The Anonymous Widower

Does Gluten Lower Cholesterol?

I am a coeliac, which means that I don’t eat the gluten in wheat, barley and rye.  But does not eating gluten mean that I have other health problems.

My doctor is worried about my cholesterol, which despite eating all the right things does seem to be rising.  Over a period of four months, I stayed off all of the dangerous foods, used Benecol and the level rose by half a point.  This is worrying. Especially, as I’m very anti taking statins.  Nothing particularly against statins, but I just don’t take drugs unless they are absolutely necessary.

The levels for your information were as follows.

• December 2008 – Total 6.0, Trig 1.3, HDL 1.16, LDL 4.25
• April 2009 – Total 6.7, Trig 1.1, HDL 1.63, LDL 4.57

I’m not a medical person but I think I can draw the following conclusions.

1. The triglyceride levels are well within the normal range.
2. The high-density lipoprotein levels are considered in the range for greatest protection against heart disease.
3. The low-density lipoprotein levels are considered high, but not quite in the highest risk level.

But can it be that by sticking to my gluten-free diet, I’m actually causing the problem.

I found this under a heading of Your Cholesterol Levels will Probably Rise in an article called Side Effects of a Gluten-Free Diet.

For the first four decades of my life, while I was still eating gluten, my doctors always told me I had the lowest cholesterol levels they’d ever seen. It retrospect, it’s easy to see why — my intestines weren’t absorbing any of the cholesterol in the foods I was eating. Those days are over. Now I have to watch my cholesterol levels along with everyone else. When I check food nutrition labels for the presence of gluten, I also check the fat and cholesterol content. It’s very important to choose low-fat, low-cholesterol foods. Packaged gluten-free products are often higher in fat than their gluten-containing counterparts. This is especially true of packaged gluten-free cookies, crackers, and cakes. The American Heart Association points out that foods that are high in soluble fiber have been shown to help lower cholesterol — so look for beans, peas, rice bran, citrus fruits, strawberries, apple pulp, and gluten-free oats.

This doesn’t apply to me, but I can see the logic.  I don’t eat many packaged biscuits and cakes, but I do it lots of berries, beans and apples. Apples I didn’t eat until I tried to lower the cholesterol. Now I eat one a day instead of the occassional crisp.

But this doesn’t seem to explain my problems.

I also found this article called Gluten Lowers Cholesterol on Dr. Mirkin’s web site. It’s from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and it comes from the University of Toronto, so it meets all of those criteria needed to be a proper scientific report and is not something produced by a health nutter.

Here’s the abstract.

A study from the University of Toronto shows that a high-gluten diet helps lower oxidized LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and uric acid.

Many studies show that eating whole grains helps to prevent heart attacks, but doctors are not certain why. Before the bad LDL cholesterol can cause plaques to form in arteries, it must be converted to oxidized LDL. This study shows that gluten does not lower blood levels of the bad LDL cholesterol; it helps prevent LDL from being converted to oxidized LDL cholesterol. Gluten also lowers blood levels of triglyceride that increase heart attack risk.

There is an interesting discussion on the problem on the US web site, celiac.com. Now this is not proper scientific fact, as it is really a collection of peoples’ opinions.

Someone suggested the South Beach Diet.

Starting the SBD was a pretty radical change for me, but I found pretty quickly that I really enjoyed eating this way and felt lots healthier. If you’re interested you should get the book, but basically you eat lean meats, LOTS of veggies, good fats (e.g. olive oil, nuts), dairy (if you can tolerate it, which I can’t) and small portions of fruits and whole grains. People tend to think of it as a “low-carb” diet in the same vein as Atkins, but it’s really not. It’s just focused on GOOD carbs (whole grains, fruits, veggies) and GOOD fats.

This is virtually my diet, but I perhaps don’t eat as many whole-grains as I could.

There was also a warning about statins.

Other than that, eat loads of fruits and veggies, good protein sources like fish and drink more water. Do not be talked into cholesterol lowering drugs unless you want liver or kidney problems. They have serious side effects and my brother, who has celiac disease (in denial) and Type 1 diabetes, took one and now his kidneys are in poor shape….from the drugs.

I’ve had similar warnings about statins from a couple of lawyers.  As my wife was a barrister, I can vouch they are always a good source of gossip about doctors, hospitals and drugs.

I shall be researching this further.

July 2, 2009 Posted by AnonW | Food, Health | Coeliac/Gluten-Free | 1 Comment