Alester Brown

How Your Diet Impacts Your Cholesterol

Are you looking for ways to lower your cholesterol? You're not alone. Millions of Americans have high cholesterol levels, experiencing an increased risk for heart attack, stroke and other major health issues. While your body needs some cholesterol to stay healthy, it produces everything you need.

So, how do people get high cholesterol? Typically, it's from a poor diet!

Many foods can significantly increase total cholesterol levels. Furthermore, they can decrease HDL (good) cholesterol and increase LDL (bad) cholesterol!

Fortunately, there are ways to make improvements.

Increase Your Intake of Clinically Proven Cholesterol Lowering Foods

One way to counteract high cholesterol levels is to eat more "cholesterol-friendly" foods.

One example is eating high-fiber meals, including ingredients like oatmeal and oat bran. Fiber decreases the bad cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, in your body. Soluble fiber can also reduce the absorption of cholesterol into the bloodstream.

Other clinically proven cholesterol lowering foods include whey protein and products with plant sterols or stanols. Many studies show that whey protein lowers LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol. Meanwhile, plant sterols and stanols are substances that block cholesterol absorption. Foods that contain these plant substances include fortified yogurt drinks, margarine and more.

What to Avoid

In addition to putting more cholesterol-friendly foods into your body, you need to consider reducing your intake of foods that will worsen your cholesterol levels.

Some of the worst offenders for high cholesterol are saturated and trans fats.

Saturated fats are in red meat, full-dairy products, cheese and more. Consuming too many saturated fats will significantly increase total cholesterol levels. You don't have to cut those foods out entirely. However, reducing your intake to less than seven percent of your total daily calorie intake can lower your LDL cholesterol levels by as much as 10 percent.

Trans fats are in low-quality margarine and many store-bought processed cakes and crackers. Look at the ingredients list of processed foods, and you'll often see trans fats labeled as "hydrogenated vegetable oil." Trans fats can also raise your total cholesterol levels.

Reducing these fats can make a difference. When paired with cholesterol-lowering foods, you can see substantial improvements.

Author Resource:-

Alester Brown writes about heart health & cholesterol topics. She advises people on the highest quality clinically-proven foods to help lower your cholesterol. You can find her thoughts at heart care blog.