There are various options available to you, to help lower your cholesterol naturally and reduce or eliminate your risk of heart disease. You just need to arm yourself with the right information.

You probably know by now that cholesterol is made in the liver and your liver makes ALL the cholesterol that your body needs! Yes, you heard right...your liver makes ALL the cholesterol that your body needs!

With that being said, the major way that you get high cholesterol, is through the mouth! Because your liver makes ALL the cholesterol that your body needs, excess cholesterol must come through your mouth, from the foods you eat.

Lowering your cholesterol is as simple as making some changes to certain habits that you’ve formed. The first place to start is by looking at the kinds of foods you eat. Let’s face it, if we were a bit more careful with what we ate, we most likely wouldn’t have high cholesterol levels.

In saying that, the following statement would be true…"you’re as healthy as what you eat".

And isn’t it amazing that something so simple could cure a major world health problem?

You see, food and what you eat should be the foundation of any healthy lifestyle. Food was meant to be enjoyed, and there are hundreds of delicious foods that are low in fat and cholesterol. The availability of low-fat and non-fat foods in supermarkets makes your “health journey" more enjoyable.

By changing your diet, you can reduce several of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Most important among these is lowering your LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol levels. By making some changes and improving what you eat, you can reduce your risk of heart attack by around 20% to 30%. That’s right…20% to 30%!

There are many benefits, apart from just lowering your cholesterol, that can be enjoyed by improving your diet…these include:

• Lowering high blood pressure
• Reducing body fat
• Improving your blood sugar count
• Reducing the risk of a blood clot
• etc

Following is a brief outline of some steps that you can take to improve your diet and help to lower your cholesterol:

Reduce The Total Calories
Generally, the more you weigh over and above your ideal weight, the greater your risk of heart disease.

Please note that you should never attempt to lose weight irrationally by following a fad diet. Instead do it slowly and progressively…this will help to form new habits and makes it easier to follow

Simply cut down on foods that are rich in fat and cut down on your alcohol intake

Reduce Saturated Fats
Saturated fats have the most influential effect on raising LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. By just cutting out butter and using low-fat diary products you can shave 20% off your saturated fat intake.

Junk foods and fast foods generally have a high percentage of saturated fats, so stay away from them. Diary foods and eggs also generally have high saturated fat content. Please note: be really careful when using coconut or palm kernel oils as these have more saturated fat than lard!

Reduce Sugar Intake
Generally about 20% of calories, in a typical diet, come from sugar. “Empty" calories from sugar; take up space in your diet, restricting the intake of more nutritious foods, which can provide protein, vitamins and minerals

Increase Fiber
Soluble fiber has been known to reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol; without reducing HDL (good) cholesterol. Eat more fruits and vegetables, oat and corn bran and dried peas and beans. Around 40 grams per day can help to reduce cholesterol by 10%

Increase Fish
Fish oil has been shown to markedly lower triglyceride levels. Studies have also shown a direct link between eating fish and fewer heart attacks. Try to eat fish at least 2 to 3 times a week

There you have it, some simple guidelines to lowering your cholesterol and greatly improving your health. Sounds simple, yes…but to really make a change you have to focus on changing some habits and the best way to do that is to do it in small progressive steps.

Start now by taking some time out to reflect upon:

• The wrong kinds of foods that you have been buying
• What you will add and what will you eliminate from your shopping list from today and onwards
• The wrong kinds of snacks that you’ve been eating
• What you can substitute that will help you in your efforts

Also be very mindful when eating out (and I’m not just talking about fancy restaurants), because this is where most people fail when it comes to healthy eating!

Wishing you the very best in your endeavors

Ramzi Abboud

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