Diets have received major interest in recent years, and a diet that lowers cholesterol is of particular interest to many people.
A quick search at Amazon reveals in excess of 60,000 books on the subject of diet alone. The names given to these diets include the UltraSimple, Full Plate, ME, Atkins, South Beach, Carb Lovers, Paleo Solution, Crazy Sexy, Mediterranean, Flat Belly, Eat-Clean, Kind, Insulin-Resistance, Mayo Clinic, No S, Thyroid, Eden, G.I., Fat Resistance, Hormone, DASH, 4 Day, Flex, Mommy, Perfect 10, 17 Day, Abs, Fat Smash, Rice, Core Balance, Skinny Carbs, Engine 2, Instinct, PCOS, Inflammation-Free, Flexitarian, Alternate-Day, Now Eat This, G-Free, No-Diet, Warrior, Raw Foods Detox, Maker’s, Green Smoothies, and many more.
All of that was only in the first ten of the 120 Amazon pages. My point here is to make us all realize that there has been so much written about diet. In addition to the books there are television programs, documentaries, talk back radio, seminars and education courses. But despite the significant focus and the proliferation of information there is still a major problem with weight and cholesterol control.
Some people may have adverse genetic dispositions and find it very difficult to manage their cholesterol levels and weight. However these are a small minority only. For the majority of us with high cholesterol levels it could have been easily avoided with the right food choices and habits.
There are some very simple factors to consider in deciding what you might include or exclude in your diet to help lower your cholesterol and keep it at an optimum level. If you know just a little about cholesterol, why it is necessary, where it comes from, and how your body deals with any excess, then you will be able to formulate your own diet that lowers cholesterol very easily.
Cholesterol is an essential substance that we all need to maintain our health. Our liver manufactures about 70% of our cholesterol needs and the remainder comes from the foods we eat. The problems occur if we consume more cholesterol than the body is able to deal with. The excess will circulate in our blood and can become lodged on our artery walls causing vascular problems leading to heart disease and stroke. So the obvious key is to limit the amount of dietary cholesterol you consume.
Dietary cholesterol mainly comes from all animal and dairy products. It is the saturated fats present in high levels in these foods that are the main contributor to high cholesterol levels. The unsaturated fats found in fish, vegetable and seed oils actually have the opposite effect of lowering cholesterol levels. Therefore simply by reducing our consumption of saturated fats, and increasing our consumption of unsaturated fats will have an immediate impact on improving cholesterol levels.
Another very important factor to know about is the role that dietary fiber plays in helping to lower your cholesterol level. All fiber passes through the digestive system. On its journey it has the ability to capture and engulf the bad cholesterol (LDL) and transport it out of the body along with the waste. That means the LDL cholesterol that it picks up along the way is not deposited into the blood stream. So another very simple change to your diet is to make sure you are eating sufficient fiber. The soluble fibers such as oat bran are the best for removing cholesterol. In general all fruits and vegetables contain fiber and will certainly assist in the process of controlling your cholesterol.
So if you have wondered if there really is a technique to diet that lower cholesterol levels is the end result, then you can see here that there certainly is and it can be very simple to achieve.