Foods that Lower Cholesterol Can Improve Your Health

Maintaining a low cholesterol level is essential to your heart health, and following a cholesterol-healthy diet can also help you lose weight and beat obesity.

Your body produces all of the cholesterol it needs in its liver.

This cholesterol plays an important role in your health by allowing you to efficiently:

• Process vitamin D
• Maintain cell membranes
• As well as produce hormones and bile acid for digestion.

Because your liver produces all the cholesterol you need you want to avoid adding more cholesterol into your bloodstream by eating foods high in cholesterol.

Having too much cholesterol can lead to heart disease or a heart attack.

There is research showing that there are foods that lower cholesterol.

This is important if you’re trying to lower your cholesterol level to below 200 mg/dL, which is the recommended level.

Keep in mind that cholesterol is only found in animal products, and that all plant products are free from cholesterol.

This is a good rule of thumb when trying to lower cholesterol; stick with plant products like fruits and vegetables and you’re on track for healthier eating.

Grains such as oats and legumes (peas or beans that grow in pods) may lower LDL cholesterol (which is the “bad cholesterol”).

Also, alfalfa sprouts and chickpeas contain saponins, which help cholesterol levels by encouraging your body to eliminate extra cholesterol, and garlic and onions contain allicin, also found to help cholesterol.

Another component found in foods that lower cholesterol is plant sterols.

These are found naturally in small quantities in most plant products.

They are especially present in:

• Vegetable oils (particularly soybean oil)
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Seeds
• Nuts
• Legumes and
• Cereals.

Adding more of these foods to your diet may help you combat cholesterol.

Of course, if you are interested in foods that lower cholesterol, one of the ways to do this is to also make sure you are avoiding foods that are high in cholesterol.

Such foods include most foods that are high in saturated fats such as:

• Meat (especially organ meat)
• Some dairy products (especially if they are high in fat) and
• Eggs.

Those trying to reduce their cholesterol levels need to focus on adding plenty of foods that lower cholesterol, as well as avoiding those that raise it.

This combination will help you manage your levels, hopefully, without the need for medication.

Focusing on foods that lower cholesterol is very important when meal planning.

Not only will you reduce your risk of heart disease by lowering your cholesterol, but a low-cholesterol diet is also a smart, healthy diet in general.

Following it will also help you lose weight and overcome obesity.

Another way to overcome your weight issues is to follow these proven weight loss steps.

• Incorporate a proven, complete nutritional program into your daily life.
• Enhance your nutritional program with a complete mutivitamin supplement because no nutritional program is perfect.
• Use a behavior modification and motivational program that will help you stay on track with your nutritional plan.
• Exercise at home with your own:
  Treadmill

  Stairstepper

  Exercise bike

  Elliptical trainer

  Hand weights or

  An aerobic video.

• See what kinds of weight loss aids your health insurance covers such as:
  Hypnotism

  Gym membership discounts

  Nutritional counseling.

Not only will you be healthy for lowering your cholesterol, and thus your heart disease risk level, but by overcoming obesity you are also lowering your risk level for many other dangerous diseases.