Lower Cholesterol Through Diet

You Don’t Have to Be a Geek to Lower Cholesterol Through Diet

Guest post by Deborah H Land of CholesterolLoweringDiets.net

a. Cholesterol Myths –  both Good and Bad

There are actually two types of cholesterol, which is not a known fact for people who misconstrue it as something bad. HDL is the name of the good cholesterol, while the bad one is called LDL. A bloodstream with too much LDL will result in plaques in the arteries. Over time, blood will have a difficult time travelling your arteries because the opening becomes narrow thanks to the amount of bad cholesterol in it. Dietary cholesterol is not the culprit for your having high cholesterol in the blood. Rather, it is copious amounts of saturated fat along with Tran’s fat that is to blame for the tightening of the artery. To keep your cholesterol on the low level, you should eat plenty of unsaturated fats and fibrous foods, as well as exercise often.

b. Number Relevance in Cholesterol

Every five years, adults should go to the doctor to have their cholesterol checked out. Four results are returned to you after the check, namely LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, Triglycerides and HDL cholesterol. If you are over or under the healthy levels, you might need to undergo dietary change or do more exercise so you can stay within the normal range.

Total Cholesterol – less than 200 mg/dL (5.2 mmol/L)

LDL Cholesterol – less than 100 mg/dL (2.6 mmol/L)

HDL Cholesterol – greater than 40 mg/dL (1.0 mmol/L)

Triglycerides – less than 150 mg/dL (1.7 mmol/L)

c. Heart Protection and Vitamin E

Vitamin E, an important vitamin, is sourced in vegetable oils, nuts and leafy vegetables. Vitamin E can decrease your heart disease risk, but it will not prevent a heart attack.

d. Five Great Foods to Lower Your Cholesterol

1. Oatmeal and Oat Bran: These contain a high amount of soluble fiber, which can lower LDL.

2. Fish: Fish is a great source of omega 3 fatty acids, which lowers LDL and raises HDL.

3. Nuts: Not only are nuts high in fiber, but they contain the healthy fats you need to keep LDL in check.

4. Plant Sterols: This is found in foods like margarine, salad dressing, orange juice, and functional cookies. 2 grams per day will lower your LDL by 10-15%.

5. Soy: This popular meat replacement can lower LDL by up to 3%.

e. Benefits You Get from Plant Sterols

Foods like granola bars, fat free milk, Benecol Spread and VitaTops Muffin Tops are great sources of plant sterols that you can turn to. Helping your heart starts with eating plenty of these foods rich in plant sterols and nixing your high saturated fat diet. However, these will not make for a saturated fat diet at all. It is still important for you to still need to eat healthy foods and exercise a lot to keep your cholesterol in control.

About the Author – Deborah H. Land writes for the high cholesterol high blood pressure diet blog, her personal hobby website she uses to help people eat healthy to lower bad cholesterol levels.

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