High Cholesterol Diet Foods
Good Diet for High Cholesterol
Designing a good diet for high cholesterol is easy: there's plenty of information about it 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 increase 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 low cholesterol foods to eat while promoting high cholesterol foods to
avoid.
But once you decide to lower your cholesterol, you
might be surprised to learn that a good diet for high 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 fats - 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. Cholesterol free foods 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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