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If you need to lower your LDL
cholesterol (bad cholesterol) or lower your overall cholesterol, a lot of what
you need to do overlaps with what you need to do in managing weight,
staying healthy and fit, or managing diabetes. To lower LDL cholesterol, the following four points are the simplest and
most important:
1. Eat at least two MORE servings
of fruits and/or vegetables per day than you already do now. (This is good for weight control
anyway as I’ve written in http://spirfit.blogspot.com/2010/06/you-will-not-gain-bad-weight-from.html ) Also,
fruits
and vegetables have good fiber content and plant stenols which lower
your absorption of LDL cholesterol. Personally, I prefer fruits because
they are more convenient and quick to just wash and eat. In addition,
fruits keeps your craving for bad sweets under control in the long
term. However, some people find it convenient to do salad vegetables by
just preparing a big tupperware bowl of salad and keeping it in the
refrigerator. That's fine too. Do whatever it takes for you to
increase your intake of fruits and/or vegetables by two more servings
per day. Also, to give you an idea of one serving, a medium size apple
is a serving. A banana is a serving. The size of a fist s a small to
medium size fist is a serving.
2. Eat more fish and take a fish
oil pill at the meals you are not having fish.
3. Drink a glass of water (hot or
cold) at the beginning of every meal.
4. Exercise one more day per weekthan you already do right now.
Here are additional important
information in keeping your LDL cholesterol low:
• Avoid bakery products like
cakes, brownies, cookies, and muffins. They
usually have high saturated fat and sugar content. [Personally, I eat such products once every
four months or less.]
• Keep planning your meals with
the same concept as people managing or preventing diabetes. Info about this can be found at - http://spirfit.blogspot.com/2013/04/diabetes-and-pre-diabetes.html
•
Eat more nuts, such as walnuts, peanuts, and almonds. Snack on them
throughout the day. Mix them into your vegetables and salad.
• On food labels, the following
are bad: saturated fat, trans fat,
cholesterol, and sodium
• Foods with food labels, the
following (bad) ingredients should not be more than 5% DV:
Saturated
Fat
Cholesterol
• There should be 0% Trans Fat (as
most food companies eliminated trans fats from their ingredients already)
For additional information on LDL cholesterol, visit the following reliable websites:
• Cholesterol numbers to aim for: LDL, HDL, and total
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol-levels/CL00001
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/patientinstructions/000386.htm
• Estimating and planning your fat intake -
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fat-grams/HQ00671
• LDL cholesterol calculator at -
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ldl-cholesterol/CL00034
• High blood cholesterol information from Medline, or NIH
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000403.htm
• Muscular and aerobic fitness helps protect against effects of LDL cholesterol
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/761039
• What is LDL?
Disclaimer: Talk to your doctor or
RD before taking advice from this website or blog. In using information from this blog, you
release the author and owner of this blog and website from any liability.
More health and fitness information and lessons are available at - http://spirfit.org/Academy/#fitness
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