Lowering Cholesterol Foods: A lot of choices to pick from

Introduction

With cardiovascular disease being the largest cause of death and disability (killing one person every 34 seconds, actually!) in the United States and Europe, reducing cholesterol levels by maintaining a healthy diet, has been cited as one of the ways by one can reduce the risk of heart disease and therefore increase the lifespan of an individual.

However, if uninformed, one will naturally assume that cholesterol is bad for your heart. And that is definitely not true, so let us understand what cholesterol is before we get into looking at the options available for a low cholesterol diet.

'Good' and 'Bad' Cholesterol

Contrary to popular opinion, cholesterol is important for our body, that is produced in the liver and is used as an ingredient to generate bile, hormones and nerve tissue as well as Vitamin D.

So why all the fuss, anxiety and panic with cholesterol?

Cholesterol travel through the bloodstream from the liver to other tissues while being carried by lipoproteins, and these lipoproteins are further divided into two types, low density lipoproteins (LDLs) which carry cholesterol from the liver to the cells of the body and high density lipoproteins (HDLs) that carry cholesterol from the cells of the body back to the liver, while LDL-receptors regulate the amount of cholesterol in the body.

Of the two, LDLs are known as 'bad cholesterol' meaning that one should keep these levels as low as possible, while HDLs are known as 'good cholesterol' which means that these levels have to be increased.

If an increase in LDL levels or the reduction of HDL levels occurs, the risk of heart disease increases as in the case of the former, too much cholesterol accumulates in the arteries that cannot be removed by the HDLs despite being at healthy levels, while in the case of the latter, there are too few HDLs to remove the cholesterol from the arteries even though the right levels of LDLs are present in the blood.

And how do we maintain this balance?

A careful attention to diet will go a long way in maintaing a balance of HDL & LDL levels in the body.

Lowering Cholesterol Foods

Since it has been proven medically that a healthy diet will assist in dropping 'bad cholesterol' levels, here are a list of ten foods that can get you started:

Soups, meats such as beef, veal and lamb, fish, poultry, egg whites, non-fat or skim milk, cottage cheese, vegetables, fruits, salads and salad dressing, cereal, white and whole wheat bread and beverages such as tea, coffee and its substitutes, egg white eggnogs and non-fat milk cocoa.

Among these food groups, there are some foods that cut your bad cholesterol levels substantially, and some of them are apples, beans, brown rice, cinnamon, garlic, grapes, oats, salmon, soy and walnuts.

In Closing

One must understand that in order to avoid the risk of heart disease, not only should you watch what you eat but maintain an overall healthy lifestyle that includes exercise as well, and not only do they ensure that a happier life but a healthier one too. And from this list, there's no doubt that your choices aren't limited at all.

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