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How to Manage Your Cholesterol
| No medications can do a better job than treating your high
cholesterol naturally. And, if you are one of those lucky people who
do not have cholesterol concerns, you may want to take steps to keep
it that way! What can you do to improve your cholesterol levels? Here’s the list
and we will cover each item thoroughly.
Reduce fat in your diet
One of the best plans is covered previously in our chart on
saturated fat. But there is more you can do. Buy the leanest cuts of
meat you can find. Regularly substitute poultry (without the skin)
and fish for red meat. Both are lower in saturated fat. Switch to
low fat cottage cheese and yogurt, reduced fat hard cheeses and skim
or 1 percent milk.
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Eat no more than four egg yolks a week
Many people don’t have to worry about eating cholesterol. Normal
bodies adjust to increased intake by cutting back on regular
product. However, since one third of Americans are cholesterol
responders their blood cholesterol does go up when they eat
cholesterol. You probably don’t know if you fall into this category
so play it safe. Eat no more than four egg yolks a week. An average
egg yolk contains 213 milligrams of cholesterol!
Eliminate fried foods
Buying low fat is just the beginning. You need to institute low fat
cooking methods to keep the cholesterol from sneaking back in to
your diet.
Remove fatty skin from chicken and turkey.
Don’t fry foods. Roast, bake, broil, grill or poach them instead.
Use fat free marinades or basting with liquids like wine, tomato or
lemon juice.
Use olive or canola oils for sautéing or baking. Both are very
low in saturated fat.
Use diet, tub or squeeze margarines instead of regular. Watch for
the term “hydrogenated,” which means some of the fat is saturated.
Eat vegetables and complex carbohydrates
Lowest fat foods of all are vegetables, fruits, grains (rice, barley
and pasta), beans and legumes. Try substituting some of these for
meat and high fat dairy products.
Don’t douse your pasta with butter or your potato with sour
cream.
Use tomato base sauces instead of cream base.
Use lemon juice, low sodium soy sauce or herbs to season
vegetables.
Make chili with extra beans and seasonings while leaving out the
meat.
Lose weight
If you are overweight, the chances are almost 100% that you have a
problem with high cholesterol. You can lower your LDL and elevate
your HDL just by dropping some pounds. Eat fewer fatty foods and
more fruits, vegetables, grains and beans and it’s a pretty good bet
that you will slowly but surely lose weight.
Include your family
Eating habits carry through to adulthood. Get your children on a
healthy eating pattern early. Don’t begin until they are at least 2
years of age, however. Babies need extra fat calories to develop
properly.
Snack all you want
Yep, that’s what we wrote. Snack several times a day on low fat
foods. Yogurt, fruit, vegetables, bagels and whole grain breads and
cereals are excellent for snacking. In fact, there is evidence that
points to lower cholesterol levels in people who eat several small
meals a day. Eating often can keep hormones like insulin from rising
and signaling your body to make more cholesterol. Make certain that
your total intake of calories doesn’t go up when you eat more often.
Nuts to you!
Do you like nuts? If you do, sprinkle a few on your cereal, bake
them into muffins or pancakes or add them to casseroles or
stir-fries. Walnuts and almonds are especially good. Eating about
three ounces of walnuts a day is shown to decrease blood cholesterol
levels by 10% more than an already low fat, low cholesterol diet.
Walnuts are high in fat, but it is mostly polyunsaturated fat, which
is the kind that lowers cholesterol. Another study shows that about
three ounces of almonds which are rich in monounsaturated fat,
lowers LDL by 9%!
Eat chocolate
Aha! All you chocoholics rejoice! Studies indicate that the fat in
chocolate is stearic acid and has no effect on cholesterol levels.
The chocolate does not increase LDL and could raise HDL a wee bit.
But chocolate is still high in fat and calories so don’t go
overboard.
Drink fruit juices
You may have read about the low rate of heart disease in France. It
led researchers to believe that the French habit of drinking red
wine with meals contributes to this. Apparently some of the
non-alcoholic ingredients in red wine raises HDL and suppresses the
body from producing LDL.
Purple grape juice works the same way. It will work like red wine
to lower the fat level in your blood. The LDL lowering effect of red
wine and grape juice comes from a compound that grapes produce
normally to resist mold. The darker the grape juice, the better.
Grapefruit juice does the same thing and it may also help your body
get rid of that nasty plaque that we discussed earlier.
Eat garlic
Cholesterol lowering effects of garlic have been demonstrated
repeatedly in people with normal and high cholesterol. Eat all the
garlic you can. It also seems to raise the HDL levels as well. If
you are worried about the odor, take the tablets instead. They have
proven to be nearly as effective as the cooked or raw cloves.
Take niacin – carefully
We discussed niacin earlier. Remember as one of the B vitamins, it
is proven effective for lowering LDL and raising HDL. It is also one
of the cheapest drugs available for lowering cholesterol. But,
without medical supervision it may not be totally safe. A dose high
enough to lower cholesterol can cause extremely high blood sugar or
liver damage.
Take vitamin E
Studies indicate that vitamin E may have a positive impact on
lowering cholesterol when taken in fairly large quantities – up to
800 IU per day. This is more than you can get from your diet alone.
Larger amounts do not seem to cause any harm. Further studies showed
that even amounts of just 25 IU per day helps in preventing LDL from
sticking to blood vessel walls. That amount is only slightly higher
than the recommended daily amount (RDA) of 12 to 15 IU. It’s
interesting to note that even that small amount has an impact on
preventing that hardening of the arteries.
Take Calcium
One study indicates that when 56 people took a calcium carbonate
supplement, their total cholesterol went down 4 percent and their
HDL increased 4 percent. That was taking a dosage of 400 milligrams
of calcium three times a day with no harmful effects reported. That
does refer to calcium carbonate.
Take a multivitamin – it can’t hurt
While you are building your calcium and vitamin E intake, remember
the old standby, vitamin C. It is the number one immune system
booster and also drives up HDL. A study of people who took more than
60 milligrams of vitamin C per day (60 milligrams is the RDA) had
highest LDL levels.
Fill up on fiber
Remember several years back when oat bran was the latest craze for
lowering cholesterol? Later studies arrived at inconsistent results,
but the medical community do agree that soluble fiber, the kind
found in oat bran, does help lower LDL and raise HDL. As little as
three grams per day of fiber from oat bran or oatmeal can be
effective. There are 7.2 grams of soluble fiber per 100 grams of dry
oat bran and five grams of soluble fiber per 100 grams of dry
oatmeal. There are other sources of fiber as well such as barley,
beans, peas and many other vegetables. Corn fiber is also good for
reducing LDL, lowering it by as much as 5 percent in a recent study.
Researchers used 20 grams of corn fiber a day. That would be a bit
difficult for the average user when you take into account that one
serving of corn has three grams of corn fiber. But, every little bit
does make a difference. Pectin, which is found in fruits like apples
and prunes, reduces cholesterol even better than oat bran, as does
psyllium which is the fiber you find in many breakfast cereals and
bulk laxatives.
Quit smoking
Smoking promotes the development of atherosclerosis. Tobacco smoke
is actually more damaging to the heart than the lungs. Smokers have
a higher chance of having a heart attack (three times greater than
nonsmokers) and a greater risk of dying of the attack (twenty one
times greater than nonsmokers.) Tobacco smoke contains carbon
monoxide, which is uniquely damaging to the heart. Not only does it
reduce the amount of oxygen the heart receives, it also actually
damages the cells of the heart, rendering them less able to produce
energy and thereby weakening the heart. In addition to the dangers
of carbon monoxide, there’s the danger of the nicotine. Nicotine
interferes with the electrical impulses that cause the heart to
beat. When the blood flow is compromised, the heart can beat in a
fast, uncontrolled, irregular beats that actually cause a heart
attack. If you smoke, reducing the risks of atherosclerosis is yet
another reason to stop. Even if you have smoked for years, stopping
now can still immediately help combat the development of
atherosclerosis.
Reduce sugar intake
Many people don’t realize that sugar affects cholesterol and
definitely affects triglycerides. Sugar stimulates insulin
production, which in turn increases triglycerides. Men in
particular, seem to be sensitive to this effect from sugar. The
mineral chromium which helps to stabilize blood sugar, can also
raise the level of HDL. 100 mcg of chromium three times daily can
help to improve your cholesterol levels.
Eliminate alcohol
The jury is still out and the different schools of thought are still
at odds regarding the benefit or lack of benefit to consuming
alcohol. This suggestion has nothing to do with our previous discuss
on red wine. A moderate amount may be helpful. The problem is that
to one person a moderate amount might be a glass of wine with their
meal, while to another it might be a half bottle of Scotch! Anything
above the arbitrary “moderate” amount elevates serum cholesterol
triglycerides and your uric acid levels as well as potentially
increasing blood pressure all of which promote heart disease. So,
the best bet would be to eliminate it totally.
Exercise regularly
There is positive evidence that exercise can lower LDL cholesterol
and boost HDL cholesterol. Both aerobic exercise such as walking,
jogging, swimming, bicycling and cross country skiing and strength
training like lifting weights or using weight machines all promote
the improvement of cholesterol levels. An analysis of 11 studies on
weight training showed that this exercise lowered LDL by 13 percent
and raised HDL by 5 percent. If you lift weights, use light to
moderate weights and do many repetitions.
Eliminate caffeine
We Americans definitely have a love affair with our coffee! People
who drink large amounts of caffeine (more than 6 cups a day) are far
more prone to elevated cholesterol. That connection does not hold
for tea drinkers. Limit your coffee intake to no more than one cup a
day and eliminate caffeinated sodas entirely.
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