I’m heading off to San Francisco in a few hours. Rather than worry about how to transport my shakes, I’m just going to do time-restricted feeding (“intermittent fasting”) by drinking all my meals this morning and afternoon, then I’ll eat again after I get home tomorrow. I had to bring everything I need with me to work, including an umbrella. Fun fact: I’ve been to San Francisco almost 10 times now, I’ve never been rained on (misted on, yes, but no rain) looking at the forecast, this might break that streak.
This morning I got back my blood tests from the week of doing Grape Seed Oil. Feel free to head over to the spreadsheet of results and check them out. Grapeseed oil is on Column O.
Let’s see… my LDL-P came way down (1242 to 849) – into the “normal” range thanks to the PUFAs, my LDL-C also came down (116 to 72) – again into the “normal” range. My triglycerides did indeed go up, though nowhere even close to the result I got with avocado oil in November: that one went from 113 to 199, this new test with grape seed oil went from 104 to 117. I guess we’ll see what happens with the subsequent tests with Saturated and MUFA: will the triglycerides go down or not?! While you’re on the spreadsheet, you can pop over to the other tabs and see the ongoing results coming in from the n=3 experiment that’s also going on. Both females have had really stable triglyceride levels, regardless of heavy cream or avocado oil. Makes me wonder if the 199 was a freak aberration (yes I was fasting at least 12 hours before the test).
So what else does the blood test show? On PUFAs my cortisol increased dramatically (9.8 to 12.7) and my fasting insulin predictably went down to 2.4. That’s actually the lowest I’ve ever gotten, 2.7 was the level when I did Avocado Oil. Oddly, my CRP (which along with cortisol is a marker for inflammation) was slightly up but still far lower compared to what I was getting in November.
Huh. So if I have genetically high LDL, I should switch from avocado oil to grapeseed oil?
Absolutely not. High LDL isn’t a problem and you shouldn’t be taking in lots of PUFAs or statins just to lower it artificially.
Thank you! My only concern is annual bloodwork for my company and an annual physical. In the former, I don’t know if it affects my health insurance premiums, but it might. In the latter, every doctor is just always so concerned about my LDL…
If that’s the issue then I would recommend gaming the system: do the Feldman protocol, probably just the second half where you consume 5000-6000 calories of mostly fat for 3 days before the test.
Great idea! I might do that for this year’s annual test. I don’t know for sure if they take it into account for my health insurance $ but they very well might. Thank you!
With these results, would you recommend Avocado Oil as a substitute still or would sticking to all HWC be better? Currently my wife and I use 15g of Avocado Oil and Heavy cream together.
Can’t really say until the experiment is over in a few more weeks. Personally I like doing a mix of HWC and avocado oil.
This is what I have been doing as well. 1 TBS of Avocado Oil and 1 TBS of HWC.
It seems to be a good middle ground (and taste!)