Did your doctor recently give you the bad news that you have high cholesterol levels? Well, hope is not lost, as there are many effective ways to lower cholesterol, you can make your diet affect your cholesterol level The first thing to do is to increase your vegetable intake.
Let us start with a good news bad news joke! The bad news is that chocolate is bad for you when on a diet. And the good news? – Chocolate is very good for lowering cholesterol!
introduction
There are two kinds of cholesterol namely ldl hdl, HDL cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein), and cholesterol LDL (low-density lipoprotein).
HDL is considered good cholesterol while LDL is considered bad cholesterol. HDL removes bad cholesterol from the arterial lining which can build up to form plaques that cause heart ailments.
High LDL cholesterol is one of the primary causes of heart disease. High LDL cholesterol levels in the body may eventually lead to the formation of plaque in the coronary arteries, which can block blood flow to the heart or hinder blood flow to the brain causing a stroke.
It was discovered that high cholesterol levels are usually easily managed with diet and lifestyle changes. The following are some ways to lower cholesterol and maintain a healthy level in the body.
Great ways to lower cholesterol
Although cholesterol is found in animal fats, it must be borne in mind that the body is a natural factory for cholesterol and therefore with the intake of cholesterol-rich foods, the body is still producing cholesterol.
Therefore, no wonder that cholesterol levels can quickly be increased. Cholesterol is very important for the body as it is inter alia needed to help build cell walls as well as many hormones. there many ways to lower cholesterol include:
1. Be sure to eat lots of vegetables every day.
Romaine lettuce and other green vegetables like:
- broccoli, peas, and spinach are great choices.
- Some other excellent choices are corn, olives, soybeans, and carrots.
- If you cook with vegetable oil, you will want to switch to olive oil, canola oil, or safflower oil.
- A good vegetable side dish to make is sweet green, yellow, and red peppers.
- You can cook these with a little olive oil and garlic.
2. The next thing to look at is your fruit intake.
It really is true that an apple a day will keep the doctor away, as apples reduce cholesterol and blood pressure.
- Other great fruits to eat are oranges, tomatoes, kiwi fruit, and strawberries.
- other berries, grapefruit, bananas, raisins, plums, red grapes, and avocados are also effective ways to lower cholesterol.
3. Make a conscious effort to include the following foods in your diet more often:
- fish, lean red meat, rice, pasta, white meat chicken without skin.
- turkey breasts, low-fat turkey bacon, turkey sausage,
- flaxseed, oat bran, dried beans, lentils, tofu, and nonfat yogurt.
- nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, and cashews.
A great way to lower cholesterol: start your day with a large bowl of oatmeal or cream of wheat.
Other cereals that are good to eat are rice bran, Wheaties, shredded wheat, and raisin bran. The best varieties of bread to eat are whole grain, whole wheat, raisin bread, 7 grain, and wheat berry bread.
When making an omelet or scrambling eggs, use one whole egg with 3 egg whites.
- One group of foods that have been shown to greatly benefit people wanting to find ways to lower cholesterol is the onion and garlic group of foods.
- These include onions, garlic, shallots, pearl onions, leeks, chives, and asparagus.
Now this won’t be total torture. You can even order pizza! Just limit your serving to 1 or 2 slices and make it a vegetable pizza so that you are getting your veggies.
4. Decrease intake of saturated fats
Saturated fats are primarily found in animal products. Foods high in saturated fats include food found at fast food restaurants such as hamburgers, fried chicken strips, fish fillets, etc.
Dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, whole milk, ice cream, butter, commercially fried foods, and processed foods such as cookies, cakes, pies, pastries, doughnuts, crackers, and chocolate are typically high in saturated fats.
Saturated fats are also found in cured meat such as bacon, sausage, ham, hotdogs, cold cuts, and bologna. Duck and goose meat, and some vegetable oils such as coconut oil and palm oil are also high in saturated fats.
Bake, grill, or broil your meat rather than fry it.
Instead of cold cuts such as bologna, salami, or hotdogs, choose chicken or turkey with the skin removed, fish, or very lean cuts of red meat.
5. ways to lower cholesterol: Stop taking hydrogenated fats
Hydrogenated fats and cholesterol are two different substances that can have an impact on human health, particularly when consumed in excessive amounts.
Hydrogenation is a chemical process used to convert liquid vegetable oils into solid or semi-solid fats. This process involves adding hydrogen to unsaturated fatty acids, resulting in the formation of saturated fats and trans fats. Trans fats are the main concern when discussing hydrogenated fats because they have been found to have negative effects on health.
Trans fats
Trans fats are artificially created fats that have been extensively used in the food industry due to their stability and extended shelf life. They are commonly found in processed foods, baked goods, fried foods, and margarine.
Consumption of trans fats has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular problems. Trans fats raise bad cholesterol (LDL) levels while lowering good cholesterol (HDL) levels, leading to an unfavorable lipid profile. also from effective ways to lower cholesterol decreasing trans fats.
It’s important to note that dietary cholesterol has a lesser impact on blood cholesterol levels compared to saturated and trans fats. However, individuals with certain conditions, such as familial hypercholesterolemia, may be more sensitive to dietary cholesterol intake.
chocolate and cholesterol
Chocolate may be the despair of dieters, but it contains a class of chemicals that might help lower the risk of heart disease, according to researchers at the University of California at Davis. CNN
It has been found that chocolate indeed assists the body to lower cholesterol blood levels. The reason is that chocolate is rich in antioxidants.
Chocolate rich in antioxidants
In the human body, there are free radicals which are actually bad for the human body as they aid in the atherosclerotic process. Luckily for us, anti-oxidants are the good guys who neutralize free radicals.
Anti-oxidants have the ability to mop up the majority of these aggressive free radical molecules and they also contain
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin C
- beta-carotene
- Vitamin E
- and selenium
Chocolate is rich in all these ingredients and therefore it has been proven to actually eat chocolate from ways to lower cholesterol blood levels.
But before cholesterol can be transported through the bloodstream, it must be combined with fats and proteins into particles called lipoproteins.
The “good” high-density lipoproteins, or HDL, are believed to scavenge excess cholesterol from the bloodstream and carry it to the liver for excretion.
Diets high in flavonoid-rich cocoa powder and dark chocolate have a favorable effect on LDL cholesterol when compared with diets that limit or exclude other flavonoid sources such as tea, coffee, wine, and onions also a great way to lower cholesterol.
