How to Lower High Cholesterol Levels
A high cholesterol level often increases risks of heart diseases such as a stroke, hardening of the arteries, or a heart attack. There is a lot that you can do to avoid heart diseases and lower your cholesterol levels. A large part of the population today in western countries have very high cholesterol levels. A high cholesterol level is over 200 mg/dl. Eating healthy food, exercising, and losing weight if you are overweight all help to reduce cholesterol in your blood. Consult your doctor to get you started on the best way to lower your cholesterol levels. Heart diseases are due to a buildup of cholesterol plaque and fatty deposits in the arteries. Once these arteries are clogged, the blood flow is blocked and a heart attack is likely to happen.
Choose to eat healthy foods that are low in fat and cholesterol.These are fruits and vegetables, whole grains such as rice, pasta, and cereal, lean meat and white poultry meat, nonfat or skimmed milk, seafoods, beans and peas, nuts and seeds. Use unsaturated oils when cooking such as canola, safflower, sunflower, and olive oil. Avoid fried foods and use oil in cooking sparingly.
Lessen high fat foods like whole milk, ice cream, butter, cheese, and egg yolks. Processed food are high in fat and sodium and should be avoided. These are sausages, corned beef, salami, bacon, and hotdogs. Avoid eating organ meats like liver, kidney, brain and sweetbreads. Baked products with egg yolks and saturated fats, saturated oils like coconut oil, palm kernel oil, palm oil should be avoided. Don’t eat fried foods.
Cook your foods wisely. Here are some good tips to follow in healthy cooking:
Drain fats and oil after broiling, roasting, or baking by putting food on a rack after cooking.
Don’t use drippings when basting meats. Instead use fruit juice, marinade, or wine.
Don’t pan fry or deep fry you food. Broil or grill them instead.
Trim all the fats that you can see from all the meat that you cook and remove the skin from the chicken or turkey. The skin from chicken or turkey is laden with saturated fat.
Use an oil spray when stir frying or sauteing foods.
Limit the portions of fatty dishes while serve bigger portions of dishes that don’t contain fat such as rice, beans, and vegetables.
For recipes that has eggs, use only the egg whites and not the egg yolks.
Replace cheddar cheese with low fat cheeses such as cottage cheese, mozzarella made from skim milk and other low fat or non fat cheeses.
References:
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/reduce-cholesterol/art-20045935
- https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/lower-your-cholesterol/
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/11-foods-that-lower-cholesterol
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