Stay off My Operating Table: A Heart Surgeon’s Metabolic Health Guide to Lose Weight, Prevent Disease, and Feel Your Best Every Day

by Philip Ovadia

Based on my experience, HDL and triglycerides are more predictive of heart disease than LDL.

Blood pressure is the third. For good metabolic health, your top number should be less than 130 and your bottom number less than 85 without medication.”

That’s going to be your HDL cholesterol. For men, a ‘bad’ HDL number is less than forty, for women it’s less than fifty.”

My HDL is 39

With triglycerides, the fifth marker, you do want less than 150. Triglycerides transport fat back and forth between your intestines, liver, and bloodstream.” I pointed to another line on his test results. “Yours are high, and that means your body is working overtime to transport the fat.”

Mine is 253

As I told Jack, the criteria for diagnosing metabolic syndrome are: Waist circumference over 35 inches for women, and over 40 inches for men Fasting blood glucose of 100 mg/dl or greater or taking glucose-lowering medications Blood pressure higher than 130/85 mm Hg or taking blood-pressure-lowering medications HDL cholesterol less than 40 mg/dL for men or 50 mg/dL for women Triglycerides over 150 mg/dL

“Eat in such a way that you are hungry less often, which naturally results in a transition to a sixteen-hour fasting window without thinking about it.”

Animal fats you can substitute are butter, lard, and tallow. You can find lard and tallow in the baking aisle or the refrigerated section. That’s what our grandparents and ancestors cooked with. Fruit fats are acceptable as well. These include coconut oil, avocado oil, and olive oil.

We’re told to avoid meat and animal products because they are high in saturated fat, yet coconut oil, which contains an even higher percentage of saturated fat, is widely recognized as being beneficial to our health.