If you have seen your doctor recently to get the results of your cholesterol blood test, then it’s probably because you have some valid concerns about your diet, the role cholesterol plays in your diet, and have more questions about which foods lower cholesterol and how you can change your cooking to a more cholesterol friendly diet.
Now, eating a good diet can be very straight forward. Basically it should be a diet that is rich in lots of fresh fruits and vegetables (the healthy carbohydrates), as well as protein from legumes (dried beans, peas and lentils), and meats or dairy products.
But this is where the trouble starts. Butter, red meats, poultry and eggs – all animal products contain cholesterol, with butter, egg yolks and red meats being the worst cholesterol offenders.
For your cooking and recipes, you need to try to include as many low cholesterol foods as you can, while you also work on lowering the volume of high cholesterol foods.
The result will be a lowering of the risk that you have for strokes and heart attacks.
The protein that these foods provide is very important for the health of your internal organs, and for building strong muscles and tendons, as well as maintaining hair, blood and bones. So, somehow you still need to have this protein in your daily foods, but it shouldn’t be from high cholesterol foods available. Seafood can also provide you with protein, and seafood is a good source too, especially sardines, salmon and herring which contain the omega 3 fatty acids that your body also needs.
Milk too has protein, but since it is an animal product it too has fat so you need to drink skim milk, or 1% milk instead of whole milk or 2%. If your relatives are used to drinking the milk with higher fat levels, you may get some complaints to start with, but given time, if you still buy the healthier choices, they will probably come to get used to it.
Instead of cooking with butter (animal product), try using olive oil (plant product) instead, especially the virgin olive oil which is less processed than the light olive oils. In fact the light olive oil refers to the color, and not the number of calories it contains – very misleading when we are used to light meaning less calories.
One way of reducing fat in baking is to use apple sauce, pureed prunes, or mashed bananas instead of the fat, and this also increases your fruit in your diet too.
Nuts are good for you when you are concerned about your cholesterol, but make sure you only eat a handful a day, or you will be eating too many calories which is never a good idea.
If you are making hamburgers, put in some oats, as this is a great food to help you lower your cholesterol. Legumes, or pulses as they are also called, or more commonly, dried beans, peas and lentils are also good low cholesterol and they contain soluble fibre, as do barley, pears and apples.
There is plenty more about low cholesterol foods as well as low cholesterol recipes here .
Tags: cholesterol, diet, foods, lower cholesterol