This is what I had been hoping for: a significant measurable improvement in cholesterol test results after one month of eating only plants.
“Four weeks, forty points” is a convenient mnemonic; these results actually represent a 5-week interval and a 45 point drop in total cholesterol.
HDL was essentially unchanged, but LDL (“bad cholesterol”) and triglycerides dropped 25%, back within the recommended range.
According to the American Heart Association’s online calculator, this puts me at only a 1% risk for heart attack or stroke within the next 10 years.
Plugging in my numbers from a month ago – when I’d been eating vegetarian but still consuming dairy – bumped my risk up to 1.8%. That’s almost twice the risk, although that’s a misleading way to characterize the relative difference between two numbers that are low in the absolute.
Cholesterol isn’t everything when it comes to cardiovascular disease, but I’d much prefer to maintain healthy blood lipid levels via my diet than to suffer the cost and side effects of a drug like a statin.
My blood pressure, which had been hovering closer to 130⁄80 for many months on both a high-meat-and-cheese and a cheese-heavy vegetarian diet, was labeled as stage 1 (out of 3) hypertension. By contrast, my blood pressure while eating only plants has been roughly 120⁄70 for weeks.
This culinary lifestyle has been cheaper and more interesting than any other I’ve tried, and it’s eliminated my high blood pressure and cholesterol. I have yet to find a downside.
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