Big Reveal: My Results From Dr. Greger's Lower LDL Naturally With Food Protocol

If you have been following my saga about trying to lower my LDL cholesterol with food (Dr. Greger's protocol), the results are in! If you haven't done so, listen to episode 82 from January 6th to catch up. You'll see how I completely botched it on my first attempt, but after guidance from the doctor himself, righted myself. 

If you have been trying to lower your cholesterol, this episode is for you!

Websites, Cookbook, Classes, and Merch

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ACE Plant-based Eating Course https://discover.wellelephant.com/ace-plant-based-eating-course-reg/

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Transcript

Lauren Bernick (00:01.784)
Hi, my beautiful friends. Okay, in this mini episode, I am finally doing my big reveal, so to speak. I'm letting you know my test results for lowering my LDL cholesterol naturally with food, which I've been trying to do for months. I've been following Dr. Greger's protocol. If you're watching on YouTube, I'm holding up this little book. If you're listening, I'm still holding up a little book.

It's called lower LDL cholesterol naturally with food. Simple ways to add proven LDL reducers to your everyday routine by Dr. Greger. Okay, so if you don't know what I'm talking about or if you need a refresher, that was episode 82 with Dr. Greger on January 6th. I suggest you go back and listen to that. It was very eye-opening. I effed the whole thing up and

didn't really do it correctly. So although I've kind of been at this for about four months, I've really only been doing it correctly for about three months going hard at it. So I'm gonna talk about my results in just a second, but I just want to, so go back and listen to that if you haven't. I talk really in depth after Dr. Greger leaves about all my testing that I've had done at the Cleveland Heart Lab panel and

just other tests so that you can see it's not just my cholesterol. I've had really good results from eating a whole food plant-based diet in other areas. I have that really just nasty LDL cholesterol. I have the nasty Lp little a which is off the charts still off the charts. And you know it's it's familial I assume. It's definitely in my DNA. However,

The Cleveland Heart Lab panel and these other tests that I talk about in episode 82 gives you the overall picture. I mean, I don't have oxidized LDL, I don't have inflammation, I have had really good results. My body is healthy from eating a whole food plant-based diet. Okay, so a lot of doctors say, you know, this is the standard protocol, this is...

Lauren Bernick (02:28.846)
standard operating procedure, if you have high cholesterol, at my age, at 57, you're going on a statin. And I've really been fighting hard against that because I don't wanna take a medication for the rest of my life. I know that it has side effects despite what Dr. Greger, and then recently also I had Dr. Sadeghi on. She's a very well respected doctor. I know a lot of you did not like what she had to say. I didn't even like a lot of the things that she had to say.

She's very pro medication. And I wanted to have her on because, you know, this is the standard procedure and I wanted to get her perspective. I really haven't had doctors on who say, yeah, you should take medication. The doctors that I generally have on are ones that say, you know, you should try to do everything you can with food.

Dr. Clapper, Dr. Furman, I've had them both on, you should listen to those episodes. And they say, all the cholesterol that your body is making is cholesterol that your body is making. It's not cholesterol that you're getting from outside sources. You're not eating chicken and fish and meat and dairy and oil, whatever. You're not eating any outside sources of cholesterol. For some reason, your body

wants to make cholesterol and we all do need cholesterol. Okay, so this is the protocol I've been doing. Just to give you a little refresher, I'll try to do this quickly. So Dr. Greger makes this powder. It's called Portfolio Plus Powder. If you're watching on YouTube, you see I'm showing you like what the powder looks like. I've done a ton of videos.

not a ton, I've done several videos on Instagram and YouTube showing how I've implemented this powder, but you're supposed to put six tablespoons of this powder, two tablespoons in each meal three times a day. And I've showed you that I can't always get it in. This is supposed to be sustainable for life. And I don't know that I can eat this at every meal. Like in the example I showed, I was able to get in five tablespoons that day because

Lauren Bernick (04:46.848)
In one of the meals, it was just too overpowering for all that. So quickly, you make this up a batch. It's 90 tablespoons of ground flax meal. That's 5.6 cups. 30 tablespoons of psyllium husk powder. That's one cup plus 13 tablespoons. 10 tablespoons of black sesame seed powder, five tablespoons of sumac, four tablespoons of taurine, four tablespoons of plant sterols.

I have been doing, I haven't been doing those at all. I'm just about to start those separately because Dr. Greger says some people have a bad reaction to them and it raises their cholesterol. So I wanted to take that out of the equation. And now that I've had my numbers done again, I'm gonna start the sterols. Okay, five teaspoons of artichoke extract powder, 15 grams of bergamot extract. I've also been doing that as a supplement instead of putting it in here.

two teaspoons of kelp powder, 500 micrograms of B12. I also do that separately. And then enough wheat germ to fill the balance of, you want the whole thing to be 11.25 cups. So measure out what you have and then the rest you fill with wheat germ. Okay, then you do this other thing that, cause that powder is neutral tasting. It doesn't taste like anything. And in most things, it's totally fine.

It's good in oatmeal. It's fine in salads. Most of the time it can be a little overpowering in salads. Sometimes I just put one tablespoon in the salads. You know, in most things it's fine. In my bowls that I like to eat a lot with the beans and greens and grains and other vegetables, it's not great. I mean, it mixes okay into the grains and beans, but I would say a heaping tablespoon, not two tablespoons. It just overpowers it.

Okay, so then you have your nasty powders. They taste bad, you don't want to put them in your food, he says. So I bought these things called blight papes. They're like little films, it's cone shaped. And you just put in a quarter teaspoon of black cumin, a third teaspoon of amla powder, but I've been doing a half teaspoon, I want to do a little more.

Lauren Bernick (07:07.406)
a quarter teaspoon of turmeric and to that I add black pepper. And then I also put in a third teaspoon of summer savory because that's supposed to be very good for lowering your cholesterol and it tastes disgusting. It's like Thanksgiving on overdrive. So you put it in the little blade tape, you twist it, you soak it in water for a second and you put it down your throat like a giant dissolvable pill. It's not bad.

It just takes like time to fill it and it's a big pain in the butt and I hate doing it and I hate it. I don't know if this is sustainable for the rest of my life to be honest. There are omelet powder capsules that I might do, but also if you just make a smoothie and you put all that stuff in the smoothie, you can't taste it. And that to me is more sustainable and I could probably do like five smoothies a week. So.

All right, that's probably how I'm going to end up doing that after I finished my blight papes because they were like 20 bucks. And that's the other thing all in, I probably spent more than $100. The blight papes, the thing that you put the nasty powders in were like $20. And then all the things that I had to buy were probably, I mean, it probably cost, you know, $8,100. So it's not cheap, but also better than, you know, I don't know how much statins cost.

But it's fine for me. was able to do it. And okay, so let me get to the big reveal then. That's what I've been doing. And I've been going hard at it. So again, if you listen to the first episode with Dr. Greger, you know that I screwed it up because I was trying not to make that big powder and put it in all my food. I thought I was being smart, putting it in my, well, the only way I could get it down was in like coconut yogurt. And so it was a cashew coconut yogurt and Dr.

Gregor read me the riot act with good reason because it has high saturated fat and I knew that and I was thinking to myself, this can't be right. And of course it wasn't right. So my cholesterol didn't come down very much. so let me from four months ago, my cholesterol was 217 points. triglycerides were 98. My HDL was 79.

Lauren Bernick (09:29.962)
and my LDL was 118. Okay, if you're watching on YouTube, you could see my LDL and my cholesterol are in the red as always. And my risk ratio was the LDL to HDL was 1.49, which is excellent because you wanna calculate your risk of your LDL.

to your HDL and you want it like four to one, you want your HDL to be higher. So a good ratio is 3.22 and not higher, but you just want it four to one. I'm not exactly sure how that goes. But anyway, my risk was 1.49, so excellent. You want it to be under 3.22. Okay, drum roll, here's the new results.

So my total cholesterol now, it went from 217 to 199. It came down 18 points. It's not in the red for once. It's one point under, but even we know 199 is not great. We know if we've had heart disease, we should have our total cholesterol at 150 or under, but still it came down 18 points in about three months.

I think that's great. My triglycerides went from 98 to 92. They came down six points. My HDL also came down, which is not great, I guess. It was from 79, now it's 66. It came down 13 points. And drum roll, my LDL went from 118 to 113. It only came down five points after all this mess.

But still, five points is five points and it's been like three months that I've been doing it. So I'm going to continue doing it and now I'm gonna add in the plant sterols and see if that helps. So, oh, and also now my risk ratio, it went up slightly because my HDL also came down. It's at.

Lauren Bernick (11:46.634)
It was 1.49 and now it's 1.71, but it's still excellent and a low risk because again, you want to have it under 3.22 and that's a ratio of your LDL to your HDL. Okay, so mine's still excellent. All right, so I'll be interested to hear what you have to say. You know, after all that, I am happy that it came down.

still, I count it as a win. I'm still very happy. I think it's great. Look, maybe I should be on a statin. I don't know, but I'm definitely not ready for that. I just know that, you know, it messes with your liver. It could make you more susceptible to, you know, your blood sugar getting out of control. I just don't want to start.

with all that because like I said, I have so many good test results and maybe, like Dr. Clapper and Dr. Furman say, my body just wants to make cholesterol for some reason.

Also, going forward with this protocol, I'm gonna do the best I can. I am gonna stick with it. I'm doing the plant sterols. If on average, let me tell you, I'm not getting in six tablespoons a day, I can tell you that. So I'm also not doing it fully, but most of the time I get in four or five tablespoons. I really aim for five, and most of the time I get that. But here's the thing, you guys, I am not,

looking to add any more things that are just crazy. And I don't consider this crazy. The blade papes make me a little kooky. But you know, I just can't devote my life to being like doing all these protocols. I have to live. I have to live my life. I have to be happy. And so I will continue this to the best of my ability, but I'm certainly not going to beat myself up.

Lauren Bernick (13:57.42)
If I don't get it in every day, if I don't get in every serving, if I don't do my blade papes, they're real pain in the ass, really. So I'm looking for things that are sustainable. I am looking to live a happy life. I already go so out of my way to eat well.

you know, sneaking my food into restaurants and all the things that I do. If you follow me with any regularity, you know, I really do a lot of things. I cannot make myself crazy. You know, there's these all the, I don't know what you call them. I guess you call them the podcast bros. These guys that, you know, they're all buff and all they do is live to measure every, I don't know, every

thing that their body does. They just measure every biomarker and I'm not interested in any of that. I just want to live my life, enjoy. I wanna laugh a lot. I wanna be with my friends. I wanna do enjoyable things. I wanna read good books. I wanna eat good food. I wanna travel. I can tell you I'm going on a cruise soon and I'll take some of the powder with me. I'll take some of this.

but I'm not gonna make myself insane over it. I'm gonna be gone five days, six days. I'm not gonna make myself crazy. I'm just gonna be trying to live my life doing the best I can, being as smart as I can about my health. But at some point, you have to just enjoy it and be happy. So, all right, those are.

I'm really interested to hear what you think about these results. You know, I think it's great that my cholesterol came down 18 points. I think it's great that my LDL came down five points. I mean, that's not bad. It's better than going up. tell me in the comments, what do you think? And also you guys be sure and follow me on social, if you're following me on Instagram and YouTube at

Lauren Bernick (16:13.422)
age like a bad-ass mother, you know, I'll be posting more about this, but also, Monday, March 16th, I'm going live from Austin during South by Southwest, doing a panel show with there'll be four women. We'll be talking about, some very interesting topics of the day. And, I will be giving more information over this week.

about the live broadcast and I'll ask for your questions. So be sure you're following me at Instagram at AgelikeAboutUsMother and YouTube at AgelikeAboutUsMother. And that's it. Let me know what you think. Let me know if you're doing this. All right, you guys, just enjoy your life. Do the best you can. All right. Love you. Bye.