Believe it or not, the amount of fats you ingest into your body directly affects your sickle cell. Let me break it down for you.
Imagine for a second that you were a red blood cell. You are floating in the blood stream, happily doing your job of delivering oxygen to other cells. Everything is hunky dory in your world until you hit a road block on the blood highway. This road block is not caused by other cells sticking together, but because the road itself has narrowed. The narrowing is as a result of fatty deposits clogging up the highway. So now, you’re stuck in traffic, blocking the delivery of oxygen to the tissues on the other side. You and your fellow blood cells are sticking together now, leading to more traffic and more clumping. The tissues start crying and begging for oxygen, but there is none to be found, because all the oxygen delivery cells are backed up in traffic. Therefore the tissues send a message to the brain, leading to pain. The Traffic that is caused by the fatty deposits that you ingested into your body, narrowing the blood vessels.
Traffic that is caused by foods like pizza (which really is fat standing solid at room temperature), bacon, fried chicken, French fries, fried anything and everything. Fried foods are especially bad for people with sickle cell, because it causes Atherosclerosis, a buildup of fatty deposits and plaque around the vasculature of the cell. So think about this before you pick up that extra buttered croissant. It might taste good going in, but it is wrecking havoc in your body.
When cooking, use extra virgin olive oil, or better yet Coconut oil. These two oils are more liquid at body temperature, thereby decreasing the potential of clogging up those arteries and veins. And added bonus is that they are both kinda pricey, so you use less than you would if you were just pouring vegetable oil all up in your food. Measure how many teaspoons or tablespoons you are using. This also helps to cut down your usage. I noticed that when stir frying veggies, I can make do with only 1 teaspoon and it comes out more grilled than fried, which is infinitely healthier.
It is a small change, but it really does improve your circulatory system. Fry less and cut out on the fatty foods. Do it for your body. Do it for your health.
Live well.