Some words of encouragement for Mulligan, which may help others...
"I was on a news website recently that on the same web page that had separate links to one article advocating the benefits of fish oil, while a few headlines below had a separate link espousing that fish oil has no health benefit. Makes my head spin!"
good nutrition studies are very expensive and are rarely done. The conflicting advice published every few weeks is an indication that poor studies predominate.
As far as fish oil it is a good supplement if it helps get you to an omega 6 / omega 3 ratio of 4. If you are below 4, you should cut back on it. Many individuals can reach an hs-crp value (indicative of the level of inflammation in your body) close to zero with a ratio around 4.
"... 12 years ago when I ate like potato chips, pizza, burgers and french fries were the 4 food groups, my cholesterol numbers and HDL was outstanding, but I would train long and hard. ..."
your metabolism was 12 years younger too. Stressing your metabolism by poor eating habits over an extended time will damage it.
... maybe I should just start swallowing a baby aspirin each day since apparently my puffy particle days are behind me. I just dont get how the HDL numbers get worse even the diet is significantly better.
before doing baby aspirin try an experiment on yourself. Get a baseline value of your hs-crp value, vitamin D3 level, omega 6/omega 3 values, and a VAP test. Then for several months, eliminate "healthy whole grains", vegetable oils and ALL fructose (found in sugar and fruits). Supplement with fish oil, vitamin B complex, D3, magnesium). Then take another set of tests and see what happened. You will find that your puffy particle days are not behind you after all.
A diet significantly better than chips, pizza, burgers and french fries can still be devastatingly bad. As mentioned in other posts a LCHF diet WILL increase your HDL (as will exercise). Good luck!