This morning, I attended a health fair at work and got my blood work checked for the first time since going paleo. (Unfortunately, the visiting clinic didn't offer the full panoply of tests – just the basics.)
I fully expected some big changes in my cholesterol numbers. After all, over the past six months or so, I’ve increased my saturated fat consumption by approximately a bazillion percent. (Which, by the way, isn’t hard to achieve, given that I used to abstain from eating anything with saturated fat – including meat – before converting to a paleo diet. Heck, less than a year ago, I was ordering meals from a macrobiotic society every Monday night. And now, I'm subsisting on what most would consider a high-fat diet.)
But when today's results came in, my total cholesterol count still gave me a jolt: 261 mg/dL. That's almost 100 mg/dL higher than it was last year.
A health advisor at the fair frowned at the number, and then handed me this handy chart:
“Your total cholesterol level is alarming," she began. "You may want to talk to your doctor about statins. Right now, you're clearly at risk for heart disease.”
Uh, oh. That doesn't sound too good.
More after the jump...
