Cholesterol lowering foods are getting quite a lot of attention lately, as more and more people go in their search for weight loss. But whether you’re trying to lose weight or not, it helps to know which foods can assist in lowering cholesterol levels. After all, cholesterol is generally not a good contributor to the body’s fitness and good health and is actually the drawing board for several health problems. If you know which foods can help lower cholesterol, you can watch your weight and keep yourself healthy without getting scared of everything you eat. In fact, you can even eat more instead of eat less but still be in better shape than you were before as long as you eat only cholesterol lowering foods.
Cholesterol lowering foods are definitely not magic ingredients in weight loss and good health, but they have plenty of benefits that should not be ignored. Even the FDA has looked into the credibility of the claims about foods that can lower cholesterol and has branded certain foods as ideal for cholesterol management. If every person makes it his or her responsibility to eat the right foods, the overall rate of diseases would certainly be lessened. After all, surely everyone would prefer going to the grocery instead of to the clinic or the hospital.
Cholesterol Lowering Foods: Formula to Remember Which Foods Are Beneficial
- Breakfast: Fiber
- Dinner: Fish Oil
- Dessert: Fruits
- Beverage: Plant Sterols or Stanols
1. Breakfast: Fiber
Here’s a listing of the top cholesterol lowering foods with some suggestions on when to best incorporate them into your diet. The first key nutrient that should be found in cholesterol lowering foods is fiber, and fiber can make plenty of significant contributions to your breakfast tray.
Fiber-rich foods are great cholesterol burners. These include oatmeal, oat bran, kidney beans, barley, prunes, cereal, and so on. These contain soluble fiber, which is known not only for its ability to lower cholesterol levels but also in lowering only the LDL cholesterol, also known as the bad cholesterol. This is done by preventing your body from easily absorbing these bad cholesterols.
All you have todo is consume food that will add up to 5 to 10 grams of soluble fiber in a day. If you eat 1 cup of cooked oatmeal, that can give you around 4 or 5 grams of fiber already. You can add some prunes to complete the deal.
2. Dinner: Omega 3 Fatty Acids
To complete a cholesterol lowering diet, you can also prepare fish products for dinner and lunch. These can be as filling as meat but if you choose the right fish products, you can also get a lot of omega 3 fatty acids, which also help burn unwanted cholesterol. Even the fatty fish products actually contain a lot of these fatty acids and are considered as cholesterol lowering foods. Omega 3 fatty acids also help reduce the risk of heart attacks.
You can get omega 3 fatty acids from mackerel, lake trout, sardines, salmon, halibut, and herring, among others. These should be baked or grilled.
3. Dessert: Fruits
You can add cholesterol lowering foods to every meal and every part of the meals you eat, including dessert. For dessert, fruits like apples and grapes can also help bring down cholesterol levels. These fruits are also high in fiber and are great antioxidant that can cleanse the blood. Grapes also have plenty of flavonoids, which also identifies between bad cholesterol and good cholesterol.
4. Beverage: Plant Sterols or Stanols
To top off your meals, you can drink healthy cholesterol lowering beverages as well such as orange juice or yogurt drinks. These drinks contain plant sterols or stanols, which are substances that help inhibit the absorption of cholesterol into the body.
Using Cholesterol Lowering Meal Plans
You may also use any of the readily available cholesterol lowering meal plans and recipes that can be found online or from your dietician. These plans come in all amounts of total calorie intake to meet specific needs. There are meal plans designed to sum up to a total of 1600 calories, 1200 calories, 2200 calories, and so on. There are also special plans that cater to people’s needs and individual preferences. There are British, French, Thai, Middle-Eastern, Indian, and Japanese meal plans. There are meal plans designed for those who love cheese.
You can also find recipes for breakfast and dinner, recipes for those with low budgets, recipes for those who don’t have much time for cooking, and recipes for desserts that also help lower cholesterol. With all these available options, you will most likely find something that fits your taste so you’ll get to eat delicious foods you love without endangering your health but, in fact, even improving it.