Nuts As Natural Cholesterol Reducers
Nuts are already very popular with us anyway. They taste delicious and are very healthy! When eaten in moderation, nuts such as walnuts, almonds or pistachios can lower cholesterol its important not to eat too many at once and to choose the unsalted version. In order not to exceed your daily requirement of nuts, we would recommend topping your morning porridge with a tasty portion of nuts of your choice. This is not only a tasty start to the day, but also does something good for your body!
Saturated Fat And Cholesterol
Diets high in saturated fat and cholesterol can contribute to high total cholesterol and a high low-density lipoprotein level in the body, increasing your risk for coronary artery disease caused by atherosclerosis, which is plaque build-up in the arteries.
Here’s a list of foods that are high in cholesterol or saturated fat that you need to limit or avoid:
What Are Hdl Ldl And Vldl
HDL, LDL, and VLDL are lipoproteins. They are a combination of fat and protein. The lipids need to be attached to the proteins so they can move through the blood. Different types of lipoproteins have different purposes:
- HDL stands for high-density lipoprotein. It is sometimes called “good” cholesterol because it carries cholesterol from other parts of your body back to your liver. Your liver then removes the cholesterol from your body.
- LDL stands for low-density lipoprotein. It is sometimes called “bad” cholesterol because a high LDL level leads to the buildup of plaque in your arteries.
- VLDL stands for very low-density lipoprotein. Some people also call VLDL a “bad” cholesterol because it too contributes to the buildup of plaque in your arteries. But VLDL and LDL are different VLDL mainly carries triglycerides and LDL mainly carries cholesterol.
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Eat More Plant Sources Of Protein
Excellent plant proteins include beans all beans, like lentils, red beans, pinto beans, and soybeans. Rather than raising blood cholesterol levels, as animal sources of protein do, beans actually help lower cholesterol.
Beans also help reduce blood sugar and insulin levels, and may even lower cancer risk.
Putting Together A Low Cholesterol Diet
When it comes to investing money, experts recommend creating a portfolio of diverse investments instead of putting all your eggs in one basket. The same holds true for eating your way to lower cholesterol. Adding several foods to lower cholesterol in different ways should work better than focusing on one or two.
A largely vegetarian “dietary portfolio of cholesterol-lowering foods” substantially lowers LDL, triglycerides, and blood pressure. The key dietary components are plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains instead of highly refined ones, and protein mostly from plants. Add margarine enriched with plant sterols oats, barley, psyllium, okra, and eggplant, all rich in soluble fiber soy protein and whole almonds.
Of course, shifting to a cholesterol-lowering diet takes more attention than popping a daily statin. It means expanding the variety of foods you usually put in your shopping cart and getting used to new textures and flavors. But it’s a “natural” way to lower cholesterol, and it avoids the risk of muscle problems and other side effects that plague some people who take statins.
Just as important, a diet that is heavy on fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts is good for the body in ways beyond lowering cholesterol. It keeps blood pressure in check. It helps arteries stay flexible and responsive. It’s good for bones and digestive health, for vision and mental health.
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Tactics To Reduce Cholesterol Quickly
For most of us, there’s really no need to pack our medicine cabinets with pills to reduce cholesterol levels. Natural, lifestyle-based strategies have proven extraordinarily effective in reducing cholesterol quickly and permanently.
Get the top 5 food and fitness tips recommended by the doctors, dietitians, exercise experts, and other faculty at the Pritikin Longevity Center. Pritikin has been helping people lower cholesterol levels since 1975.
Did you know that for every 10% drop in your cholesterol level, your heart attack risk drops by 20% to 30%? Theres more good news: Most of us can reduce cholesterol quickly, and without the need for medications. Simple lifestyle strategies can be very powerful.
Thats what several studies on thousands following the Pritikin Program of diet and exercise have found. Within three weeks, people were able to lower their cholesterol levels on average 23%, which translates into a 46% to 69% drop in heart attack risk.1
How To Maintain Healthy Cholesterol Levels
It is important to make sure that your cholesterol is at healthy levels. But you cant know that without having it checked. The CDC recommends that you get your levels checked every 4 to 6 years.
But, if you are at risk for type 2 diabetes, or if you already have diabetes then you should be getting your cholesterol levels checked more often. Same thing applies if your family has a history of heart disease, or if you are overweight.
All of those factors increase the risk of you having higher bad cholesterol levels in your body. And the more often you are getting it checked, the most up to date you will be about what is going on in your body.
So what is a healthy cholesterol level?
According to the CDC, these are healthy blood cholesterol levels:
- LDL cholesterol: less than 100 mg/dL
- HDL cholesterol: greater than 40 mg/dL
- Total cholesterol: less than 200 mg/dL
If you have a high cholesterol or if you want to avoid ever getting a high cholesterol level in your body, then there will be some lifestyle changes that you will have to make. Most of these will be dietary changes but these changes will not be something that you follow for a short time.
It will be something that will stick with your for the rest of your life.
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They will be able to customize the changes for your life goals and your body type. All the advice that you find online is generalized.
I hope this article helped you.
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Heart Healthy Vegan Meal Plan
If youre considering following a heart-healthy vegan eating plan and need direction in what to prepare for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, below are some meal ideas:
Breakfast
- Banana oatmeal cookies
- Chia pudding
- Black beans and avocado on honey-free whole-grain toast
Lunch
- Arugula salad with red beans and balsamic dressing
- Kale and quinoa lunch bowl
- Chickpea flour crepe with vegetable and mushroom filling
Dinner
- Soba noodles with sugar snap peas, carrots and other vegetables
- Potato and onion stuffed peppers
- Tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, herb pasta salad with a lemon vinaigrette
Foods That May Increase Your Cholesterol
Tape this list to your refrigerator and kick any of these offenders out of your pantry!
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Editorial Sources And Fact
- Prevention and Treatment of High Cholesterol. American Heart Association. November 11, 2020.
- Is There a Place for Coconut Oil in a Healthy Diet? Harvard Health Blog. January 14, 2019.
- Carson JAS, Lichtenstein AH, Anderson CAM, et al. Dietary Cholesterol and Cardiovascular Risk: A Science Advisory From the American Heart Association. Circulation. December 2019.
- American Heart Association Recommendations for Physical Activity in Adults and Kids. American Heart Association. April 18, 2018.
- Torborg L. Mayo Clinic Q& A: Moderate Alcohol Intake Has Positive Effects on Heart Health, but Too Much Causes Other Serious Health Concerns. Mayo Clinic. February 3, 2012.
How Much Cholesterol Do We Need
Cholesterol is in every cell of your body. Your body needs cholesterol to make hormones and help your brain, skin, and other organs work the way they should. But too much cholesterol in the blood can clog the arteries that carry blood around your body.
Cholesterol that builds up in a person’s blood vessels over many years could lead to:
- a heart attack that can damage the heart
- a stroke that can damage the brain
Cholesterol can start to build up in childhood and teen years. Doctors can find out what your cholesterol level is by ordering a blood test.
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Eat Fewer Refined Grains Such As White Flour
Were a nation of white food eaters white bread, white rice, white pasta, and white-flour foods like muffins, croissants, bagels, crackers, dried cereals, tortillas, pretzels, and chips. Yes, more than half of many Americans typical diets are made up of hyperprocessed refined white flour, often injected with sugar, salt, and/or fat.
Thats a real problem in part because the more white, or refined, grains we eat, the fewer whole grains we tend to take in. Research has found that eating whole grains can help lower both total and LDL cholesterol, and improve heart health.
In Harvard Universitys Nurses Health Study, for example, women who ate two to three servings of whole-grain products each day were 30% less likely to have a heart attack or die from heart disease over a 10-year period than women who ate less than one serving of whole grains per week.2
When first starting to make the switch from refined to whole grains, many people often feel a bit confused. Where to begin? Whats whole? What isnt?
The registered dietitians at the Pritikin Longevity Center start with one very simple rule. When looking at products like breads and cereals, they recommend turning the package around and making sure the first word in the Ingredient List is whole. If you see the word whole at the top of the list, its a good bet that what youre buying is in fact 100% whole grain, or close to it.
If Lifestyle Changes Arent Enough
Take medications, if you need to, to lower your cholesterol into healthy ranges. Drugs like statins can be very effective, says Dr. Danine Fruge, MD, ABFP – Medical Director at the Pritikin Longevity Center, but do continue in your efforts to eat well and exercise because a healthy lifestyle can give you far, far more than drugs alone.
With a healthy living program like Pritikin, youre not only reducing cholesterol quickly, youre also creating changes throughout your body that can profoundly improve your overall well-being. Youre reducing blood sugar levels and blood pressure. Other heart disease risk factors like triglyceride fats are also dropping dramatically. Youre also reducing inflammatory factors that sicken arteries. Youre shedding excess weight. And, quite simply, youre feeling better, much better. Many of our guests at Pritikin tell us, I had no idea I could feel this good again.
Can any pill or combination of pills do all of the above? I highly doubt it. But a healthy lifestyle like Pritikin can.
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Saturated And Unsaturated Fat
There are 2 main types of fat: saturated and unsaturated. Eating too many foods high in saturated fat can raise the level of cholesterol in your blood.
Most people in the UK eat too much saturated fat.
Foods high in saturated fat include:
- meat pies
- cakes and biscuits
- foods containing coconut or palm oil
Eating foods that contain unsaturated fat instead of saturated fat can actually help reduce cholesterol levels.
Try to replace foods containing saturated fats with small amounts of foods high in unsaturated fats, such as:
- oily fish such as mackerel and salmon
- nuts such as almonds and cashews
- seeds such as sunflower and pumpkin seeds
- avocados
- vegetable oils and spreads such as rapeseed or vegetable oil, sunflower, olive, corn and walnut oils
Questions To Ask Your Doctor
- Am I at risk for heart disease?
- How often should I get my cholesterol tested?
- What are my cholesterol levels? What do they mean?
- What lifestyle changes do I need to make to help improve my cholesterol levels and heart health?
- Is there a chance that Ill need cholesterol-lowering medicine?
- What are the risks and benefits of taking this medicine?
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Good Vs Bad Cholesterol
Cholesterol travels through your bloodstream in small packages called lipoproteins, which are made up of fat on the inside and proteins on the outside. Because fats arent water-soluble, this binding with proteins helps move them through the bloodstream.
Its important to have healthy levels of two lipoproteins that carry cholesterol throughout the body: low-density lipoproteins and high-density lipoproteins . Both LDLs and HDLs transport cholesterol in and out of cells and are involved in damage control of cells and tissues.
LDLs carry 75 percent of the cholesterol in our bodies and are the cholesterol compounds most involved in cell damage and tissue repair and protection. HDLs do only 25 percent of the work they transport cholesterol to and from the liver and serve as the bodys cholesterol-recycling system.
LDL is called bad cholesterol because when your levels of LDL are high, this can lead to a buildup of cholesterol in your arteries. When you have high levels of LDL cholesterol in your blood, you have a greater chance of developing heart disease. LDL cholesterol also raises your risk for a condition called peripheral artery disease, which can develop when plaque buildup narrows an artery supplying blood to the legs.
Conversely, HDL cholesterol is known as good cholesterol because it can carry cholesterol from other parts of your body back to your liver, where its properly broken down and removed from your body.
What Health Problems Can High Cholesterol Cause
If you have large deposits of plaque in your arteries, an area of plaque can rupture . This can cause a blood clot to form on the surface of the plaque. If the clot becomes large enough, it can mostly or completely block blood flow in a coronary artery.
If the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your heart muscle is reduced or blocked, it can cause angina or a heart attack.
Plaque also can build up in other arteries in your body, including the arteries that bring oxygen-rich blood to your brain and limbs. This can lead to problems such as carotid artery disease, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease.
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Why Cholesterol Matters For Women
Reviewed By:
Erin Donnelly Michos, M.D., M.H.S.
Ah, cholesterol and triglycerides. We hear about them all the time. Even foods that might seem good for you on the surface, like fruit-filled yogurt or bran muffins, can contribute to abnormal levels if they contain too much saturated fat or refined sugar, says Erin Michos, M.D., associate director of preventive cardiology at the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease.
Whats more, many women are at risk for high cholesterol and dont realize it. Approximately 45 percent of women over the age of 20 have a total cholesterol of 200 mg/dl and above, which is considered elevated but a survey by the American Heart Association found that 76 percent of women say they dont even know what their cholesterol values are, Michos says.
Scarier still: Triglycerides, a type of blood fat typically measured alongside cholesterol, are even more risky in women compared with men. This is a problem because womens cholesterol levels can fluctuate quite a bit after menopause and tend to increase with age, putting us at greater risk of heart disease and stroke. Knowing your cholesterol numbers and how to control them is a big step toward staying healthy.
Chicken Breast: 1972 Mg 66% Dv
Chicken has more cholesterol than eggs. Youll get 66 percent of the DV for cholesterol in a 6-ounce serving of cooked chicken breast, but only 9 percent of the saturated fat DV.
The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines recommend keeping saturated fat intake below 10 percent of your daily calories. Because chicken is lower in saturated fat than red meats, the AHA recommends choosing it over beef, pork and lamb.
If youre getting bored with the usual grilled chicken, try these healthy and creative chicken recipes.
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What Treatments Are Available For High Cholesterol
Treatment may include:
-
Addressing risk factors. Some risk factors that can be changed include lack of exercise and poor eating habits.
-
Cholesterol-lowering medicines. Medicines are used to lower fats in the blood, particularly LDL cholesterol. Statins are a group of medicines that can do this. The two most effective types are atorvastatin and rosuvastatin. Other medicines that lower cholesterol levels are ezetimibe and PCSK9 inhibitors.
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Benefits Of Eating Seafood
Now that we know high dietary cholesterol wont cause you heart attacks, lets talk about the benefits and risks of eating seafood.
There was a study published back in 2017 that found that oily fish increased the HDL cholesterol levels in blood. This is the good cholesterol.
But wait, theres more. Before you go binging on oily fish, make sure you finish reading the entire article to know about all the risks for consuming a lot of seafood.
Seafood is also known to be a great source of protein and nutrients. So much so, we wrote an entire article about it. Check it out here.
And not just protein, it is also known to contain a healthy amount of omega-3 fatty acids which are also known to decrease the risks of heart disease.
This makes the case for why you should eat seafood at least 2-3 times each week. But then theres the mercury problem.
The higher your consumption of seafood is, the more mercury you will be consuming. So it depends whether the benefits of consuming seafood outweighs the risks for you.
And not just that, you should also take into account if you have any other healthier alternative where you arent taking as much risk.
We will however list the low mercury seafood options that you have available. And also the high mercury option that you should avoid.