Cholesterol Lowering Diets That Work

People who suffer from heart disease often have high levels of cholesterol. There are several factors that can increase your cholesterol to unhealthy levels. Being overweight is a risk factor but it can also increase cholesterol levels that can lead to heart disease. By losing weight you can lower your bad cholesterol and total cholesterol levels, as well as increase your good cholesterol. Exercise, age, and gender also play an important part in whether you are at risk for having high cholesterol. Genetics is also a predisposing factor in the amount of cholesterol your body manufactures. High cholesterol can be inherited throughout generations. Lowering your cholesterol level can be accomplished by adhering to certain diets.

The best way to improve your cholesterol is to stick to a low-cholesterol diet. Since bad cholesterol leads to an unhealthy heart, cut ten to twenty percent of it from your diet. Include foods that are rich in healthy fats like vegetable oils and fish. Avoid foods that are high in saturated fats and trans fats, these can elevate bad cholesterol levels. Switching to a low cholesterol diet is not hard at all. Instead of using polyunsaturated oils and trans-fat margarines, use canola and olive oils to stir fry your foods. Changing your eating habits takes some getting used to. At first when preparing low-cholesterol meals, use white wine vinegar instead of butter to keep your pan moist. You get the best of both worlds. It does not change the taste of the food and it is low in cholesterol. You can also use a cholesterol-free egg substitute instead of whole eggs.

In order to improve your overall health, it is not enough to change your diet but you need to change it the right way. People who are looking to change their diet to lose weight often do not make changes in their diet the right way. null Cholesterol is very important to the human body. So much so that your body has a backup plan in case it were being starved or deprived of food. What happens is that your liver will start to produce cholesterol to guarantee your body a baseline level. By eating a low-fat, high-carb diet, high levels of insulin are introduced and trigger the body to siphon off excess blood sugar into the liver to make cholesterol and triglycerides (which are used for energy and fat storage). Consuming cholesterol in your diet can be good for you but it needs to contain more of the good than the bad. Your body receives 75% of the cholesterol it needs from the liver. When your diet consists of mainly carbs and sugar, you put yourself at risk for your body to go into famine mode to compensate for the lack of cholesterol. This overdrive state will not shut off until you start eating cholesterol again. In truth, a low-cholesterol, high-carbohydrate diet can actually lead to high cholesterol!