Cholesterol is essential for many functions and processes in our body, but it can cause many problems if it is high, and the most common are heart diseases.
However, you will often not feel any symptoms from high cholesterol. There are also risks and predispositions due to genetic or life habits and, above all, diet. To determine if you have it, you need to do a blood test and consult a doctor about how to lower cholesterol.
If you want to check your blood count and how high your blood cholesterol is and talk to a doctor about how to lower cholesterol with diet, feel free to visit us at Doral Beach Gynecology, FL.
What is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a waxy substance produced by the liver and found in foods of animal origin. Our body needs cholesterol to produce hormones and vitamin D, and it also plays an important role in the digestive process.
There are different types of cholesterol:
- “Good” or HDL cholesterol
- “Bad” or LDL cholesterol (associated with risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke).
Cholesterol levels in the blood are measured in milligrams per deciliter. Total cholesterol of over 200 mg/dL is considered high.
Factors that affect high cholesterol are:
- Genetic predispositions for heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure
- Physical inactivity
- Being overweight
- Improper diet
- Age
- Kidney disease, diabetes, HIV / AIDS, hypothyroidism, or lupus
- Certain medications and remedies for acne, cancer, high blood pressure, HIV, heart rate
8 Diet Tips to Lower Cholesterol:
How to lower cholesterol with diet? How to prevent high cholesterol? Here are some tips:
- Eat more food rich in fiber
Fibers are very beneficial for our bodies. They help our digestive tract, lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and protect us from cardiovascular and many other diseases.
Fiber is a good carbohydrate that we cannot digest. Soluble fibers are the most important for lowering cholesterol.
It probably sounds strange to you that we can’t digest them, but our body doesn’t have the enzymes to do so. These fibers move through our digestive tract, absorb water and turn into a paste-like mixture. In the process of digestion, they absorb bile, which is the most important for the digestion of fats. Bile is produced by the liver. The liver draws cholesterol from the blood to make it. When the fibers absorb the bile, the liver is activated, and the level of cholesterol in the blood decreases. The intestines do not resorb the bile, and, finally, we excrete by the stool the fibers to which the bile is bound.
If you include 5 to 10 g of fiber a day in your daily diet, you can significantly lower your cholesterol levels, and you will have better digestion.
Soluble fibers are found in:
- Fruit (apples, berries, citrus fruits)
- Green leafy vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, etc.)
- Legumes and beans
- Sweet potatoes and winter squash
- Whole grains – oats, barley, flax, quinoa, brown rice.
You should consume fruits and vegetables and whole grains every day because that will reduce the level of “bad” and increase the level of “good” cholesterol. Fruits and vegetables are also rich in antioxidants and protect you from many diseases.
- Soy
Soy is a plant that is often in the diet plan for lowering cholesterol.
Soybeans are rich in protein and isoflavones. We mainly use soybeans or soy milk, but we also use soy proteins as a supplement.
Research has shown that if you consume it daily, you can lower LDL cholesterol and increase HDL cholesterol.
- Use unsaturated fats
It is wrong to think that fats harm our bodies. On the contrary, fats are essentialt, but it is also important what type we eat.
In a low cholesterol diet plan, we should include foods with unsaturated (“good”) fats and reduce or eliminate the intake of saturated and trans (“bad”) fats. If we overeat food with saturated and trans fat, the risk of heart and other diseases increases.
We can find “bad” fats in:
- Red fatty meat (beef, pork, lamb)
- Sausages and many meat products
- Whole milk and butter
- Cheese
- Ice cream
- Mayonnaise
“Good” or unsaturated fats are found in foods such as:
- Almonds, walnuts, cashews, peanuts, pecans
- Olive, sesame, corn, peanut oil, etc.
- Peanut and almond butter
- Avocado
- Fish: salmon, herring, sardines, trout
- Soybeans and soybean products
- Sunflower and pumpkin seeds
- Sesame seeds
Unsaturated fats regulate blood cholesterol and are friends of our body. They can be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, depending on the fatty acid they contain. They have a significant effect on lowering cholesterol and are part of the prevention of heart disease. Foods with omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids are most often recommended because they protect your heart and health in general.
- Use spices and herbs in food preparation
From ancient times, people used various spices to make the food taste better. It is advisable to use some spices in the diet to lower cholesterol. It is wrong to think that the food you prepare must be tasteless because it is healthy.
Spices and plants are rich in antioxidants. They prevent the oxidation of “bad” cholesterol and protect your arteries.
It has been proven that garlic, ginger, and turmeric have the greatest effect on lowering cholesterol. You may also use fresh or dried herbs like oregano, mint, and sage, but also spices like cinnamon because they have a lot of antioxidants.
Use them in your diet and enjoy their aromas while also taking care of your health.
- Limit refined sugars and simple carbohydrates
Yes, the use of refined sugars and simple carbohydrates also affects high cholesterol. These include white and brown sugar, fructose, and sweeteners.
Many diets involve a large intake of carbohydrates, but this is not good for your cholesterol. If you use more sugar, your liver produces more LDL cholesterol, and blood triglycerides increase (blood fats that are related to cholesterol levels).
It is not recommended for women and children to eat more than 25 g of sugar per day, while for men, the limit is 36.7 g of sugar per day.
As well as fats, it is necessary to use sugar in moderation and not to eat too many sweets and refined sugars. It is always better to opt for complex carbohydrates from cereals or fruits, and many diets exclude even them if they have a high glycemic index.
- Use drinks to lower cholesterol
What is the best drink to lower cholesterol? Green tea is rich in antioxidants. It protects your heart and arteries, and it is also good for the detox of your body. It is recommended to drink one to four cups of green tea a day to lower cholesterol.
Also, some of the best drinks for lowering cholesterol are soy milk, berry juices and smoothies, oat drinks, tomato juice, and cocoa drinks.
Avoid those that contain saturated fats (drinks with whipped cream, whole milk, or creamer) and added sugars (juices and carbonated drinks).
- Make a low cholesterol diet plan
If your doctor has determined that you have high cholesterol through tests, you will probably be advised to follow a low cholesterol diet plan. But if you just want to take care of your health or have predispositions for heart disease, that diet change is still useful.
A low cholesterol diet plan should be based on vegetables, nuts, fish, and white meat, with lots of spices and herbs, and without the addition of saturated fats and sugars. You need to have three main meals and two snacks in which you will incorporate these foods. For starters, you can make a seven-day plan and menu.
You also need to read the declarations on the products you buy. The packaging of the product may say that it is dietary, without fat or sugar, but that is not always the case. You need to know how many calories you need to take in daily and distribute them wisely.
The Mediterranean diet is the best for lowering cholesterol which uses a lot of olives and olive oil, nuts, vegetables, fish, and fruits. This is exactly what we need for a low cholesterol diet.
- Use cholesterol-lowering supplements
There are also natural supplements that have been proven to lower cholesterol levels, and these are:
- Psyllium
- L-carnitine
- Niacin.
Before using any supplement, you need to consult your doctor and do not take anything on your own, because it can lead to unwanted effects even if it is completely natural.
Changing Life Habits
Daily cholesterol intake should not be higher than 300 mg. If there is a risk of heart disease or other related to cholesterol, the daily intake of cholesterol should not exceed 200 mg. However, over time, the parameters in medicine change.
By permanently changing your lifestyle and diet, you can lower your cholesterol but also reduce the risk of “bad” cholesterol appearing and affecting your health.
What habits should we change? First of all:
- Eating too much fast and junk food is not good for our health and affects high cholesterol the most.
- Exercise.
- Losing weight can lower cholesterol if you are overweight.
- Smoking and some other bad habits affect high cholesterol. It would be good to quit for your future health.
- You can’t influence genetics, but it is a diet that can delay and reduce the risks of high cholesterol.
The Bottom Line
You should not take care of your health only when you find out that something is wrong with it. High cholesterol is a common problem, but it does not mean that it is harmless. It may lead to heart problems and even heart attacks or strokes if neglected and not treated as an issue. By permanently changing your life habits, and, above all, your diet, you can lower your cholesterol and preserve your health.
If this topic has been helpful to you and you want to consult a doctor about ways to lower cholesterol, schedule your appointment at Doral Beach Gynecology in Doral and Miami Beach, FL.