what I believe to be the single most important thing you can do to lower your cholesterol?  I bet you don't, since it was a big surprise for me when I made the connection! There are many reasons why the body creates cholesterol and the pharmacutical companies have provided us with many medications to bring it down, there is one thing nobody is telling you, and that thing is probably more effective than all of their drugs. Curious?  Good, because I am about to tell you what my research has shown!

The much-touted reason for elevated cholesterol levels in the bloodstream is the Western love affair with animal proteins, right?  Eat a lot of meat and you will have higher cholesterol level. Reduce your intake of animal proteins, including dairy, and your cholesterol goes down, simple.  But it really isn't quite so simple. While it is true, for the most part, that consuming animal proteins elevates cholesterol, high cholesterol can be linked to other factors.  For starters, can "they" explain why people who consume the same diet have different cholesterol levels? These differences are often attribute it to genetics, but I don't buy that. Learned genetic behavior I do buy into, and I think that has a lot to do with the amount of cholesterol our bodies produce, regardless of what we eat. 

Let me share an example from my own life. I am from Spain, and generally speaking, the Spanish are genetically predisposed toward lower cholesterol levels.  While it is true that the Mediterranean diet is very healthy-lots of fish, fresh vegetables, grains and olive oil-they do drink a lot of wine. Now, does wine lower cholesterol? Am I suggesting that we should be drinking more wine? Well, no. However, I make the point for a reason, and I will get to that later.

Back to my story...

My cholesterol has always been pretty low: around 170. For those of you who are not familiar with the numbers, 200 is considered high, and over 250 is very high. Granted, I have never been a big meat eater, and I am Spanish, so I assumed that "we" just don't have cholesterol issues. While there are other factors to take into consideration-such as the ratio of HDL (good) to LDL (bad) cholesterol-that is not what I am talking about today. As I became more conscious of how I ate, I really began to pay attention to all of my blood work. I was able to get my cholesterol down into the low 160s. At this time, I had eliminated almost all dairy and animal proteins and was exercising  regularly and feeling that I was in a pretty good place. 

Then, about 4 years ago, my older brother passed away, quite tragically.  We were all devastated and deeply saddened.  My sadness seemed to penetrate every part of my being. I was sad about his death, but I was also sad for the hardships he endured in life because of the choices he made.  During this period of mourning, I stopped eating entirely, but when I came back to food, I went back to eating a very low animal protein and dairy diet.  About six months after his death, I went for blood work figuring that my cholesterol would continue to be very low, and was stunned to learn that it was up to 178! 18 points? My cholesterol levels had not been that high in ages!  I asked the doctor to explain the spike, considering that my diet had been nearly perfect. He looked at me like I had two heads and said, "Are you kidding? Most people would die for cholesterol numbers like yours!" 

"Yes, as lovely as that is," I replied, "I am still questioning it because it doesn't make sense to me. How could my cholesterol levels go up when I am not consuming cholesterol?"  Basically, he just shrugged his shoulders and told me to have a nice day.  Puzzled, I left the office, but I continued to ponder this new development. 

We all know that after someone passes away those left behind go through various stages of mourning.  Well, after a few months, I realized that I had stopped feeling anything: sadness, anger, depression, nothing. It was a weird sensation, but that was how I felt, and it prompted me to look at my own life. I thought, "This is not okay.  Where have I been?" Granted mourning and working and living had kept me busy, but I seemed to have removed myself from my own life.

I thought about my brother not living up to his fullest potential, and leaving the rest of us with sad and negative feelings, and then I looked at my past year. I thought of all the tears, and I thought of my life before his death.  Had I been happy?  Truly happy?  Did I have the connection with my kids that I wanted to have. Did I have the quality of life that I dreamed of having? The answer was no; I did not, and I decided at that moment that I had to be done with the tears, done with the sadness, done with the excuses as to why I was not happy and grateful for my entire life. I know my brother would have wanted me to be happy, so for him, and myself, and my three boys, I chose happiness.

From that point forward, I worked to become more aware and connected to the people in my life. I played with my children more, talked to them more, and just hung out with them more.  They were and are the joys of my life.  I also left a relationship that was not working for either of us. Today, I have to say that the last few years have been the best of my life because I made the simple decision to choose happiness.  The point of this story is as follows: at the time of my decision to choose happiness, I also chose ice cream, and many other foods that were not so great for my cholesterol.  I became lax because I was having fun going out more with my kids and eating more casually and not caring as much about what I was putting in mymouth.  I had a lot of laughing to catch up on, so that's what I did, and it was a good year. 

I knew when it was time for blood work that it was not going to be good. I mean, for no reason at all, my cholesterol had gone up 18 points the year before, when I was so sad and depressed about my brother and eating perfectly. So, this year, what with the way I was eating, I expected to see a number I had never encountered before. Well, I wasn't wrong; it was a number I had never seen before! And I was totally shocked. Would you believe it was 132! My cholesterol levels had dropped 46 points! What was going on? My doctor only shrugged his shoulders and said, "Go figure." So I did.  I figured that it was crystal clear what had happened!  I was happy. Not everything was perfect, but I was choosing happiness.  While my food was fine, it was far from perfect, and my number had never been so low.  So, I guess there is a connection between good and bad numbers that has nothing to do with food!

Happiness. Such a simple way to lower cholesterol. It's not genetics, but it might be the wine-I said I would get back to the wine and Spaniards! Perhaps their cholesterol levels are lower because of their food choices, their lifestyle. Perhaps that wine makes them more relaxed and possibly happier?  These are only my observations, but I think they bear consideration. 

Here's to happiness. Just choose it!