Tweaking diet, better choices key to good cholesterol levels
For the Sun- Times
Artez Thompson soaked up his grandmother’s cooking lessons in such detail, he surprised his mother when he was 9 years old by making her dinner — smothered chicken with pan- fried mushroom gravy, garden mashed potatoes with butter, sour cream and garlic, and corn oven roasted to just the right texture at 350 degrees.
He thickened the gravy with Roux and sautéed mushrooms.
The 41- year- old Englewood native, who lives in Gage Park, has now refocused his cooking skills to help himself and other epilepsy sufferers reduce their cholesterol levels.
He bases his recipes on advice from two of his doctors.
Thompson eliminates fried foods and slashes carbohydrates by replacing a bowl of pasta for dinner with 3 ounces of pasta during the daytime, for example, and at night he eats a protein and a green leafy vegetable.
His routine is based partly on the ketogenic diet — a special high- fat, low- carbohydrate diet that helps to control seizures in some people with epilepsy.
Some people with epilepsy are sensitive to gluten, soy products, processed sugar, monosodium glutamate ( MSG) and artificial sweeteners ( particularly aspartame).
Thompson’s dietary redo at a young age is a key factor in keeping high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, experts say.
“If you can get kids to eat fish at a young age, that’s a huge benefit,” said Laura Yudys, a registered dietitian with Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital. “That’s because it’s really hard to change our dietary preferences as we get older.”
Yudys, who guides stroke victims in eating healthy, recommends eating fish two to three times a week — and to include salmon, tuna or mackerel in at least one of those three servings.
Students in grades 3- 5 at 14 Chicago Public Schools are learning about wise food choices through a nonprofit group’s curriculum. The non- profit, Pilot Light, was started by chefs Jason Hammel ( Lula Café), Paul Kahan ( Blackbird, Dove’s Luncheonette) and Matthias Merges ( A10, Billy Sunday).
Research has shown the program helps students feel more confident about trying new foods, making wise eating choices and understanding the long- term impact of healthy eating, said Alexandra DeSorbo- Quinn, executive director of Pilot Light. Ten of the 14 schools using the curriculum are in the South Side neighborhoods of Englewood, West Englewood, Chicago Lawn and Hyde Park.
Yudys said adults can also get motivated by focusing on eating more “good” foods rather than cutting out the “bad” ones.
Those good protein foods, in addition to fish, include beans, nuts, seeds and minimally processed soy, and for those who cannot eat nuts and seeds, smooth peanut, almond, sunflower and other “seed” butter spreads, she said.
Kirsten Straughan, a registered dietitian for more than 20 years, said the best diet — a plant- based diet — should be high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and lower in pork, turkey, chicken and red meat.
The key is to stay away from saturated fat found in butter, coconut oil and the skin on chicken, as well as cutting refined carbs such as flour, rice, pasta, white breads and cake, cookies and crackers, said Straughan, program director of nutrition science, kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition.
It’s also important to add in polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats found in foods such as avocados, nuts, seeds, olive oil, canola oil and safflower oil, Straughan said. Since we all have to eat, it’s also important to give yourself a break. Yudys says she tells patients that if they’re doing well 90 percent of the time, they can enjoy that piece of birthday cake or another treat the other 10 percent of the time.
“As long as it’s not every day,” she said of the treats.