The best foods to lower cholesterol

High levels of cholesterol, more specifically high levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, are a major contributor to heart disease. It’s very easy to modify your diet and integrate cholesterol-lowering foods into a low-cholesterol diet plan. They will help you not only reduce, but also control your cholesterol levels in the long term.

Today, it is generally accepted what a “heart healthy” diet is and that a diet for high cholesterol should be part of it. Most people won’t even realize that the nutritional guidelines for healthy living automatically encompass many cholesterol-lowering foods. These guidelines are now practically universal and include:

• Eat less fat. Dramatically reduce your intake of saturated fat and eliminate trans fats (“hydrogenated” vegetable oils). Saturated fats can increase total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. Replace them with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
• Substitute lean meat, poultry, or fish for meat.
• Increase your consumption of fruits and vegetables.
• Replace the refined carbohydrates in your diet for high cholesterol with complex carbohydrates.

Let’s see what this means in detail.

Fats:

Avoid as much as possible or eliminate completely: butter, hard cheese, fatty meat, meat products, cookies, cakes, cream, lard, fat, tallow, ghee, coconut oil, palm oil, hardened margarine (“in bar”).

Switch for:

Monounsaturated fats: These fats can lower the LDL level but do not lower the HDL cholesterol level. They are found in olive oil, rapeseed oil, avocado, nuts, and seeds like almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, peanuts, and pistachios.

Polyunsaturated fats: These fats are essential nutrients and should be part of a diet for high cholesterol. They can help lower LDL cholesterol (which is a good effect), but they also lower HDL cholesterol. They are found in corn oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, nuts, and seeds like walnuts, pine nuts, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds.

Oily fish contains Omega 3 fatty acids, a particular type of polyunsaturated fat that can help lower blood triglyceride levels. Although it does not change cholesterol levels, triglycerides are just as important.

Oily fish includes salmon (wild), halibut, herring, mackerel, sardines, sardines, lake trout, and tuna.

Meat:

Avoid as much as possible or eliminate completely: Meat and fatty or marbled meat products, as they are high in saturated fat. Also avoid roasting or frying.

Replace with: poultry (skinless), fish, or lean cuts of meat that are best steamed, poached, broiled, or boiled.

Additional protein can be obtained from soybeans (soy milk, soy yogurts, tofu), beans, and legumes. Beans and legumes are also good sources of fiber.

Fruits and vegetables:

The benefits of eating mostly fresh fruits and vegetables cannot be overstated. The Conservative Council now tells you to eat 5 servings a day. You really should have 7-11 servings a day. One serving is about a handful.

Among the main benefits of eating fruits and vegetables are:

• Natural antioxidants – play a key role in a high cholesterol diet as they help reduce the damage caused by LDL. LDL cholesterol is not very stable. It rusts easily and can then damage the arterial walls. There is evidence that it is oxidized LDL cholesterol, rather than cholesterol itself, that contributes to cardiovascular disease.
• The soluble fiber provided by fruits and vegetables helps eliminate cholesterol from the intestine.

Carbohydrates:

Avoid as much as possible or completely eliminate refined carbohydrates: white bread, rice, pasta. Refined carbohydrates have been stripped of most nutrients.

Replace with: Complex carbohydrates such as whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, oatmeal. Complex carbohydrates contain fiber and other nutrients that the body needs.

This general framework of a healthy diet includes a low cholesterol diet plan that will automatically address cholesterol-lowering foods.