You can quickly take your body to a state where the cholesterol levels are too high. But, prevention is better than cure, isn’t? Do you fall under the high-risk category of increased cholesterol levels in your blood? In this case, you should make some healthy changes in your diet. You should include foods that are effective in controlling the high cholesterol levels.
A two-step approach:
To prevent LDL hikes in your blood, you should follow a two-dimensional path. The first method is that you should add foods that will lower LDL to your diet. The second approach is that you should cut back on the eatables that can boost your LDL levels.
How do cholesterol-friendly foods help?
When talking about the diet to control cholesterol, different foods follow varied strategies. Some are capable enough of delivering soluble fibre. The foods calling in this category will bind cholesterol and its pioneers in the digestive system. Then, they will drag them out of your body before they reach your bloodstream.
Some foods deliver polyunsaturated fats. They are useful in bringing down the LDL levels. Some also contain plant-based stanols and sterols. They are capable enough to prevent your body from absorbing cholesterol. So, it is time for us to explore some useful cholesterol-lowering eatables:
Oats:
The initial thing you can do is to begin your day with a bowl of oatmeal to improve your cholesterol levels. This dish will give you about 1-2 grams of soluble fibre. For another half gram, you can add strawberries or bananas.
How about whole grains likely barley?
Similar to oats, barley and other whole grains will help you in lowering the risk of heart diseases. The reason for this is the soluble fibre you can get from these whole grains.
Consider Beans:
You should know that beans are particularly rich in soluble fibre. Also, they will take a longer time to digest. The meaning is that you will feel fuller for longer. With many choices available like kidney beans to navy beans, black-eyed peas, garbanzos and similar pulses, they are versatile foods to help with lowering bad cholesterol.
Red wine:
Do you know that red wine like Rioja will help with lowering your cholesterol levels significantly? In a study, researchers concluded that LDL levels were brought down by about 9% when people consumed the same grape supplement that is present in red wine. Even, it reduced the LDL level by 12% in the case of individuals with very high cholesterol levels.
Restrict your intake of foods rich in dietary cholesterol, Trans and saturated fats:
Examples of foods falling under this category are low-fat dairy products, full-fat products, red meat, coconut oil, palm oil, and butter. If you find a food label that it contains partially hydrogenated fats, it means that the food has trans fat. So, keep away from such an eatable. You can safeguard your heart by taking foods with omega-3 fatty acids. You can get this nutrient from cold-water fish like sardines, herring, trout, halibut, mackerel, and salmon.
What are the best, good, satisfactory and poor food choices?
With your intention to lower your cholesterol levels, you should know the foods that are healthy, satisfactory, the best and also those that do not suit you. Here is the list to show the details:
Best food choices:
Omega-3 rich fish is the best choice. You can choose to include this fish for at least two times a week. In case you go for canned fish, it is better to pick the one with no-salt-added or very low-sodium content.
Good choices:
Most other types of fish along with plus shelled molluscs like scallops, mussels, oysters, and clams.
Satisfactory choices:
Game meat, poultry products, crustaceans are satisfactory choices.
Poor Choice:
Red meat is a poor choice of eatable for patients with high cholesterol levels. If you cannot avoid it, you can choose cuts that have less than 30% fat.
So, make healthy food choices, and you need not have to rely on medicines to lower your cholesterol levels if you make the right decision on foods.
Be First to Comment