CHOLESTEROL DIETS, CHOLESTEROL FOODS

Ever bought one of those latest diet programs, slimming device, or exercise equipment that promise to make you lose weight effortlessly? Best of all, in just 15 minutes or less a day? If you look hard, there is always a disclaimer that they must be combined with a sensible diet.

In the same way, diet is an important component in your fight to lower LDL cholesterol levels. Many questions have been asked about the best cholesterol food or the best cholesterol diet, the best food or diet to lower LDL cholesterol or increase HDL cholesterol. Even more have been written to answer these questions, sometimes conflicting. If you were to read all of them (which you probably will not have the time), you will notice that most of the writers agree on one thing: the best cholesterol diet consists of a diet-

1. Low in fat and cholesterol and;

2. High in fiber (ok, that makes it 2 things they agree on).

This is the simplest and most practical way to embark on a healthy cholesterol diet.

Before we go into details, here is a little known but important fact:

Your body actually manufactures its own cholesterol. That's right. We have probably been programed to think that cholesterol is a dirty word. But your body actually makes cholesterol. It fact, it needs it. Cholesterol is vital for the proper functioning of your body. And your body being intelligent, makes all the cholesterol we need using your liver.

The cholesterol your liver makes is known as "endogenous". Endogenous cholesterol makes up about 85% of your blood cholesterol level. "'Blood cholesterol level" refers to the level of cholesterol circulating in your blood (the one that your doctor tests for). The cholesterol you get from animal products, such as meat, seafood, eggs, dairy products, lard and butter is known as "dietary cholesterol".
What this means is that you body actually produces 3 to 4 times more cholesterol than you eat.

 

LOW FAT, LOW CHOLESTEROL DIETS

Instead of memorizing all the hundreds of foods and diets that are high in fats and cholesterol, just remember the principles below:

 

REDUCE YOUR ANIMAL FATS INTAKE

Saturated fats and trans fats (more on this later) raise blood cholesterol and thus can be labelled as unhealthy cholesterol foods.

It should not be too difficult to identify animal fats (think fried foods, chicken skin). If you can recognize that what is on your plate is meat, you will be able to identify the parts high in fats. The fat you should specifically be avoiding (for cholesterol diet purposes, not beauty) is saturated fat. But since the restaurant you are in will be unlikely to list the saturated fat content of your dinner, just avoid any parts that look like fats to you. In any case, you CANNOT avoid taking fat altogether as long as you eat meat, so the easiest way is for you to leave the most obviously fat parts uneaten.

If you really want to know how saturated fats look like, here is it:
Saturated fat is usually solid or waxy at room temperature, and is most often found in animal products such as red meat, butter and whole milk (thus the advice to reduce animal fat intake).

But in case you choose to eschew fat altogether, you have to know this fact: fat IS a necessary nutrient. Your body needs fat to function properly.

There are in fact healthy fats which contribute to a healthy cholesterol diet and cardiovascular system. Unsaturated fats, known as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, can lower your risk of cardiovascular disease by lowering the LDL cholesterol levels in your blood.

Fat only becomes harmful when you take in excessive amount of them. Only then does it become an unhealthy cholesterol food.

Some experts advice that you limit your daily intake of saturated fats to 10% of your daily calories requirement. But since you probably cannot keep track, you will do well to avoid them whenever you can recognize them.

Do note however that saturated fat is not restricted to animal fats. Hydrogenated tropical oils like coconut and palm oils contain high levels of saturated fats as well. Tropical oils simply means the oils are derived from plants found in the tropics. Use olive oil (extra virgin is best) and other vegetable oils instead. Also, the fats themselves do not necessarily contain cholesterol, which you shall see shortly.

 

REDUCE YOUR TRANS FAT INTAKE

Avoid trans fats like a plague. Trans fat is an extremely unhealthy cholesterol food. Unlike saturated fats, trans fat increases your LDL cholesterol AND reduces your HDL cholesterol at the same time. Talk about a double whammy.

Also referred to as trans fatty acids, trans fat is made through a process called hydrogenation which is adding hydrogen to vegetable oil. This makes the fat more solid and longer lasting. Using trans fats in the preparation of foods helps them last longer and stays fresh longer.

How do you identify trans fat? Trans fat is commonly used in commercially produced foods like biscuits, cookies, and other snacks containing sugar (see "Reduce Sugar Intake"’ below). It is also found in some fried foods (remember your saturated fats?) like donuts. Shortenings and margarine also are high in trans fat. So while butter is high in cholesterol, using butter is a better choice than margarine.

While you can take about 10% of your daily calories requirement from saturated fat, try to avoid trans fat COMPLETELY. For example, The American Heart Association, sets an upper limit for trans fat at no more than 1 percent of your total daily calories which is as good as avoiding them all together.

 

REDUCE YOUR CHOLESTEROL INTAKE

It is only logical that a diet rich in cholesterol will increase your cholesterol levels. Foods high in cholesterol include red meat, lard and most seafood. You can however, eat all the fish you want (shellfish does not count). These bad cholesterol foods become worse if they are prepared in a way that results in high saturated fats.

While it is commonly stated that only foods of animal origin contain cholesterol, this is not technically correct. Plants do have trace amounts of cholesterol in their membranes. So even if you avoid meat and other animal products, your diet will still have traces of cholesterol. However for all practical purposes, you can consider all non- animal origin foods as cholesterol free since they normally only contain negligible amounts of cholesterol. There is no need to be unduly worried about them.

It is also crucial that you realized that NOT all cholesterol- free foods are healthy and do not contribute to your cholesterol levels since they CAN contain high levels of saturated fats. The problem is that we all know that a diet high in fat contributes to high cholesterol levels. As a result, we tend to think that fat is synonymous with cholesterol. This is NOT true. Cholesterol is NOT a fat. It is a fat- like substance, but nevertheless, not a fat.

Therefore, you can have food that is looks harmless because it is low in fat. Yet it could be high in cholesterol. Cholesterol can be found in BOTH low and high fat animal foods. Unlike fats, cholesterol is not as visible. You can easily spot a fat piece of meat, but you probably couldn't spot a high cholesterol food as easily. For instance, offals, like liver and kidney, are low in fat but high in cholesterol. You cannot tell just by looking at it. Of course, there are foods that are both high in saturated fats and cholesterol.

Now we come to the important part. Remember that your body makes 3 - 4 times more cholesterol than the food you eat. When you eat more cholesterol, your liver makes less to compensate.

Everytime you consume saturated fat, your liver makes cholesterol from them by breaking them down into acetones units. Ideally these acetones units are used as energy. Unfortunately, most people eat more calories than they burn. Any excess acetone units your body does not use up will be used to manufacture cholesterol (one more incentive not to overeat).

That explains why eating two eggs a day does not raise blood cholesterol levels in the average person significantly. They are already taking in cholesterol from sources high in saturated fats. The liver simply produces less cholesterol to compensate for the extra cholesterol from the eggs.

What this means is good news for egg lovers. You lower your LDL cholesterol levels more effectively by eating less saturated fats and trans fats rather than avoiding foods that contain cholesterol.

See the above section on "Reduce Your Animal Fats Intake".

 

REDUCE YOUR SUGAR INTAKE

This is easy. It should not be too hard to identify sugar since it tastes sweet. Sugar causes an increase in triglyceride levels that increases your risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Reduce it and you lower your triglyceride and cholesterol levels.

Since many snacks high in trans fat contain sugar, this is another incentive for you to avoid trans fat.

HIGH FIBER CHOLESTEROL DIET

Once again, instead of memorizing all the foods that are high in fiber, just remember the following:

FRESH FRUITS

Fresh fruits (as well as fresh vegetables) are high in soluble fiber (that means fiber that is water soluble). Try to eat them rather than make them into juices.

FRESH VEGETABLES

You cannot go wrong with them. Just eat any fresh vegetables you can find (or enjoy eating). You do not need to know the exact fiber content of each fruit. That would be too tedious and will make eating vegetables even more dreadful for people who do not like eating them in the first place.

WHOLE GRAINS, BEANS, SEEDS, PEAS, NUT

You cannot go very wrong with a diet heavy on these. Go easy on the complex carbohydrates like pasta though, since piling up on them will eventually add to your fat levels (hence, potentially your cholesterol levels) if you do not exercise enough to burn off the excess calories. Refer to the above section on "Reducing Your Cholesterol Intake" for a refresher.

While not contributing to soluble fiber intake for your body, do take lots of fish, especially the heart- friendly ones, like salmon, herring and mackerel. These are rich in omega- 3 fatty acids which prevent irregular heartbeats and helps lower blood pressure levels. Include omega- 3 in any healthy cholesterol diet. One more thing: you may drop the garlic and soy. Studies have shown that their value as good cholesterol foods is minimal at best.

 

There are probably thousands of cholesterol foods and diets in existence. Rather than remember all of them, just remember the principles of a good cholesterol food or cholesterol diet. The above 2 principles of LOW FAT, HIGH FIBER coupled with daily dosages of BiosLife™ Complete will go a long way towards lowering your cholesterol levels.

 

Bonus Tip:

As a reward for reading till this far, here is something that should please everyone (including those who do not have any cholesterol related problems).

Ever feel sluggish after lunch? There is good news for you. Several studies have shown that there is strong, compelling evidence that taking short midday naps have several health benefits.

Other than the obvious benefits like compensating for a sleepless night, refreshing the mind and body, increasing productivity, those who nap occasionally were 12 percent less likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases. In addition to that, those who took regular half-hour naps three times a week had at least a 37 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases.

So sleep on it after a good cholesterol diet and allow BiosLife™ Complete to work on lowering LDL cholesterol inside your body.

 

For more information on cholesterol foods and cholesterol diets, please visit the following sections:

Our lowering cholesterol levels home page for additional information on lowering cholesterol, preventing cardiovascular diseases and other cholesterol related issues.

High Cholesterol Foods for information on the foods and diets to avoid if you want to lower your LDL cholesterol levels.

Low Cholesterol Foods for information on the foods and diets to lower your LDL cholesterol levels as well as increase your HDL cholesterol levels.

Articles where you can find lots of useful information on lowering cholesterol levels, HDL and LDL cholesterol, as well as cholesterol foods and diets.