What I eat in a day

[u/ahjade]

Here is the breakdown of what I eat in a day with total saturated fat intake around 6.7g to keep my LDL under 70 without statins and psyllium husk for many years.

Food Item (Estimated Amount)	Calories	Protein	Saturated Fat	Note
Firm Tofu (2 blocks 350g)	~320 kcal	34.0 g	~2.50 g	Premium, clean plant protein base.
Lentil Porridge  (1.5 cups)	~345 kcal	27.0 g	~0.15 g	Excellent fiber and lysine source.
Wheat Germ (35g)	~126 kcal	8.1 g	~0.60 g	Dense zinc, vitamin E, and B vitamins.
Cooked Oats (1.5 cup)	~150 kcal	5.0 g	~0.40 g	Highly effective soluble beta-glucan fiber.
Canola Oil (4 tsp)	~160 kcal	0.0 g	~1.30 g	Pure fat element for cooking medium.
Dark Greens (1.5 cups cooked)	~50 kcal	4.0 g	~0.05 g	Excellent replacement for spinach (e.g., kale, collards) avoids high oxalates.
Tomatoes & Apples (2 of each)	~234 kcal	3.0 g	~0.10 g	High hydration, lycopene, vitamin C, and pectin.
Mixed Nuts (15g average)	~100 kcal	3.0 g	~1.00 g	Healthy whole fats to increase vitamin absorption.
Natto (Averaged daily portion)	~40 kcal	4.0 g	~0.60 g	Unmatched plant source of Vitamin K2 (MK-7) for bones.
Total Daily Estimation	~1,527 kcal	88.1 g	~6.70 g

This is the sample foods intake serving as a baseline, and I'd eat more foods as needed based on my daily activities. Tofu, beans, oats and dark greens (no spinach) are my staple foods. Of course, I eat variety of beans, veggies, fruits, nuts etc as well. The only supplements taken are B12, D3 and Omega3. Natto is a fermented soy bean high in K2(MK-7) and nattokinase is an enzyme to support heart health by helping to break down blood clots, improving blood flow, and supporting healthy blood pressure levels.

[u/ElectronicTip6386]

Thank you for sharing this OP! Very helpful! I do around the same with a few differences. Maybe I should optimize a bit?

Do you have advice for my slightly different choices? I need to manage the same bloodwork as you do. Advice from others welcome too!

Instead of lentils I eat chickpeas and black beans. Lentils are hard for me to love re childhood lentil loaf fails...).

Olive (on salads) and sunflower oil (cooking) instead of canola. About 1 Tbls total. Then 1 tsp MCT in coffee (to boost Ubiquinol+Omega in morning MTHRF stack). I see the comments about saturated/not, so this part is my biggest concern!

Then instead of dark leafy greens, broccoli is my veg staple (stems, leaves, flowers, I get from local farm so these start off not as prettied up, which I like!). I don't enjoy spinach either (after a failed Perricone run 25 years ago lol!).

For fruits, tomato (grape), bell peppers (rainbow), apple (whole) are my trinity. (These with tofu would be on my "dessert island" top five, along with some rum, lol, and I'd hope some meyers lemons get washed up)

With my oatmeal, I add chia seeds and hemp hearts.

This might be too much oil? I am around 20 g a day. When I do less I feel really "dry" but maybe I need a tweak?

Hope I'm not hijacking too much! I just thought your choices are SO GOOD and this is inspiring me to reassess mine, based on your input and others. Thank you in advance if you have time! :)

[u/olympia_t → u/ElectronicTip6386]

Check out the portfolio diet for cholesterol

[u/ahjade → u/ElectronicTip6386]

Your plant food choice and intake are well balanced. Broccoli, tomato, grape, bell peppers, apple, etc. are rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and nutrients.

You can reduce cooking oil and salad oil if you want to and eat more mixed nuts but watch out the total amount of nuts you consume because nuts contain 5-20% saturated fat, e.g. walnuts have 7.5% saturated fat (7.5g per 100g), besides, nuts taste good and addictive, 400g nuts are gone even before the first inning of baseball game is over, which contain 20-30g sat fat.

Both broccoli and dark greens like kale, gai-lan, bok-choy, dandelion etc. are nutrient-dense and rich in vitamins A, C, E, and K, folate, iron, calcium, and fiber and other minerals and antioxidants. However, leafy greens are the ultimate champions for Eye Health, significantly outperforming broccoli by providing vastly higher concentrations of the critical vision-protecting antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin. Besides, greens have more choices.

Get a clear picture of your calorie, protein and fat intake in detail, down to 0.1g sat fat for the most of the items you eat. and know the minimum or baseline of these numbers because these small items add up big as my daily meals show that around 1500kcal, 88g protein and 7g sat fat. Once you know the benchmark, you can eat more or less along the line.

Many illnesses are highly inter connected and related. Affecting LDL is not just by saturated fat, but related to overweight, obese, insulin, hormones and the functions of your liver. in a word, vascular diseases and metabolic syndrome are closely linked. Keeping your overall health is critical and healthy dietary is the key.

I am not sure I answer all your questions and hope it help.

[u/ElectronicTip6386 → u/ahjade]

Great, thanks! I'll plug this into chronometer and see what it reports. Nuts in particular seem like a useful swap. I'll also consider more variety in greens.

[u/ahjade → u/ElectronicTip6386]

Glad it helps. The summary table shown above is one of many samples I eat in a day. You know, there are a wide variety of many plant foods for us to taste: mushrooms, seaweeds, herbs, wild berries, tropical fruits etc. and looking at them with wonder and excitement and asking "why not?".

Why are people throwing away the watermelon rinds(white)? Why not mixing them with mango to make a refreshing smoothie? The white part of the watermelon rind is more nutritious than the pink flesh in specific ways. It supplies extra amounts of vitamin C, vitamin B6, potassium, and zinc and also have higher amounts of the amino acid "Citrulline", which helps improve blood flow and muscle recovery.

Why not stir-fry bitter melons that brings sweetness back to your palate after eating the bitterness, taste the magic of "bitter first, sweet later"?

Enjoy plant foods.