Foods To help Lower Cholesterol
1. Oats. An easy first step to improving your cholesterol is having a bowl of porridge. It gives you 1 to 2 grams of soluble fibre. Add a banana or some raspberries for more fibre. Fibre is key to help lower cholesterol. Daily Fibre Requirements: 25g Fibre for Women & 38g Fibre for men.
2. Beans. Beans are especially rich in soluble fibre. They also take awhile for the body to digest, meaning you feel full for longer after a meal. That's one reason beans are a useful food for folks trying to lose weight. With so many choices — from kidney beans to lentils, chickpeas.
3. Aubergine. These are low-calorie vegetables are good sources of soluble fibre.
4. Nuts. Studies shows that eating almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and other nuts is good for the heart. Eating 2 ounces of nuts a day can slightly lower LDL (bad cholesterol). Nuts have additional nutrients that protect the heart in other ways.
5.Cold Pressed oils. Using cold pressed quality oils such as rapeseed and olive oil in place of butter, lard, margarine or hydrogenated sunflower oils when cooking or at the table helps lower LDL.
6. Apples, grapes, strawberries, citrus fruits. These fruits are rich in pectin, a type of soluble fibre that lowers LDL.
7. Fatty fish. Eating fish two or three times a week can lower LDL in two ways: by replacing meat, which has LDL-boosting saturated fats, and by delivering LDL-lowering omega-3 fats. Omega-3s reduce triglycerides in the bloodstream and also protect the heart by helping prevent the onset of abnormal heart rhythms.
Reduce cholesterol levels by avoiding these foods
Harmful LDL creeps upward and protective HDL drifts downward largely because of diet and other lifestyle choices. Genes can also play a role.
Saturated fats. Typical sources of saturated fat include animal products, such as red meat, whole-fat dairy products, and eggs, and also a few vegetable oils, such as palm oil, coconut oil, and cocoa butter. Saturated fat can increase your levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol.
But it has some benefits; too — it lowers triglycerides and nudges up levels of "good" HDL cholesterol.
The role of saturated fat in heart disease is currently under debate. For now, it's best to limit your intake of saturated-fat-rich foods.
Trans fats. The right amount of trans fats in the diet is zero.
These fats have no nutritional value — and we know for certain they are bad for heart health. Trans fats increase LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels while reducing levels of HDL cholesterol.
These are found in
Deep fried fast foods, mayonnaise, hydrogenated oils,pastries, cakes, biscuits, margarine, some crackers, microwave buttered popcorn, doughnuts, frozen pizza, crisps, Sausage rolls.
Are eggs bad for your cholesterol
levels?
“Back in the 1980s, dietary advice was to limit egg consumption because of
concerns over eggs raising cholesterol. We now know that dietary cholesterol
has little effect on blood cholesterol levels and that there is more involved in relation to chlesterol– it is much more important to
cut down on saturated fat. High levels of saturated fat in the diet can
stimulate the body to produce more cholesterol.”
There are good reasons for long-standing recommendations that dietary cholesterol should be limited to less than 200 mg/day; a single large egg yolk contains approximately 275 mg of cholesterol (more than a day’s worth of cholesterol).
How many eggs should you eat a
week?
“Outdated advice was to limit egg consumption to around 3 a week and despite
this being dropped years ago, many people are still concerned about eating too
many. There is now no set upper limit for weekly egg intake, however general
healthy eating advice suggests an upper limit between 7 and 14 eggs per
week.”
There is no question that egg white is classed as a valuable source of high-quality protein. Egg yolks, however, are not something that should be eaten in excess by adults without regard to their global cardiovascular risk, genetic predisposition to heart attacks and overall food habits.
Diet is not just about fasting cholesterol; it is mainly about what happens after a meal and the effects of cholesterol, saturated fats, oxidative stress and inflammation.
IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT FASTING CHOLESTEROL LEVELS
A common misconception is that because statin drugs lower fasting cholesterol levels by approximately one-half and a low-fat diet only lowers cholesterol levels by approximately 10%, there is no point in worrying about diet – simply take a statin, and it will be okay to eat anything and not make changes with diet.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Although statins lower coronary artery disease risk by 25% to 40% and possibly more, it has been estimated that diet may account for 85% of coronary risk.
Written By Elaine Baxter, Qualified Nutrition Coach, Owner Food Wise Enfield.
Elaine helps females who are one or all of the following; mothers, active and working,
to carve out some time for just them in their busy day
to be themselves, and be inspired to nourish their body,
spend a short amount of time every day working on easing stress of everyday life ,
so that they can feel more energetic, feel better and drop body fat.
Message 083 371 6831 to book your one to one appointment now.
Ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2989358/