High cholesterol is a topic that gets a lot of press, whether it be about ways to lower it, the negative effects of many cholesterol lowering medications (like statins) or the dire need to optimize cholesterol and other blood fats to prevent disease. Luckily, cholesterol and other blood fats often respond very well to dietary and lifestyle interventions.
Eating to reduce cholesterol
Harvard Medical School recently released a list of 11 cholesterol lowering foods; what makes this list so intriguing is that the foods work via several different mechanisms to help you lower your cholesterol.
1. Oats
2. Barley and other whole grains
3. Beans
4. Eggplant and okra
5. Nuts
6. Vegetable oils
7. Apples, grapes, strawberries and citrus fruits
8. Foods fortified with sterols and stanols
9. Soy
10. Fatty fish
11. Fiber supplements
Some of these foods deliver soluble fiber (like oats, whole grains, legumes and fruit), which binds cholesterol in the digestive system and drags them out of the body before they get into circulation. Others give you polyunsaturated fats (like nuts, vegetable oils, soy and fatty fish), which directly lower LDL. Still others contain plant sterols and stanols (like eggplant, okra, fruit and fortified foods) that block cholesterol absorption.
Specifically, eating 2 ounces of nuts/day (roughly 10 nuts) or eating 25 grams of soy protein (10 ounces of tofu and 2.5 cups of soy milk) can each reduce LDL by about 5 percent.
To further reduce LDL cholesterol, the Harvard Medical School recommends eating foods fortified with sterols and stanols – just 2 grams of plant sterols or stanols can lower LDL by about 10 percent. If you can’t find or don’t like these foods, you can use supplements, such as Cardioauxin or UltraMeal Plus 360.
More is Better
When it comes to deciding which foods to pick, the Harvard Medical School advised to eat as many as you can as often as possible. Just as investors should have a diverse portfolio to cut risks, people should eat a wide variety of cholesterol fighting foods to reduce the risk of heart disease.
References:
http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Harvard-names-11-cholesterol-cutting-foods
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Great post – thanks for sharing!