InTheAir wrote:It sounds yummy, but I can see the missing food group there.
I'm a firm believer in the importance of fat in diet, which is probably why Nila had really high cholesterol last time he had a blood test!
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/2.gif)
I hope I have got a better balance for him now.
Well, since cholesterol is produced by the body itself (and an extremely integral part of cell walls to boot), dietary cholesterol doesn't really make a difference. Well, it makes like a 0-4% (if at all) difference in blood cholesterol.
Some studies are also showing that diets high in GOOD fats for some reason lower cholesterol. You mean if I eat real food that isn't processed, it's good for me? Amazing. (sarcasm)
Also, high cholesterol hasn't actually been linked to heart disease- not in the way people seem to think, if you read the studies anyway. Some are studying now whether or not high cholesterol is actually a symptom of heart disease/health problems, and not a causal factor. Especially now that doctors are starting to see the holes in studies that "prove" high cholesterol causes heart attacks/disease.
For example, 50% of people who have heart attacks have 'high' cholesterol (recommended cholesterol values are completely made up anyway if you dig a little, like blood count (though science is finally studying and finding that the blood count can go way waaaay lower than they thought)). So let's say that 50% of people who had heart attacks last year were under 5'6" in height. By the same logic that some people come to after seeing such a statistic, then being 5'6" or shorter means you're at extremely high risk for heart attack! Go check into a hospital now, before it's too late! Maybe they have a medication to make you taller.
Please excuse my sarcasm, it's been a rough week and I'm get tired of hearing how bad cholesterol is- it's part of you cells! You cannot live without it! It's part of your hormones and your brain! If you aren't eating enough good fats, your liver will produce cholesterol for you. Excess insulin will increase your TG/HDL ratio- which means eating sugars and grains increases insulin, and increases TG/HDL ratio.
If you change your definition of carbs from bread/pasta/grains and switch it over to veggies, then you fix much of the problem right there.
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But that's all for humans. Birds? They have different diets- even across species. Here's what I glossed from one interesting study. "Although the study previously mentioned demonstrated that dietary fat could influence cholesterol concentrations, the diets in that study contained very high saturated fat concentrations that would only be used experimentally and not in captive parrots kept under normal conditions." The pionus group of this study was fed a diet with a lower saturated fat content than either of the diets used for the African grey parrots but had higher LDL by the end of the study. "This suggests that there is a genetic difference in cholesterol metabolism in parrots as in man, and it might explain why some species are susceptible to disorders of cholesterol metabolism. Traditionally, South American species eat diets very low in fat in the wild, essentially being consumers of fruit. The variation also demonstrates that different psittacine species should have specific diets developed for individual species requirements."
http://avianmedicine.net/content/upload ... sterol.pdf
In this study they were looking for a link between cholesterol and atherosclerosis in parrots, but could not find one, stating it was possible that the early signs of the disease were too difficult to detect and diagnose. What they did find was a link, in a collection of nine birds, between fatty liver disease and cholesterol; those birds with evidence of hepatic lipidosis also had high LDL cholesterol. But what gives? How can the birds (the pionus group) with the least fat intake have the highest LDL in the study (
since we all know high fat diets increase cholesterol- sarcasm)? Why, in the African Greys, was there no difference in cholesterol between dietary groups? Can we really make a baseline of what, in all parrots, cholesterol should be, or what fat intake should be, based on studies like this, which have such small sample groups?
Why is there medication for lowering cholesterol in parrots when there hasn't been enough study done to make it safe???
End rant. Stepping off of soapbox.
Hane only likes almonds if they're sliced.