February Discussion Summary

It is a toss up whether eating RTE cereals for 12 weeks is a realistic intervention, I think you were all split up the middle. For those of you who said it was, you all agreed that those motivated would be willing to try different things to get their diets in check. For those of you who said it wasn't realistic, you believed people would never follow this diet, especially for 12 weeks since it was so monotonous. All of you did agree on one thing though- that overall health is much more than just increasing fiber and whole grains- so the dietitian needs to give the big picture when discussing weight and cholesterol management.

All of you agreed that encouragement would be the best method to motivate someone who is more concerned with weight loss than improvement of labs (LDL levels). A lot of you also mentioned the importance of educating the pt on the role of LDL cholesterol and why it is so important to manage (great idea!). Most agreed that suggesting more nutrition intervention (not just whole grains) could lead to more weight loss, however whole grains are still important because they can help keep the pt full, longer. Small, baby goals seem like the popular choice here for weight loss, and reminding the pt that weight loss is and should be a slow process! They didn't gain the weight in a week and they won't lose it all in a week either.

Most of you explained the high LDL reduction on a total fat and caloric decrease in the subjects. You also mentioned exercise as a factor for reducing the LDL cholesterol and the increase of fiber in the diet. The most important part of these responses was the mention of the importance of the dietitian visits (that is always why labs shift in a positive way!) Go RD's!

Great blog for February ladies!