Easy lunches for bad cholesterol

January 19, 2024 9:16 AM

You have been diagnosed with very high cholesterol and need to make simple but profound dietary changes. What do you eat for lunch at work? What no-thinking snacks do you like?

See above. I'm a good, mostly vegetarian cook and think I have dinner handled. The problem is lunch and snacks. I know what I need to cut out (for years, my staples have been whole-milk Greek yogurt parfaits, PBJ, and nuts; I also had a daily chai or cocoa habit, and per my doctor, those all have to go). I need new, healthier stuff that's similarly easy to make.

I don't much like meat, and am particularly disgusted by most sandwich meat; I also can't stand the texture of beans or legumes except for lentils, and I also don't do well with raw vegetables. I know I should become a less picky eater, but I was under insane amounts of stress before this happened, and now it's a hundred times worse -- this is not the moment, maybe, to confront my limitations.

When I try to find ideas online, I get deluged with either basic dietary advice that I've already followed all my life, fad diets, an insistence that nuts will either save me or kill me, vague suggestions of boring chicken-based meals, insistence that the real thing I need to worry about is carbs, and above all the assumption that my goal is immediate, massive weight loss. I do not need these things, especially as I already struggle to restrict my diet without restricting it to excess. I just need lunches that I can make easily for work. If you or a loved one need to eat like this, what are your go-to meals?

(I do not need advice about exercise or meds; I've got that covered. Also, I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I'm in a bad place right now and at a point where I just need simple answers.)

posted by thesmallmachine to Food & Drink (27 answers total)

IMO, and as somone with high cholesterol, the foods you are currently eating (nuts, peanut butter) are fine from a cholesterol perspective. Not sure about yoghurt, but I think that's ok too.

The general advice with high cholesterol is to avoid trans fats, which are far more present in meat than in vegetables - it sounds like you are already doing that. I actually ate cut up vegetables for lunch, but really any prepared vegetable dish is fine. And the occasional peanut butter sandwich.

If you'd like to add more stuff, things like oatmeal and other fiber-filled dishes can have a small impact. The best general advice is to increase your fiber input.

IMO though, if you have a family history of high cholesterol, then your diet really won't lower it by much and having high cholesterol, absent any other indicators like high blood pressure or difficulty exercising doesn't mean much until you are 50 years old plus.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:28 AM on January 19 [9 favorites]

Hummus will be a big help to you, I think. Healthy, good for the heart, good for lowering the pesky numbers. You can add things like low fat crackers, the raw vegetables you don't mind, whole grain bread, etc. The key is that hummus is easy to make, easy to find, you can just grab a tub of it and a handful of dippy things and have a decent snack or small meal. Also baba ganoush for similar reasons.

I believe a Mediterranean style diet is generally good. You could make batches of lentil soup or casseroles and have portions for lunches. Soups in general might be good for you to get vegetables into your diet without dealing with texture.
posted by fight or flight at 9:38 AM on January 19 [4 favorites]

Does hummus count in your bean-hating? Hummus shmeared on whole wheat/whole grain bread (check for the good stuff with minimal ingredients and at least 4-5g fiber per slice) is a no-thinking favorite.

Also on the sandwich front - egg salad with yolks removed, mashed up with some dijon mustard, a little olive oil and generous dill. About 80% as tasty as your regular egg salad and 100% healthier.

Egg white wraps on whole wheat tortillas/wraps. Throw in some lightly sauteed spinach and mushrooms and a dollop of cottage cheese. Make a couple on Sunday and throw them in the freezer for easy reheating.
posted by windbox at 9:41 AM on January 19 [2 favorites]

You mention being under extreme amounts of stress already. It’s my understanding that high stress can lead to worse cholesterol levels. Your existing diet doesn’t sound terrible, so it may not have much to do with your high cholesterol. PBJ made with all natural peanut butter (the kind that separates, no palm oil added) on whole wheat bread is probably not bad.

If you’re consuming stuff that has a lot of saturated fat it’s probably worth cutting back on that, and maybe trying to add more whole grains for work lunches. Grain bowls can be about as easy to prepare as you want them to be.
posted by bananana at 9:43 AM on January 19 [5 favorites]

Yes to Hummus. For me a standard work lunch is hummus with lots of tomatoes and olive oil.
Why not bring leftovers from dinner? Two standards for me are: Briam/vegetable stew/ratatouille (kinds of all the same basic ingredients) and Green beans cooked with tomato, olive oil and herbs, optional potatos/carrots. Finally for work I often splurge on fresh berries and lowfat yogurt or instant oatmeal.
posted by melamakarona at 9:46 AM on January 19 [1 favorite]

My current fave easy lunch:

Defrost a bag of frozen broccoli florets either in the fridge or on the counter (I buy the 12oz pack at Aldi for like $1.09)
Make rice in rice cooker or take some from a pot of rice you made earlier
Add some kind of protein (tofu, chicken strips, or one of the numerous fake meat options out there)

Combine, splash with your choice of seasonings (bottled stir-fry sauce if you're limited to typical grocery stores, Golden Mountain Sauce, Lao Gan Ma, and toasted sesame oil if you have an Asian market)

Microwave.

Defrosting frozen broccoli is great because it helps prevent overcooking it. It's easy to overcook it if you're heating it from frozen because it often won't defrost evenly, but this way you just have to heat it up a little.
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:59 AM on January 19

I am in similar though slightly less dire straits when it comes to cholesterol. I am vegetarian, so there are no meats contributing trans fats to my diet, the only source of it is dairy. So I cut dairy out. And I try to eat more fibre. Also, like everyone above, I love hummus. Hummus with either tomatoes or cucumber and a bit of black pepper makes for a very tasty sandwich.
posted by spindle at 10:09 AM on January 19 [1 favorite]

I make tofu sandwiches. I’m lucky - we have a smoker and I smoke my extra firm tofu. I slice it and make sandwiches with it on whole grain bread with mustard and romaine.

If I couldn’t smoke it I would probably fry the slices in a nonstick pan first to sort of dry them out a bit.
posted by hilaryjade at 10:12 AM on January 19 [2 favorites]

Oh and regarding the daily chai or cocoa, yes depending on what’s in those they can be very sugary or fatty. I’d recommend exploring teas that you can enjoy without adding sweeteners or cream. They can even be cold brewed at your desk- put a tea bag in a mug of water for a few minutes, and you’ve got some refreshing tea.
posted by bananana at 10:13 AM on January 19

My husband had bad cholesterol and couldn’t take the meds and it significantly reduced after he started eating a can of mackerel on a salad most days for lunch. Probably a lot of people wouldn’t enjoy that (I certainly wouldn’t) but his numbers went way down and the rest of his diet previously was extremely healthy so there was little he could change. Smelly but tasty options: Smoked mackerel- I enjoy that a lot. Mackerel and trout pate is also delicious and I could do that on crackers for lunch.
posted by catspajammies at 10:31 AM on January 19 [1 favorite]

avoid trans fats

You probably mean saturated fats?
posted by mark k at 10:46 AM on January 19 [1 favorite]

Assuming your diet is not completely ridiculous (like, there wouldn't be a show on TLC about how you've only eaten Pixie sticks and butter every day for the past 30 years), the potential improvement in cholesterol levels achievable with dietary changes is most likely to be a small fraction of the potential improvement achievable with appropriate medications. If the need to use dietary changes to fix your cholesterol is causing you significant amounts of distress—especially if you have a history of disordered eating—I want to reassure you that medications for hyperlipidemia are extremely effective even in the absence of dietary changes.

Many people, including many doctors, have a cultural or emotional fixation on the use of dietary changes as morally superior to taking daily medication. I personally (a board-certified internist, though not YOUR board-certified internist) think this is hogwash. Diet matters for many reasons but if a patient came to me in distress because they felt overwhelmed about how to fix their diet to address their high cholesterol, I would tell them... take your medication, don't worry about your diet, and come back to recheck your lipids in a couple of months.
posted by telegraph at 11:01 AM on January 19 [25 favorites]

Mayo Clinic's website says, "Unlike other dietary fats, trans fats — also called trans-fatty acids — raise 'bad' cholesterol and also lowers 'good' cholesterol. A diet laden with trans fats increases the risk of heart disease. The more trans fats eaten, the greater the risk of heart and blood vessel disease."

Also, creamy peanut Butter Jif website lists ingredients as, "Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Contains 2% Or Less Of: Molasses, Fully Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (rapeseed And Soybean), Mono And Diglycerides, Salt." Look for peanut butter that does not have hydrogenated vegetable oil. At my supermarket, there is a machine that makes peanut butter from peanuts - no other ingredients - and it is delicious. Also, sunflower butter is delicious and healthy.

Canned salmon on a salad is also very tasty.
posted by SageTrail at 11:33 AM on January 19

Since you do like lentils, simple lentil salads are nice. I had a period when I was still working when every morning I would cook some beluga lentils, drain them, tip them into a jar with some olive oil and a little balsamic, and that would be the main part of my lunch. I would add a little crumbled feta or whatever if I was feeling fancy.

Another option might be things built around overnight oats. Again, easy to transport in a jar, prep in advance, will still be edible at lunchtime.

I suggest these two things because there is evidence that both legumes and oats will have a positive impact on cholesterol levels, by virtue of their high fibre content.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 11:45 AM on January 19

I can recommend this chai tea as needing no extra sweetener and being nice with nondairy milk: Good Earth Sweet + Spicy. The Red Rose Sweet Temptations are also great if you can tolerate stevia. Triglycerides are part of my problem, and lowering sugar seems to help, so that's where I'm at. I would say keep your cocoa and find a way to make it work for you-- if it makes you happy, find a way to get it in line with your goals or just accept that you're keeping this thing instead of something else.

Also, oatmeal need not be sweet or gloppy. I make rolled oats with enough water to moisten them (I do not boil them, I don't like eating indistinct sludge oats), then put on everything bagel seasoning and avocado. The fiber is helpful plus the fat in the avocado helps with HDL. It's a nice breakfast or add an apple and a little treat to make it a lunch.

Pea soup is easy, especially with an Instant Pot or slow cooker, and delicious, and full of helpful fiber and protein. You can make a week's worth of lunches of pea soup + crackers + fruit all at once.
posted by blnkfrnk at 12:35 PM on January 19

I want to support what telegraph said.

However, if you still want to tackle the issue dietarily, look into the Portfolio diet. It has nothing to do with weight loss, isn't a fad diet, is specifically for lowering LDL cholesterol. In brief it recommends - eating 50 g plant protein from soy products or dietary pulses such as beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils; 20 g viscous soluble fiber from oats, barley, psyllium, eggplant, okra, and certain fruit; 45 g nuts (tree nuts or peanuts); and 2 g phytosterols.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcad.2018.05.004

Vegetable barley soup? Pea soup like blnkfrnk mentioned? Peanut, Sweet potato and Kale soup?
posted by lizjohn at 1:49 PM on January 19 [5 favorites]

My diet is similar to yours (vegetarian/ pescatarian, natural peanut butter, etc) and I also had high cholesterol, which runs in my family. The thing is, both my good cholesterol - LDL - and my bad cholesterol - HDL - were equally high: my doctor said, eh, they balance each other out. You have probably already checked this out, but just in case you don’t know your good cholesterol numbers and / or your doctor is ignoring it to focus on the bad, I’d urge you to check out both numbers. Because honestly, our diet is good.
posted by mygothlaundry at 2:08 PM on January 19 [1 favorite]

You want lower fat and higher soluble fibre to lower your cholesterol. It's okay to cook the soluble fibre.

Eat a raw apple, peel and all every day, and you are getting a nice chunk of soluble fibre.

Bake low fat snacks such as muffins or cookies with oatmeal, substituting some apple sauce for have the fat or oil in the recipe. You can also just buy oatmeal muffins or oatmeal cookies or oatcakes, but then you'll have to read the labels to make sure they are not full of sugar and fat.

Cook carrots with the peel on them, and reheat in the microwave at lunchtime. Dress whatever would make them taste good to you - miso or salt and onion powder, or ginger and honey.

Eat an orange with the ordinary pith that comes between the segments. Raw is better than canned.

Dried figs are a sweet snack.

Avocado is a good source of healthy fat and provides you more soluble fibre. If you want to avoid losing weight or feeling hungry avocado is good.

Breakfast cereal such as cheerios and milk is another easy choice with lots of soluble fibre.

Winter squash soup is another good choice. So is borscht.

Do you like cornmeal? Cornmeal is good for soluble fibre. Polenta, cornbread or cornmeal tortillas are good. If you stuff the cornmeal tortilla with some cooked vegetables, such as chopped briefly microwaved tomato, or those precooked carrots above, or salsa you add some more of the good stuff you want to increase.

A smoothie made from frozen fruit is good.

Air popped popcorn also counts as a good food to reduce high cholesterol.

Salsa is good.
posted by Jane the Brown at 2:31 PM on January 19 [2 favorites]

These days, I either work from home, or at a university that has excellent meal offers because they have a nutrition science department, so lunch is rarely an issue.
But, there are two lunches that have sustained me at different times in previous jobs:

#1: a small tub of cottage cheese + an avocado + a tomato + perhaps some watercress or ordinary cress or fresh basil + Swedish crisp bread. (I just realized IKEA has it. Here knäckebröd is widely available, but IKEA has stores all over the world). Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. My colleagues liked this concept so much that it became a permanent feature when we got a lunch lady. It is very simple, nourishing, tasty, interesting texturally and good for your health. It is high in protein and fiber and low in carbs and low in saturated fats. When the lunch lady arrived, we got olive oil to pour over it, and it was still good nutritionally, and even tastier. Some colleagues would supplement with canned sardines or mackerel.

# 2: this is either a bit more complicated or far less. Once I regularly baked a whole wheat bread where I put in a lot of different seeds and stuff, including either olives or raisins and a bit of nuts or almonds. It was an overnight, high hydration bread, so it kept well for a week. For lunch, I had it with organic crunchy no-additives peanutbutter with apple slices on top. It was really delicious, and amazingly healthful on all parameters. I had this staple for breakfast and lunch at a time in my life where I needed a total reboot, and after four months, my doctor was amazed with the results. For dinner I ate the same as the rest of our family. Lots of fish, lots of whatever vegetables were on the market, including some salad, lots of butter and sometimes beef, pork and creamy sauces. I even drank wine most nights.
Unfortunately, I have since become a much better baker, and I can't recreate the dense texture of that bread no matter what I do. It was a bit like those "stone-age" no grain breads you can sometimes find, but it did contain whole grain flour and yeast. However, from a nutritional point of view, I think the knäckebröd does the same for you, and it it as tasty. I just miss the chewiness of the denser bread.
You really need to find a good brand of peanutbutter, with no added elements. That is essential.

I'm recommending knäckebröd because it literally can be kept forever in a dry space, is delicious and nourishing in the best way. You might be able to find rugbrød depending on where you live, and that is an even better replacement, but commercial versions can be full of sugar and additives and are not good at all. I find making a good rugbrød from scratch overwhelming but YMMV.

A very Danish solution that I don't think can be recreated elsewhere is what my dad did (yes, high cholesterol is often hereditary): he had pickled herrings on rugbrød every day for lunch, often with an ice cold snaps. I had a colleague who did the same at work -- without the snaps. But dad also took his medicine.
posted by mumimor at 2:32 PM on January 19

I try to eat like you’re describing.

Lunch:
- super simple: ryevita crisps with those individual packets of smoked salmon - I pull the salmon from the freezer and then it’s fine in the work fridge (this one does require a suitable place to eat because fish). This works with tuna, hummus, etc
-overnight oats in a mason jar (oat milk, oatmeal, berries or other cut up fruit, a small amount of sunflower seeds for crunch.)
- do you like grain-based salads?
- another yummy tip is roast peppers, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant with balsamic vinegar over the weekend. Roll up in tortillas, with or without a hummus layer, for lunch
posted by warriorqueen at 2:40 PM on January 19

I want to agree with others here that if you have "very high cholesterol" and your current diet is not entirely saturated fat and sugar, then dietary changes are not going to get you down to healthy cholesterol levels. Very high cholesterol is genetic and while you can mitigate it to some degree through diet, you can't make a big enough difference. Take statins at a dose that gets your values to a reasonable value, if possible, and revisit dietary changes when you have more capacity.

Also, nuts are generally good for you! The only concern would be if you are eating a very large amount of peanuts (as peanut oil is about 20% saturated), but even that is not too bad. If your doctor is telling you to cut out nuts in general, then they are way out of date on what constitutes a healthy diet and on cholesterol reduction specifically.
posted by ssg at 3:19 PM on January 19 [2 favorites]

Your diet seems pretty good overall. I've been told for years to "improve" my diet to lower my lipids which were 3-4 times (exen 10x) what they should be. I was vegan for decades and then dairy-free with small amounts of lean protein (mostly fish) because one doctor insisted that would fix everything. After following every diet provided and consistently being treated like I wasn't doing enough, I finally found a doctor who did genetic testing. Turns out I have a rare genetic disease and there is no diet that will make my lipids "good."

I now test at home several days a week and we are trying to find a drug that works for me
My lipid numbers do fluctuate a bit based on diet (from high to extremely high) so I am not suggesting to give up and eat anything you want but also don't let doctors tell you you are doing something wrong for 10 years before pushing back a bit like I did.

My partner lives on a diet of about 30% burgers and pizza and has stellar lipids. I think there I might be more genetics at play here than you or your doctor realize.

Things that raise lipids for me, anything refined (bread, white rice, anything with refined sugar), fatty things like ice cream, and meat. Things that help are high fiber foods like whole grains inmoderation, and all the veggies I want. Fruits are mostly ok, they don't seem to move the numbers much one way or the other and are tasty. Dates are a great way to sweeten oatmeal and they dont make my numbers go up.

My lunches are usually quinoa salad or buddha bowls with brown rice. Also stir fries are good. Turkey sandwich loaded with veggies on whole grain bread if I'm feeling lazy. Basically a higher fiber grain and lots of veggies and rarely a little meat.

The biggest help for me is movement. Any sort of cardio reduces my lipids (to only 2-3x the expected numbers rather than 10x lol) but that's due to my specific lipid clearing disease.

Overall I'd suggest trying what the doctor says but don't be afraid to push for more testing.
posted by CleverClover at 3:27 PM on January 19 [2 favorites]

If you are okay with lentils, here is a recipe for roasted vegetable lentil salad - could serve it warm and it will keep easily if you want to meal prep it.

This one only shows the ingredients but it sounds like you know your way around a kitchen and you could use the method from the first recipe.

Another lentil salad - this one contains raw red onion; not sure how you feel about that in the pantheon of raw vegetables but you could cook it.

Speaking of onions and lentils, mujadara! You could use brown rice instead of white for added fiber.

And here's a red lentil soup recipe that I've made many times - it's delicious and also easy, gets better with time and freezes well.

Good luck!
posted by lulu68 at 3:40 PM on January 19 [1 favorite]

Hey I skimmed over the "very high" part. If the words "familial hypercholesterolaemia" have been used, then I'm sorry to say diet isn't going to do enough for you. Doubling down on the fibre and fruit and veg is probably good for you still in other ways (diabetes and cancer risk) but can't work miracles against your genes. (Source, amateur reading + my father had this diagnosis and we discussed this issue a lot).
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:47 PM on January 19 [1 favorite]

Would your Greek yogurt parfaits still work with 2% instead of whole milk yogurt? What else is in them? Could you add some prunes or apples for fiber? I frequently have a snack that is Greek yogurt with prunes and some kind of fiber-heavy cereal. Sweet, crunchy, good for digestive health and (I thought) cholesterol.
posted by eirias at 4:09 AM on January 20

In my experience, "no yolks" egg products work fine in baked goods.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:27 AM on January 20

For me, lunch has to be easy.

Low-fat creamcheese on rye bread for snacks. If you want it for lunch, add a tin of carrot soup.

Pre-cooked chicken breast in a whole wheat pitta pocket or wrap.

A tin of lentils into dumped a bowl and chop up a bunch of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes and maybe some feta.

Haloumi. Literally just haloumi!
posted by DarlingBri at 1:45 PM on January 20