Life- Changing Low Cholesterol Diet Plan: Good Cholesterol Foods. Welcome to Low Cholesterol Diet Plan, your new information resource for all things related to cholesterol lowering diets. Perhaps you’ve ended up here because a medical professional has warned you that you need to get your cholesterol intake under control – or perhaps you’re simply aware of the dangers of cholesterol, realize your current diet is putting you on a bad track, and you want to make a change to a diet for lowering cholesterol. Whatever the case may be, you’ll find all the information you need here ? Ultimate Guide for Lowering LDL Cholesterol Naturally. Scientists worldwide agree that the single most important thing you can do to lower your risk of a heart attack. While medications will always be the go-to for lowering cholesterol to safe levels, the food you eat can also help get your numbers to where they’re supposed to be. HEART UK offers a helpline & expert advice on cholesterol test results, lowering cholesterol levels, statins & inherited genetic high cholesterol. A Healthy Low Cholesterol Diet Plan in 15 Easy Steps. The adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” holds especially true for managing cholesterol. What precisely does HDL and LDL cholesterol mean and how is it related to food? And of course on this page you’ll also get lots of inspiration to help you put together your low cholesterol diet plan: A list of low cholesterol foods as well as cholesterol lowering foods (not necessarily the same kind of foods) A list of lifestyle tips to lower cholesterol. Suggestions to a low cholesterol diet menu. What Is Cholesterol and What Does It Do? Cholesterol Is Really Just a Form of Fat! What about fats? There are different kinds of fats in the foods we eat. Take this WebMD assessment to learn your risk for heart disease, how high cholesterol increases this risk, and how to lower your cholesterol. If you have high cholesterol you aren’t alone: nearly half of all American adults have high cholesterol. Not all cholesterol is bad. In fact, your body makes its. The DASH Diet Eating Plan US News & World Reports: Best and Healthiest Diet Plan. DASH Diet in the news. January 5, 2017.DASH Diet Ranked best diet for 7th year. Cholesterol Meal Plans for a Low Cholesterol Diet. A high cholesterol diet contains all the wrong foods. These foods, meal plans and recipes will help you lower your. Help Avoid High Cholesterol with the MyFoodMyHealth Meal Plan and Diet for High Cholesterol. What to Expect. Congratulations! You're taking the first step on a new. ![]() Before we can even get into low cholesterol diet plans and foods for lowering cholesterol, it’s important that you understand the basics of the role cholesterol plays in your health and wellness. Cholesterol isn’t some sort of poison or toxin – it actually has an important role in how your body functions. ![]() So what is cholesterol? Well, to put it short, it’s a form of fat. Your body uses it in the creation of cell membranes – without these membranes, you literally wouldn’t be able to exist as a human being, so cholesterol is not all bad! In addition cholesterol plays a role in producing sex hormones (testosterone, progesterone and estrogens) and metabolizing important vitamins. The same is true of all body fat: it’s a necessary part of the way your body functions. That’s why you can see incredibly “ripped” bodybuilders who still have 5- 6% body fat levels. We need fat to survive. It’s as simple as that! High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) & Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL): The Two Types of Cholesterol. One thing you need to be aware of before you even get started with a low cholesterol diet plan is that there are actually two different types of cholesterol. Cholesterol in itself is not bad, you see. Like much else in life, it’s all a question of balance (a subject I will return to later in this article). The two types are High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) and Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL). Here’s the difference: High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) – Our Good Cholesterol Clean Up Friends. This is what is popularly referred to as “good cholesterol.”HDL serves the function of carrying excess fats from bodily tissues like muscles to the liver (cholesterol doesn’t dissolve in the blood and has to be metabolized by the liver). Although there’s still a lot of speculation in the medical community about exactly what HDL does, it’s certainly not bad for you. There is plenty of evidence indicating that low HDL levels increase the risk of heart attack, and increasing HDL levels may even lower heart attack risks for those who already have high bad cholesterol levels. Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL) – Also Our Friends, But Only When in Small Numbers. And LDL is often nicknamed “bad cholesterol” and is probably the stuff your doctor may have warned you about. LDL does serve an important function in the body, carrying fats from the liver to cells, among other things. However, and here is the potential problem, only a small amount of LDL is required for this basic function. Excess LDL may lead to problems! This is the type that builds up in arteries and can lead to the formation of blockages – this condition is known as atherosclerosis. This is an extremely serious issue which may when left untreated lead to stroke and cardiac arrest. Navigating the HDL and LDL Food Jungle. So as you can see it’s not just about regulating your cholesterol intake altogether. No, it’s about finding out which foods contain each type of cholesterol (or encourage cholesterol production in the body itself) and focusing on avoiding too much of the so- called bad cholesterol foods and eating more of the good cholesterol foods. A low cholesterol diet plan should aim at lowering bad cholesterol and raising good cholesterol. Trans Fats Are the Real Enemy, not LDL or Saturated Fats. Why These Hidden Fats Are So Dangerous. These days many people don’t even bother to look at the nutritional information on food packaging. And those who do are often looking for the wrong things. For instance, we have it drilled into us to watch out for dietary fat, especially saturated fats. While eating a lot of saturated fat is definitely a cause of storing more body fat, there’s a difference between dietary fat that you eat and fat stored in your body. Fat stored in your body doesn’t have to come from fat itself – it can be a store of energy from carbohydrates, for example. This obsession with saturated fat has led many people to not even notice “trans fats” on food packaging. Usually trans fats are only in foods in very tiny quantities, and it is therefore only very natural to assume that such small quantities of anything can’t be harmful. Sorry my friend, wrong! Small amounts of trans fats can be equally as harmful as large amounts of saturated fats. Trans fats have the effect of actually making the body produce more bad cholesterol from within. So just because a food claims to be low in cholesterol, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is good for you – if it contains trans fats it could crank up bad cholesterol production from within. Switching out Butter for Margarine – not Necessarily a Good Idea! Traditional Margarine Is a Party Palace of Trans Fats Many people attempt to cut down on saturated fat consumption by switching out butter for margarine. This can be an effective part of a low cholesterol diet plan. But the problem here is that many margarine products involve the hydrogenation process, which means margarine is high in trans fats. So all the labels on margarine that claim it has lower fat than butter might be right but are at the same time really quite misleading. So if you want to engage in a low cholesterol diet plan, you’re best to avoid traditional butter and margarine altogether and try to find a light alternative. Because awareness of trans fats is spreading there are now many trans- fat- free margarine products on the market. Some margarine products are created specifically with high cholesterol sufferers in mind and contain ingredients that block cholesterol absorption. Your doctor should be able to recommend a good spread. When Cholesterol Becomes Dangerous What many people don’t realize is that the majority of cholesterol in your blood was actually created inside your body. Only around 1. 5- 2. However, it’s when you eat excessive amounts of bad cholesterol that these statistics start to fall out of balance and you end up with health problems and a higher risk of heart disease and heart attacks. High levels of bad cholesterol in the blood stream lead to a build- up of fatty deposits along artery walls. These fatty deposits are called plaques, and as they build up they narrow the artery, restricting blood flow. In the worst case scenario a plaque will block the artery entirely so that no blood can pass through. A myocardial infarction is the medical term for what we most commonly call a “heart attack.” Heart attacks typically happen when one of these plaques ruptures and restricts blood flow (and thus oxygen supply) to the heart. This is how bad cholesterol is directly linked to heart attacks. How to Create Your Own Low Cholesterol Diet Plan So by this point you’re well aware of the dangers surrounding bad cholesterol – now what can you do about it? The answer, in large part, revolves around a low fat low cholesterol diet. You need to cut the foods that are contributing to high levels of bad cholesterol and focus on eating more foods containing good cholesterol. The first step in creating your low cholesterol diet plan is identifying the usual suspects and eliminating them from your diet – the foods you eat regularly which are high in saturated fat and bad cholesterol. You might find this hard to do at first though, which is why it you may find it easier to start from the other side: create a complete low fat low cholesterol diet plan that covers every day of the week. Once you know what you’ll be replacing those high cholesterol foods with, it’s easier to give them up. Often the reason people struggle to get onto a low cholesterol diet plan is because they assume they’ll be losing something in terms of taste satisfaction. That’s simply not the case – here are a handful of ways you can still get the same, if not more enjoyment from your meals while also making sure you don’t elevate your bad cholesterol levels (and actually bring them lower). The List of Low Cholesterol Foods. Go for Lovely Lean Meats. Many people with cholesterol problems tend to eat a lot of fatty red meats like steak and beef (if you’re a hamburger lover, this is probably you). There’s no reason you can’t enjoy meat and maintain low cholesterol levels – you just have to focus on lean meats in your low cholesterol diet plan. Chicken and turkey are great – they’re delicious and filling, and they go well in sandwiches, salads and a variety of dinner meals. You should also look at switching from a high intake of red meat to eating more fish – we’ll discuss the power of fish in reducing cholesterol in the Cholesterol Lowering Foods section further down. Focus on Fabulous Fruits and Vegetables Eating a wide range of fruits and vegetables will help ensure your body gets all the vitamins and nutrients it needs without having to take in large amounts of bad cholesterol. People who like to eat high cholesterol foods often justify it to themselves by focusing on the good aspects of the food – “It’s high in protein,” for example. But you can get all the nutrients you need from other foods without having to eat high cholesterol foods.
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June 2017
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