Foods That Lower Cholesterol: Take Home Message
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Other Conditions And Medications Associated With High Hdl
High HDL is also linked to other conditions, including:
- thyroid disorders
- inflammatory diseases
- alcohol consumption
Sometimes cholesterol-controlling medications can also raise HDL levels. These are usually taken to lower LDL, triglyceride, and total cholesterol levels. Medication types that have been linked to increased HDL levels include:
- bile acid sequestrants, which decrease fat absorption from the foods you eat
- cholesterol absorption inhibitors
- omega-3 fatty acid supplements, which lower triglycerides in the blood, but also increase HDL cholesterol
- statins, which block the liver from creating more cholesterol
Increasing HDL levels is usually a positive side effect in people who have low HDL levels as in most cases, it decreases their risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Natural Ways To Increase Hdl Cholesterol
Your genes do play a role in determining how much HDL your body makes and the proportion of different subtypes. Your genes are obviously already decided for you and out of your control, but your lifestyle choices are in your control. Here are some of the best, and even some easy, ways that you can get those HDL cholesterol numbers up:
1. Dont Smoke
As is always the case, smoking only makes health problems worse, and that includes HDL levels. Studies show that cigarette smoking adversely affects HDL by lowering its level, which further increases your risk for developing coronary heart disease. So if you smoke, youre already increasing your risk for heart problems.
2. Exercise More
To maintain a healthy body, you should exercise on a daily basis. If you want another specific reason to start exercising or increase your frequency of exercise, its your HDL levels. Increased physical activity directly helps raise your HDL cholesterol just another one of the many benefits of exercise. Vigorous exercise is the best choice for boosting HDL, but any additional exercise is better than none.
3. Decrease Body Weight
If youre currently overweight, by losing even a few pounds can improve your HDL cholesterol. For every six pounds of weight you lose, your HDL can increase by 1 milligram per deciliter. Thats means you want to lose weight, and if youre extremely overweight, getting your HDL cholesterol levels in order is another reason to treat obesity.
4. Eat Healthier Fats
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What Is A Good Cholesterol Level
A good cholesterol level is different for people of different ages and sexes. For example, for anyone younger than 20 years old, total cholesterol should be less than 170 mg/dL, non-HDL cholesterol should be less than 120 mg/dL, LDL cholesterol should be less than 100 mg/dL, and HDL cholesterol should be more than 45 mg/dL.
The Best Foods To Raise Your Hdl
Here at Allrecipes, we’re strong believers that all foods fit. As long as you’re not allergic to an ingredient, everything in moderation, we say! So while we’ll never say, “Don’t eat that!” we certainly will shout, “Load up on this!” And these four foods are particularly on our stock-up-now list since they’ve been shown to improve HDL cholesterol levels.
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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
Dark Chocolate And Cocoa
Cocoa is the main ingredient in dark chocolates. Having dark chocolate and cocoa as foods that lower cholesterol may seem too good to be true. But this claim is backed by research that flavonoids in dark chocolate and cocoa effectively lower LDL cholesterol levels, blood pressure and raise HDL levels. They also work towards safeguarding the LDL levels in your blood from oxidation that helps to promote a healthier heart. But, do remember dark chocolate and cocoa are a double-edged sword. If you consume too much of them they may negatively affect your heart health since they are extremely high in added sugar contents. Therefore, to avoid this danger of the elements backfiring, either consume in moderation or use cocoa directly or choose dark chocolate with cocoa content higher than 80%.
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Stop Smoking To Optimize Hdl Cholesterol
Smoking cigarettes can lead to a number of health problems, including lung disease and cancer, and also increases your risk of heart attack. But did you know smoking can also suppress or lower those good cholesterol levels?
Smoking can reduce HDL cholesterol in many ways, including by inhibiting HDL synthesis in the first place, blocking its maturation, and speeding up its clearance and metabolism, Dr. Ahmed says. Quitting smoking can help your HDL synthesis and metabolism to go back to their natural levels so that the HDL can do its job better again.
And research agrees. A study published in September 2013 in the journal Biomarker Research found that ex-smokers had higher HDL cholesterol than smokers, noting: We conclude that quitting smoking increases HDL cholesterol, and that this increase occurs rapidly after quitting, with no clear pattern of change thereafter.
If youre trying to quit smoking, talk to your doctor about the many methods to help you through the process.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
To maintain low cholesterol, it is crucial to keep the saturated fat intake below 20g and 30g for women and men respectively. Furthermore, whats important is to replace this saturated fat with modest amounts of unsaturated fats such as those found in olive, sunflower, corn and other vegetables, nut and seed oils. Therefore, extra virgin olive oil is an excellent food to lower cholesterol. It is a rich source of monounsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants that raise HDL good cholesterol levels and lower LDL bad cholesterol. Another added benefit is that it is also rich in polyphenols which may reduce the inflammation triggering heart ailments. One should, therefore, strive to avoid butter, lard and use olive oil instead.
Other Foods that Lower Cholesterol In India includes:
- Tea: Rich source of plant compounds along with Catechins and Quercetin altogether work towards lowering total cholesterol and LDL levels.
- Foods Fortified with sterols and stanols: These two compounds are an additive to foods such as margarine, granola bars and orange juice. They are extracted from plant gum contributing towards absorbing cholesterol from food. An intake of 1.5-2.4g plant sterols every day has been shown to reduce cholesterol by 7-10% within 3 weeks.
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How Fats Affect Your Cholesterol Levels
The fat in your dietboth the type and the amounthas a big impact on your cholesterol levels but its tricky. Diets high in polyunsaturated fat, which is found in nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils, tend to lower both types of cholesterol, both HDL and LDL. Diets high in saturated fat, on the other hand, which is found in meat, dairy products, coconut and palm oils tend to raise both types of cholesterolalso a mixed bag.
The best advice I can give you is to is to avoid very low-fat diets because they dont really move anything in the right direction. As far as your cholesterol profile goes, a diet thats a little bit higher in fat is probably a better choice than one thats high in carbohydrates. And there appears to be some advantages to including both saturated and unsaturated fats in your diet. In other words, theres room for both peanut butter and cheese!
Whatever you do, however, continue to be vigilant about avoiding foods made with partially hydrogenated oils. These are the dreaded trans fats, of course, and among their many sins is a tendency to lower those good HDL cholesterol levels and raise the bad LDL levels.
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Cocoa And Dark Chocolate
Nope, your eyes arent tricking you. Both cocoa and dark chocolate contain compounds that can lower bad cholesterol and help you get to a healthier total cholesterol level overall.
How? It seems that both foods help prevent LDL cholesterol from oxidizing, which can up the risk for heart disease.
The key to reaping the benefits is enjoying cocoa and dark chocolate in a healthy context.
Instead of guzzling a sugary hot chocolate with whipped cream, stir cocoa powder into your morning oatmeal or yogurt. If opting for dark chocolate, make sure the cocoa content is at least 75 percent and stick to a 1-ounce portion.
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Try The Mediterranean Diet
One of the best ways to decrease levels of LDL cholesterol is through your diet! A common diet that is recommended when trying to lower LDL cholesterol is the Mediterranean diet.
The Mediterranean diet is a diet that is high in fat due to the lower consumption of sugar and meat.
Foods like nuts, olive oil, fruits, and vegetables are at their highest levels when eating a Mediterranean diet which means youre less likely to have an increased cholesterol level.
People who eat this way also tend to lose weight over time because they are not consuming as many calories from sugars or fats since they get most of those essential nutrients through foods rich in protein and fiber.
Eating more healthy fats by including avocados with every meal will lower your risk for heart disease along with lowering LDL cholesterol levels! Avocado lovers can rejoice knowing that guacamole isnt just tasty, but its good for them too!
Mediterranean diets are commonly consumed in some of the healthiest places in the world called the Blue Zones.
Here is the typical Mediterranean diet pyramid:
What Is Hdl Cholesterol
High-density lipoprotein is a protective form of cholesterol that carries bad cholesterol away from the arteries and into the liver where it can be broken down and eliminated from the body.
When your HDL is high60 milligrams per deciliter or higheryour risk of heart attack or heart disease is lower. When your HDL is lowfor women less than 50 mg/dl, for men less than 40 mg/dlyour chances of having a heart attack or heart disease are increased.
Here are several types of foods you should consider eating more often to raise your HDL and lower your LDL.
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Top Foods To Lower Cholesterol
Intake of foods that lower LDL levels, i.e., the harmful cholesterol-containing element that causes artery-clogging atherosclerosis, should not be consumed. Furthermore, one must reduce intake of foods that boost LDL. Therefore a balance is essential. Below mentioned are 10 super foods that lower cholesterol levels and reduce other risk factors causing common heart diseases.
Whole Grains: Oats And Barley
Whole grains help to lower the risk of heart disease by reducing cholesterol levels. Whole grains contain vitamins, minerals and soluble fiber, making them an excellent food to lower cholesterol. All grains are good for your heart, but the two that stand out are oats and barley. Oats and barley contain beta-glucan fiber that helps lower cholesterol. Besides, studies claim that on consumption of oats, one reduces the total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol level by 5 % and 7% respectively.
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What Causes Low Hdl Cholesterol
There are many reasons why some people have low HDL and others have high HDL. Genes appear to play the most important role by determining how much HDL cholesterol your body makes and the proportion of different subtypes.
Lifestyle choices also affect HDL levels. Smoking, carrying too many pounds, and lack of physical activity tend to lower HDL. So does a diet high in refined carbohydrates . Medications such as beta blockers, anabolic steroids, progestins, and benzodiazepines can also depress HDL.
# 10 Use This Supplement To Help Naturally Raise Hdl:
Berberine this is a plant-based natural supplement to raise HDL. Its ideal for promoting healthy cholesterol and blood sugar levels. It may very well be the single most powerful supplement we carry. Due to soil depletion and modern farming practices, its nearly impossible to get the nutrition you need from food alone. Use Berberine as the supplement of choice to boost HDL.
Filed Under: Natural Home & Lifestyle
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How To Decrease Your Cholesterol Levels
In most people, high HDL is not harmful, so it doesnt necessarily require treatment. The action plan depends largely on how high your levels are, as well as your overall medical history. Your doctor can help determine whether you need to actively lower HDL levels or not.
Your overall cholesterol levels may be decreased by:
- not smoking
- drinking alcohol in moderate amounts only
- getting moderate exercise
- reducing saturated fats in your diet
- managing underlying health conditions, such as thyroid diseases
The American Heart Association recommends that everyone over the age of 20 gets a cholesterol test every four to six years. You may need to test more frequently if you have risk factors for high cholesterol, such as family history.
More research is needed to further understand how high HDL can be harmful in certain people. If you have a personal or family history of either high cholesterol levels or C-reactive proteins, talk to your doctor about steps you can take to regularly monitor your HDL levels.
Cholesterol And Healthy Eating
What we eat has an impact on our cholesterol levels and can help reduce our risk of disease. Try to eat a wide variety of foods from each of the five food groups. Not only does this help to maintain a healthy and interesting diet, but it provides essential nutrients to the body.
The Heart Foundation recommends:
- Plenty of vegetables, fruits and wholegrains.
- A variety of healthy protein sources , legumes , nuts and seeds. Smaller amounts of eggs and lean poultry can also be included in a heart healthy diet. If choosing red meat, make sure it is lean and limit to 1-3 times a week.
- Unflavoured milk, yoghurt and cheese. Those with high blood cholesterol should choose reduced fat varieties.
- Healthy fat choices nuts, seeds, avocados, olives and their oils for cooking
- Herbs and spices to flavour foods, instead of adding salt.
Also, be mindful on how much you are eating and whether you are filling up on unhealthy foods. Portion sizes have increased over time and many of us are eating more than we need which can lead to obesity and increase our risk of cardiovascular disease.
Ideally, a healthy plate would include servings of ¼ protein, ¼ carbohydrates and ½ vegetables.
Serving size can vary depending on age, gender and specific nutrition needs.
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Potential To Treat Atherosclerosis Through Reverse Cholesterol Transport
The cost and health risks involved with cardiac stenting have turned physicians and researchers to explore alternative methods. Studies have shown success in treating atherosclerosis through preventive and lifestyle approaches. These approaches include nutritional intervention, exercise plans, and pharmaceutical intervention. In order to review and understand these methods and why they are successful, we must first understand how cholesterol is transported out of the arteries to stop the progression of atherosclerosis.
Foods To Boost Your Good Cholesterol
These delicious foods and drinks pack a heart-healthy punch.
Its likely that youve heard of the term cholesterol before, and youre not alone if it makes you feel a little confused. From the low-fat diet era to the current day keto-lovers, there seems to be mixed messaging around cholesterol and how it impacts your health.
For starters, lets define it. Cholesterol is a fat-like substance in our blood that our body needs to help make hormones, synthesize vitamin D, digest food and more. Since its fat-like and waxy in texture, too much cholesterol in our blood can lead to plaque formation and narrowing of our blood vessels, which can lead to heart disease.
But not all cholesterols is the samethere are two main types: low-density lipoproteins and high-density lipoproteins . LDLs are often referred to as bad or lousy cholesterol, as they are more likely to accumulate in our blood vessels. HDLs are coined the good or helpful cholesterol because they pick up excess cholesterol in the blood, including LDLs, and bring it to the liver where it can be broken down and excreted.
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A Healthy List Of Good Cholesterol Foods
Good cholesterol foods are those foods that naturally lower levels of bad cholesterol or contain HDLs.
Cholesterol lowering foods are an important component to our diet because they not only provide the key to lowering cholesterol naturally but they also contain other chemical components and nutrients that keep our bodies functioning at an optimal healthy level.