Want to reduce your cholesterol?

1) eat a moderately hypocaloric diet designed to bring weight to the lower ranges (low in total energy)
2) eat a diet which contains extremely little to no food dense in absorbable/digestible saccharides...this excludes almost all forms & quantities of bread, rolls, pastas, all forms of rice, many legumes, and any grain based-food - whole or refined. (low in total carbohydrate)
3) eat a diet moderate in total fat, with most of the fat coming from monosaturated fatty acids, followed by saturated fatty acids, with PUFAs forming the minority of fat intake. (moderate to slightly high in total fat)
4) eat a diet moderate in food products which contain high amounts of nutritious indigestible saccharides (spinach kale broccoli romaine lettuce and other deeply colored cruciferous veggies, tomatoes melons and other low-sugar fruits, strawberries and other berries) (high in low-energy, low-sugar, high nutrition fibrous food sources)
5) eat overly processed, nutrient-void food products very infrequently (low in junkfood)
6) eat good protein sources shown to improve cardiac risk factors, such as soy protein (which is shown to improve cardiac profile for some reason), and fish (which is high in omega 3s which likewise improve cardiac risk).
7) do moderate physical activity several times a week.

Do all of the above and the overwhelming majority of people wouldn't need statins.

The problem is, no one wants to do the above. It means you have to make a really big lifestyle change and commit yourself to healthy living at the expense of pleasure. You know, sometimes I read other health-related boards and I am AMAZED by how stubborn people are and how much they refuse to give up their pleasures even when faced with dire consequences. There was this one diabetic fellow with poor control who said he sometimes drinks full sugar soda because "he doesn't like the taste of diet". That just FLOORED me. How could a diabetic put that junk in his body? As someone who's insulin resistance isn't yet life threatening, I couldn't even *imagine* finding such a minor compromise (switching from full sugar to no sugar) a problem. Of all the changes I've had to make to my diet, switching to no-sugar soft drinks doesn't even register on the "PITA radar" for me. However, there are people out there apparently with much more life-threatening diseases (T2 diabetes) who refuse to make even such a minor change (or will only do so after much fussing & whining). I just don't understand that at all. Don't they realize they are killing themselves? To be diabetic is, in essence, to be violently allergic to a high sugar diet. This diabetic is literally *poisoning* himself every time he drinks that stuff.

I sometimes forget that people like us are in the minority. Many people are like children who want their cake and they want to eat it too. They want good health, but they don't want to make an effort... they want a doctor to give them a pill and they want to drink a bottle of soda & eat a pint of takeout rice. Reality just doesn't work like that.

Sadly, I think most people *would* sooner welcome a statin before making even moderate lifestyle changes. Yes it's true that a lot of the demand for statins is artifical (big pharma telling us that we need it or our insides will rot), however a lot of it is also genuine public demand. People have insulin resistance, they have high cholesterol, they have heart disease, but they don't want to commit to healthier living. They want pills instead.