|
Diet for Lowering Cholesterol
A diet for lowering cholesterol can help you avoid the risk of heart disease if your levels are high. Most cholesterol in your body is made by your liver from saturated fat in your diet, but some also comes from foods such as eggs, meats and dairy products. See guidelines of a diet for lowering cholesterol below.
Change Your Diet for Lowering Cholesterol
If you want to lower your cholesterol level you may need to change your diet, but these changes need not be drastic and you can still eat a varied and tasty diet, just by changing foods containing alot of saturated fats to ones containing unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats . Here are some ideas, recipes and suggestions that may be helpful if you want to change your diet for lowering cholesterol.
Foods To Change In A Diet for Lowering Cholesterol
You dont need to reduce your food intake (unless you are overweight) in a diet for lowering cholesterol levels, all you need to do is to substitute certain foods for more healthy ones.
Our bodies make too much cholesterol when we eat too much saturated fat in our diet. Saturated fat is the kind of fat found in animal-based foods such as meat and dairy products.
We also get some cholesterol directly from animal-based foods in our diet such as meat, eggs, and dairy products. Plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, and grains do not contain cholesterol. Due to the high saturated fat content of the average diet, more than one-half of American adults have blood cholesterol levels that are too high.
Here are some easy recipe suggestions to change you can make to your diet, in recipes try substituting these alternative ingredients:
Diet for Lowering Cholesterol |
|
Grains in a low cholesterol diet |
|
| Instead of this: | Try this: |
| Croissants, biscuits and white breads and rolls | Low-fat whole grain breads and rolls (wheat, rye, pumpernickel) |
| Doughnuts, pastries, scones | English muffins, small whole grain bagels |
| Fried tortillas | Soft tortillas (corn or whole wheat), pita bread |
| Sugar cereals and regular granola | Oatmeal, low-fat granola, whole-grain cereal |
| Snack crackers | Crackers (animal, graham, rye, soda, saltine, oyster) |
| Potato or corn chips, buttered popcorn | Pretzels (unsalted), popcorn (unbuttered) |
| Fried rice or pasta and rice mixes that contain high-fat sauces | Rice or pasta (without egg yolk) with vegetable sauces |
Fruits and Vegetables in a low cholesterol diet |
|
| Instead of this: | Try this: |
| Fried vegetables or vegetables served with cream, cheese or butter sauces | All vegetables raw, steamed, broiled, baked or tossed with a very small amount of olive oil |
| Coconut | Fruit (fresh or canned in light syrup) |
| French fries, hash browns, potato chips | Baked, mashed, boiled potatoes |
Meat, Poultry and Fish in a low cholesterol diet |
|
| Instead of this: | Try this: |
| Regular or breaded fish sticks (cakes), fish canned in oil, seafood prepared with butter or served in high-fat sauce | Fish (fresh, frozen, canned in water), low-fat fish sticks or fish cakes, shellfish |
| Prime or marbled cuts | Lean beef (round, sirloin, loin) |
| Pork spare ribs, bacon | Lean pork (tenderloin, loin chop) |
| Regular ground beef | Lean or extra lean ground beef, ground chicken or turkey breast |
| Lunch meats such as pepperoni, salami, bologna, liverwurst | Lean lunch meats such as turkey, chicken and ham |
| Regular hot dogs or sausage | Fat-free hot dogs |
Dairy in a low cholesterol diet |
|
| Instead of this: | Try this: |
| Whole or 2% milk | Skim or 1% milk |
| Evaporated milk | Evaporated skim milk |
| Regular buttermilk | Buttermilk made from skim (or 1%) milk |
| Regular cheese, cream cheese | Low-fat cheeses (no more than 3 grams of fat per ounce) |
| Regular ice cream | Sorbet, sherbet, nonfat or low-fat ice cream (no more than 3 grams of fat per 1/2 cup serving) |
Fats, Oils and Sweets in a low cholesterol diet |
|
| Instead of this: | Try this: |
| Cookies | Fig bars, ginger snaps, molasses cookies |
| Shortening, butter or margarine | Olive, vegetable or canola oils |
| Regular mayonnaise | Nonfat or light mayonnaise |
| Regular salad dressing | Nonfat or light salad dressing |
| Using fat (including butter) to grease pan | Nonstick cooking spray |
Latest Diet for Lowering Cholesterol News
