food is complicated

[cellio]

My doctor says that my "bad cholesterol" is a smidge high (good's fine) and I should cut down on dairy and red meat. I eat very little red meat (really not much meat at all, though lots of fish), but I did bump up the dairy intake a bit in pursuit of calcium after learning of some family medical history this summer. Ok, fine, I'm perfectly willing to take calcium/D supplements instead, go back to soy milk instead of yogurt for breakfast, etc, but it does raise a question for me.

Presumably it is possible to find the right combination of nutrients in nature, without taking supplements. Sure, our understanding of "right" has changed over time, but for at least several decades I gather that we've grokked the importance of basic vitamins and minerals, and I don't remember supplements being nearly so prevalent a few decades ago as they are now. So how does one get enough good stuff (calcium, protein, vitamins) without getting too much bad stuff (cholesterol, sugar, excess calories), without supplements? What is the canonical modern (wo)man supposed to eat? (The last time I looked at the food pyramid it wasn't very helpful for gleaning details. It also assumed 2000+ calories/day, which a sendentary blob like me shouldn't eat.)

Comments

[gingicat]

A pre-industrial lifestyle - and even most post-industrial lifestyles - was pretty well geared to burn up all that cholesterol. All those gyms are making money off the people descended from the ones who didn't starve to death in famines or collapse in the fields.

[cellio]

I guess I don't know how burning cholesterol works. Are you saying that exercise either prevents, or accelerates the removal of, cholesterol? That would make a difference, yeah.

[gingicat]

I don't know the exact mechanism, but basically, a hard-working body NEEDS the "bad" cholesterol.