Thursday, March 10, 2011

How To Diet To Lower Cholesterol

By Owen Jones


Cholesterol is a major contributing factor in causing heart attacks. However, our own bodies make cholesterol so it can not be all that bad. In fact, we need some cholesterol and apart from that there are two types, one of which is known as 'good cholesterol' and the other as 'bad cholesterol'.

LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is the 'bad cholesterol and HDL (high-density lipoprotein) is the 'good cholesterol'. Both are fatty, waxy substances made in the liver that float about the body in the blood. LDL levels can increase to the degree that it can clog blood vessels and interfere with the operation of the heart causing heart disease and heart attack. LDL comes usually from the ingestion of saturated fats in red meat, full-fat milk, cheese and cream and from hydrogenated trans fats.

HDL helps clear out the LDL, so a diet that is good for cholesterol will try to reduce the consumption of LDL-producing food and raise the consumption of HDL-producing food. In general, the foods that do this are fruits, vegetables, grains and fish. However, a high cholesterol level (bad cholesterol, that is) is more complicated than only diet. It is also crucial to maintain a correct body weight and to exercise regularly.

Keeping healthy levels of cholesterol is actually an on-going maintenance programme and has a great deal to do with simply living an lively, healthy life. This means not eating a lot of red meat, eating fish twice a week, eating at least five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day, not over doing the dairy products, drinking skimmed milk (or none at all), cutting back on cheese and varying your diet and exercising each day, even if it is just in the fashion of going for a walk twice a day.

Although there can be genetic causes for high cholesterol, most people can resolve this difficulty fairly easily by exercise and diet. Doctors say that cutting out all forms of saturated fat and trans fat is the single most valuable manner of decreasing your LDL cholesterol levels, so that is the obvious place to begin. Grains and pulses are useful because they contain so much fibre which is functional for removing cholesterol.

This suggests that eating porridge in the morning instead of bacon and eggs and having some form of lentil soup with whole grain bread before dinner would be steps in the right direction. Snacks throughout the day and sweet at mealtimes ought to be fruit. Citrus fruits are particularly efficient at helping to remove cholesterol.

Other things of food that are thought to lower cholesterol are nuts like walnuts yet almonds; onions but garlic; olive oil and soya bean products. Although cooking in olive oil will help a great deal, it is also a decent notion to avoid frying whenever there is a possibility of cooking in another manner. Grilling yet steaming are the best ways of cooking most fish and vegetables and it helps retain the vitamin and nutrient contents of the food as well.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment