Good Diet for High Cholesterol

Designing a good diet for high cholesterol is easy: there's plenty of information about it that's available in books, magazines, newspapers, TV and especially on the Internet.

But following a good diet for high cholesterol is decidedly harder. Most of us have grown up eating anything we want, and especially foods that contribute to high blood cholesterol, which in turn eventually contributes to atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and a variety of other health threats. 

Only you can motivate yourself to resist an onslaught of advertising messages - which seem to be everywhere - that tempt you to ignore food that lowers your cholesterol and eat food that fattens the bank accounts of some of the world's largest corporations.

But once you decide to lower your cholesterol, you might be surprised to learn that a low cholesterol diet is not so bad on the taste buds after all.

Let's start our discussion of a good diet for high cholesterol by going back to high school health class where you first learned about different types of fats.

You might remember hearing that not all fats are bad for you. Bad fats include:

• Saturated fat - You find these cholesterol-raising fats in animal meat, coconut oil, palm oil etc.
• Trans fats - This is the type you get in milk and especially in hydrogenated vegetable oils that are commonly used in baked food (muffins, doughnuts, etc) or fast-food restaurants (especially french fries).

Good fats include:

• Polyunsaturated fats - You get these from vegetable oils & fish oils. They help reduce blood cholesterol when consumed moderately.
• Monounsaturated fats - This type comes from in sunflower, peanuts, olive oil, etc. They actually lower your cholesterol levels.

Formulating a good diet for high cholesterol means you have to become an educated consumer - which means carefully reading information on the labels of foods you buy - especially if that food comes in metal cans or cardboard boxes.

Certain foods are cholesterol friendly. These include

• Most fruits (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries) and vegetables
• Several different kinds of nuts, especially almonds and walnuts
• Oat bran or oatmeal, certain cooked beans (pinto beans, kidney beans, and garbanzo beans or chick peas)
• Soy, which you get from tofu, tempeh, soymilk, roasted soy nuts.
• Many types of fish including albacore tuna, herring, lake trout, mackerel, sardines and salmon. These provide an essential fatty acid called omega-3. Fish is also a good source of protein.

Unfortunately, through the years, many people have avoided eating a good diet for high cholesterol because they believed cholesterol lowering foods were going to be tasteless, bland and boring. But when you realize all the options you have for eating healthy, you'll find your options are not as limited as you may think.
 

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