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[D296]Diets For High Cholesterol

by Jack L Bloom, Jac

People who are diagnosed with high cholesterol levels should be careful of what they eat. This is because the cholesterol in their blood may shoot up to uncontrollable levels, causing severe damage to the arteries, heart, and other vital organs. If your doctor tells you that you have to lower your blood cholesterol, what he really means is that you should cut out on certain foods, more particularly on the fatty ones. You have to start eating healthy and living right to prevent further damage to your heart.

High cholesterol levels are present in 7 out of every 10 people over the age of 45. This means that a vast majority of our older adults are at high risk to have cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks, angina and stroke. This alarming fact induced the National Cholesterol Education Program and American Heart Association in 2001 to release diet guidelines - the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) Diet - for people afflicted with high cholesterol and who were at high risk for heart disease.

Generally speaking, the diet for people with high cholesterol boils down to foods that you can't eat and the foods that you should eat. This may mean that you have to totally change your eating habits. While this is inevitable, you have to do it because it's the only way to prevent the development of high risk diseases such as arteriosclerosis and coronary heart diseases.

Breakfast and Snacks Meal Suggestions

Oats or Oatmeal
Whole wheat bread
Whole grain corn
Fruits like banana or apples
Fresh fruit juice

If you have high cholesterol level, you have to eat foods rich in fiber like oats and whole grains. Fiber can dissolve the bad cholesterol in the blood. The carbohydrates in oats, wheat, and corn can also help keep your cholesterol level within manageable levels.

Fruits contain vitamins and minerals that everyone needs, especially people with high cholesterol levels. Most fruits are rich in Vitamin C that can help protect the body against diseases like cancer and atherosclerosis. Banana, for example, is rich in potassium that can regulate one's blood pressure.

Lunch and Dinner Meal Suggestions

Turkey, lean chicken, or fish
Vegetable salad
Fruits for dessert like mango, papaya, or orange
Carrot juice

White meat is a good source of Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid that is good for the heart. It helps improve blood fats and the amount of good cholesterol in the body. The essential fatty acids from fish such as tuna, salmon, and mackerel are necessary because the body doesn't produce them at all. They can only be obtained from the food that you eat.

Vegetables are good sources of vitamins and minerals. A vegetarian diet is going to be helpful for people with high cholesterol levels. A lot of vegetables contain fiber, beta carotene, and Vitamin K that promote the health of the blood, heart, and almost all internal organs.

People with high cholesterol should never consume trans fat, hydrogenated fats, saturated fats and dietary cholesterol. You can avoid all these by avoiding fatty foods such as donuts, French fries, and other meals cooked in oil or hard margarine. Also, salty and sweet foods should be avoided as well. Baked goods such as pastries, cakes, crackers, and cookies should be eaten in moderation. Unhealthy snacks and foods with too much shortening should also be removed from your diet.

The standard medical recommendation is for the LDL cholesterol - the "bad" cholesterol - to be less than 130 mg/dl and even below 100 mg/dl for people who have had a heart attack or are considered high risk for a heart attack.

I encourage people to look at the big picture and not just focus on a number. If your LDL is slightly elevated and you start taking a statin drug to lower your LDL cholesterol the benefits to your overall health are uncertain at best.

What should you do if you have elevated cholesterol?

First of all, I highly recommend the C-reactive-protein test for knowing whether your arteries are inflamed. Secondly, check out the Cardiovascular Profile test for knowing the elasticity of your arteries.

As reviewed in my other articles on heart disease, artery inflammation and elasticity are much better indicators of heart disease than cholesterol levels.

If you have significantly elevated cholesterol, you should pay attention to it and treat it.

Much depends on how elevated your cholesterol is, and if you're willing to do some work to improve your risk of heart disease instead of just starting on the statin drugs.

Statin drugs have significant risks: they cause decreased levels of Co Q10, they put strain on your liver and they frequently cause leg pain.

So it's much better to work on decreasing your cholesterol levels and other risk factors for heart disease without taking statin drugs -- if you're willing to do what it takes.

The basic nutrients to support your arteries and reduce inflammation include:

- 100 ml of Co Q10 daily

- 4-6 gm of fish or cod liver oil daily (equivalent to at least 600mg EPA)

- 100mg of magnesium twice a day

Do not take magnesium oxide as it is not as easily absorbed as other forms of magnesium such as glycinate or malate.

Exercise and the amazing amino acid L-arginine can improve your blood pressure and the elasticity of your arteries.

Can you decrease your cholesterol levels by changing your diet?

The idea that eating cholesterol is what causes you to have high cholesterol is false.

If you don't eat cholesterol, your body will make it. The body knows how much cholesterol it wants and, for some reason or other, it might allow a high level of cholesterol. Only 15% of cholesterol in the body comes from the diet anyway. The liver makes the other 85%.

However, you certainly can affect cholesterol by your diet. A significant way to lower cholesterol is to include adequate amounts of healthy fiber in your diet.

Your body doesn't waste. Instead, your body is continually recycling; it even recycles cholesterol.

If we have enough fiber, then the fiber acts as a sponge. So the cholesterol that makes its way into the intestinal tract will not be reabsorbed but will attach to the fiber and be eliminated.

The America Heart Association recommends including up to 30g of fiber/day.

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Both Jack L Bloom & Dr. Lisa Hosbein are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Jack L Bloom has sinced written about articles on various topics from Women, Alternative Medicine and High Cholesterol. Jack L Bloom is the owner of . For more information about. Jack L Bloom's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.

Dr. Lisa Hosbein has sinced written about articles on various topics from Disease & illness, High Cholesterol and High Cholesterol. I would like to offer you free access to my weekly Holistic Medicine Newsletter, Healthy Perspectives, where you can receive additional information on important health topics. You can sign up by going to. Dr. Lisa Hosbein's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.