Are you experiencing high cholesterol and need to reduce it? That is not surprising considering exactly how many people have high cholesterol these days. To greatly help reduce your cholesterol, here are 10 tips you may get started with today.
Just like anything health related, diet and exercise are both crucial components. That which you eat is important to lowering your cholesterol levels, so that’s what’s included here.
A very important factor you should know is the difference between LDL and HDL cholesterol. Simply consider HDL as “healthy” and LDL as “lousy.” HDL can in fact help carry cholesterol from the blood vessels while LDL allows it to deposit as part of your artery walls.
What’s promising is as you are able to change your cholesterol for the better. This is how to accomplish that:
- Have a great sandwich on whole wheat bread or perhaps a pita with some lean turkey and plenty of fresh veggies. Skip the hot dogs, bologna, and salami, and support the Mayo. All of those are highly processed and filled up with fat and cholesterol.
- Fish, like salmon, is good. Try to find wild red salmon varieties, which are very good in Omega-3 fatty acids (good fat.) Also, flax seed is a great source of Omega-3s.
- Avoid Trans fats! Not merely do they raise the lousy LDL cholesterol, they could also reduce your HDL levels! Stay away from foods like margarine, shortening, and processed foods containing partially hydrogenated soybean oil.
- Go ahead, go nuts! Try to find walnuts mainly but additionally try almonds, macadamia nuts, cashews, and pecans. Nuts are saturated in fat, but it’s the good kind. (Also, use natural peanut butter as opposed to the normal kind which contains unhealthy Trans fats.)
- Limit desserts and try to consume only the healthier ones like angel food cake, graham crackers, Jell-O, and fat-free frozen yogurt.
- Eat foods that are saturated in fiber. Examples include whole wheat bread, oatmeal, fruits, vegetables, beans, and some cereals. (Look for the boxes that say “could help lower cholesterol.”)
- Use the grill. If you’re going to own steak or burgers, grill them at home and use lean meat. This practice avoids the grease, is fun, and the meat tastes great.
- Locate a new salad dressing. Most of them are filled with Trans fats and cholesterol. Coconut oil is good, and maybe add vinegar or lemon juice. Also, skip the bacon bits, croutons, and egg yolks.
- Exaggerate on fruits and vegetables. They contain no cholesterol and they’ve plenty of nutrients like antioxidants.
Below are a few examples: green peas, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, oranges, mangoes, papaya, pineapple, tomato, garlic, onions, spinach, water chestnuts, bananas, apricots, blueberries, and kiwi.
- Avoid fast food like french fries and anything else from the deep fryer. Those foods will raise your cholesterol constantly, so avoid the burger joints in the event that you can.
- Bonus tip: Use spices like pepper and oregano to incorporate flavor to your dishes. They are a healthy alternative to other toppings like Mayo.
That was easy, wasn’t it? Just make some of those changes and get a consultation done with a Eagle Ridge Fitness Personal Trainer to have a custom fitness plan laid out for you. You could have lower cholesterol very quickly!