All You Cooks and Bakers

[Port Said Red]

I was told recently by our practice nurse that my cholesterol had gone up a bit in my last check up. I said I put this down to the increase in baking and cooking I was doing since lockdown and retirement, which meant my butter consumption had increased.

She suggested I try plant butter as it was very low in cholesterol. I was a bit sceptical as to how it would perform, but thanks to Lidl having a deal on that made it cheaper than dairy butter, I thought I would try it.

Well, I have to say, my sponges are moister, both short crust and puff pastries for savoury or sweet products have drawn some great reviews from family and friends, and on my check up last week the nurse confirmed that my cholesterol levels had returned to their previous levels.

If you look around you can find it in both spread and block form, and I would highly recommend it. I have tried several brands depending on price point, so far the results have been much the same for all, although some of the spread versions are easier to work with than others.

Give it go if you haven't tried it, let me know what you think.

[nebristolred]

You'd be surprised, a lot of the plant-based stuff is great (there's a fair amount of horrible stuff too mind, but it's loads better than it used to be). I'd be wary about using too many 'ultra-processed' alternatives though, the amount of shite that goes into these things to make them mimic real stuff is insane and only recently really coming to light. In isolation though great stuff and glad it's clearly worked for you 

[Antman]

23 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

I was told recently by our practice nurse that my cholesterol had gone up a bit in my last check up. I said I put this down to the increase in baking and cooking I was doing since lockdown and retirement, which meant my butter consumption had increased.

She suggested I try plant butter as it was very low in cholesterol. I was a bit sceptical as to how it would perform, but thanks to Lidl having a deal on that made it cheaper than dairy butter, I thought I would try it.

Well, I have to say, my sponges are moister, both short crust and puff pastries for savoury or sweet products have drawn some great reviews from family and friends, and on my check up last week the nurse confirmed that my cholesterol levels had returned to their previous levels.

If you look around you can find it in both spread and block form, and I would highly recommend it. I have tried several brands depending on price point, so far the results have been much the same for all, although some of the spread versions are easier to work with than others.

Give it go if you haven't tried it, let me know what you think.

which brands?

[Port Said Red]

3 minutes ago, Antman said:

which brands?

I can't remember the name of the one in Lidl, it was one of those "when it's gone it's gone" deals, but the one I am using right now is Flora, both as a spread and in block and it's very good. I bought Vitalite Spread in Tesco's today as it was £1.50 with the clubcard, but I haven't tried it yet.

[LondonBristolian]

This thread is a valuable reminder that I'm eating too much butter!

[Slippin cider]

Everything in moderation.

[frenchred]

All well and good for baking but it's gotta be Anchor on toast!

[bellabella]

  You haven't asked for advice, but I thought my answer might help others.

 I think the thing to remember with cholesterol test results, they should never be seen in isolation, because the result you get is actually usually made up of three results, you only get given one figure (the sum of all three). But it is very important what all three results are, as to the significance,or not, of the rise. It's important what the ratio of each component is to the other. So if you haven't already and you're interested, I'd ask for a print out of your bloods, so you can see what element of the whole is raised.

   The first thing is, you are doing a lot of good to your body by cooking and baking your own food, you know exactly what's gone into your food, so that's perfect. But, you do, as @nebristolred suggests, need to careful when choosing plant based spreads etc. they undergo for the most part of lot of processing, (which can cause inflammation in the body and inflammation is now seen as one of the route causes of many of our modern diseases) unlike the traditional fats used by our parents, butter,lard etc.  Funny how we're more obese and have more cardicac disease etc. since the introduction of all these so called health foods, which are supposed to be better for us, than pre 70s!

 There could be other factors to the rise in your case and I'm surprised if they weren't discussed. Maybe it's possible other factors had changed by the time you had your blood rechecked and it had reduced?

 Obviously I don't know your medical background and don't have your results to see, but in my experience I would be looking at lots of other sources for current dietary advice, rather than the NHS. I know because I was in it, that there's still a lot of catching up to do, with regard to diet by the NHS. They are brilliant at what they do, but like many things, they have a little knowledge about lots of things. Unless they are specialist in that particular field.

 I'll give you a good example. Up until recently the advice for diabetics has been a low fat, carbohydrate diet. It's rare that patients ever came off medication once on it, and that's been their lot for the remainder of their life pretty much. However, my GP practice and others and the Diabetes UK website, name a high fat, paleo,keto diet (among others) as a potentially good diet to follow for diabetics. This advice to patients would have been unheard of 20 yrs ago. The result is some patients being taken off medication all together, having medication reduced and not seeing the huge highs and lows of previous blood sugar results. It would take too long to go into why, but suffice it to say, fat, meat,butter,dairy etc does not raise your blood sugar, which in diabetics, is crucial for Diabetics. Essentially fat doesn't get broken down into sugar, unlike carbohydrates that do. Despite the growing evidence in support of this the NHS have been very slow on the uptake.

@Slippin cider is right all things in moderation.

 Diet is a very complex subject, factots like heritage, sex, age, etc all have a bearing on how foods affect you, so no one diet fits all. At a time when the thinking on fat (not trans fats, which are generally accepted as problematic) is changing from negative to more positive, a plant based diet is also being pushed as the way forward, so no wonder people get confused. I think the main thing to take away, is as much as possible steer clear of processed foods, cook/bake your own food where possible from scratch, a treat once a week is fine and you're more likely to stick to healthier foods for the rest of the time, if you're not completely denying yourself something.  Finally, never underestimate keeping yourself hydrated.

Finally finally, I love baking

[BigTone]

On 19/02/2024 at 14:00, Port Said Red said:

I was told recently by our practice nurse that my cholesterol had gone up a bit in my last check up. I said I put this down to the increase in baking and cooking I was doing since lockdown and retirement, which meant my butter consumption had increased.

She suggested I try plant butter as it was very low in cholesterol. I was a bit sceptical as to how it would perform, but thanks to Lidl having a deal on that made it cheaper than dairy butter, I thought I would try it.

Well, I have to say, my sponges are moister, both short crust and puff pastries for savoury or sweet products have drawn some great reviews from family and friends, and on my check up last week the nurse confirmed that my cholesterol levels had returned to their previous levels.

If you look around you can find it in both spread and block form, and I would highly recommend it. I have tried several brands depending on price point, so far the results have been much the same for all, although some of the spread versions are easier to work with than others.

Give it go if you haven't tried it, let me know what you think.

I think the way forward is that you invite us all around to your place one day to sample your creations so we can give you an unbiased and collective opinion.