Manage Your Cholesterol Levels

Eisha Sarkar

Posted on Hello Wellness on Sep 6 2010 3:19PM

"Diet," your doctor tells you, just like the last time you got your cholesterol checked. You smile sheepishly and promise to have fruits for the rest of the week. But the next morning you remember your friend's twenty-fifth anniversary. It wouldn’t be criminal to tuck into butter chicken once in a while, you think. And anyway, how many promises can you keep?

Whatever the reasons may be for your high blood cholesterol level - diet, heredity, or both, the only treatment your doctor will prescribe you is diet. And as enticing the thought of popping pills to lower cholesterol may seem to you, it is your diet you have to change.

So what should you avoid?

• High-fat food: There are two major types of dietary fat - saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fat raises your blood cholesterol level more than anything else in your diet. The best way to reduce your blood cholesterol level is to reduce the amount of fat you eat
• Piling on weight: If you are overweight, weight loss is another important step in lowering blood cholesterol levels. If you are not overweight, replace the fat calories by eating food high in complex carbohydrates
• Animal Fats: Butter, cheese, whole milk, ice cream, eggs and cream contain high amounts of saturated fat. Poultry, fish, and shellfish also contain saturated fat, although generally less than meat
• Hydrogenated Fat: Trans fats are created during the food manufacturing process when cheap vegetable oils undergo a process called "hydrogenation" (a process where hydrogen is added to make them solid and less likely to become rancid). Found in packaged foods, fries, cookies, cakes, flavoured coffees, chocolates (especially those high on nuts), trans fats unfortunately encourage atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries)

In a healthy diet, 25 to 35 per cent of your total daily calories can come from fat — but saturated fat should account for less than 10 per cent of your total daily calories.

So what should you do?

• Increase fiber: Soluble fiber in foods such as apples, pears, legumes, onions, sweet potatoes, oats, carrots and broccoli reduces your low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the "bad" cholesterol. Soluble fiber can reduce the absorption of cholesterol into your bloodstream. 
• Go for garlic: Allicin in garlic helps decrease LDL (by as much as 20 mg/dL), increase good cholesterol, known as high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and lower blood pressure. Use garlic in foods regularly or take garlic supplements e.g. Ranbaxy's Garlic Pearls and Himalaya’s Lasuna
• Something fishy: Eating fatty fish such as salmon and tuna can be heart-healthy because of they contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce your blood pressure and risk of developing blood clots. In people who have already had heart attacks, fish oil — or omega-3 fatty acids — reduces the risk of sudden death. Bake or grill the fish to avoid adding unhealthy fats. If you decide to take a fish oil supplement, watch your diet and eat lean meat or vegetables in place of fish
• Go nuts: Walnuts, almonds, peanuts, pistachio nuts, etc. can reduce blood cholesterol. Rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, walnuts also help keep blood vessels healthy. Eating about a handful a day of most nuts may reduce your risk of heart disease. Just make sure they aren't salted or coated with sugar
• Drizzle with olive oil: Olive oil contains a potent mix of antioxidants that can lower your "bad" (LDL) cholesterol but leave your "good" (HDL) cholesterol untouched. Saute vegetables in it, mix it with vinegar as a salad dressing or use it in place of butter with bread - just two tablespoons of olive oil a day in place of other fats in your diet can have many heart-healthy benefits.  Choose extra-virgin olive oil that contains more heart-healthy antioxidants
• Add plant sterols: Choose margarine spreads, orange juice, cereals, and granola bars fortified with plant sterols that have cholesterol-lowering properties
• Work out: Exercise increases the amount of HDL in your blood, while reducing the amount of LDL. It promotes weight loss and weight control and helps tone up your body's circulation, helping to clear away clots in the blood vessels