Hana Kahleova. Front-load calories early in the day to jump-start metabolism and prevent obesity, it said. The American Heart Association too has endorsed the principle that the timing of meals may help reduce risk factors for heart disease, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

The principle underlying the ‘eat early and eat big breakfasts’ has wider ramifications that apply to all of us. The logic is simple — the body’s organs, particularly the digestive process and the insulin functions, appear to perform at peak levels earlier in the day, and become more sluggish in the afternoon and slumber at night. This means that a big dinner is not going to be metabolised quickly, and will hang on to your body as fat deposits. Experiments on mice prove it.

The problem with scientific studies is the multitude of maybes and probables that litter their conclusions. Most are hedged in by comments such as: the study was observational only or there is no causeeffect takeaway from the results, and so on. You therefore have to commit to one study and its findings. On the food and timings front, I decided to adopt Kahleova’s advice, while Cook and See saw me through to the composition of the diet.

I can only speak for myself. I feel healthier, am carrying less weight around and have a general sense of wellbeing. I don’t experience any sense of deprivation, and I certainly don’t feel hungry after my simple night meal. If you plan to follow a similar regimen, my only advice is to find the food that satisfies you at a deep level, and create your diet accordingly. —Open magazine Shylashri Shankar is a senior fellow at the

Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi