Recommendations For Lowering Your Cholesterol Level
The first information you need to know is:What is cholesterol?
Without going too technical about it, Cholesterol is fat usually carried in the blood and are attached to proteins called lipoproteins (The word "Lipo" is related to fat). So, we can say lipoproteins and fatty proteins are the same. There are two kinds of lipoproteins, High Level and Low Level ones. These are generally refer to High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) and Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL).
The LDL's are without doubt your enemy and the HDL's are your friend. You can also say that LDL's are lousy cholesterol and HDL can be termed as healthy, for clarity sake.
Having known what they are, you need to know what your bad (lousy) and good (healthy) cholesterol levels are. Your doctor or healthcare professionals might have told you or you need to find out.
You are now in a good position to fight the battle. Yes, this battle is not with guns and ammo. And, thank God, you don't have to shoot any missiles! But your weapons for winning the cholesterol level are your fork and spoon. The battlefield is between the plate and the mouth and the weapons are forks and spoons and in some case your fingers.
By this, we meant, what you eat. You have heard is said many times that you are what you eat. In this case, your cholesterol level is determined by what you eat.
Here are some recommendations for winning the war against bad cholesterol and cozying up to the healthy cholesterol:
- Look for good sources of Omega-3 fatty acids. These include Fish like Salmon. The wild red salmon are especially good source of Omega-3. Another source of Omega-3 is flax seed.
- Stay away from Trans fats foods. These include margarine, shortening and processed and partially hydrogenated soybean oil. The reason for staying away from them is that they have the tendencies to lower your good, healthy cholesterol (HDL) and hike up bad guy, the LDL.
- Look for NUTS. No, not the nutty people but nuts like almonds, macadamia, walnuts, etc. These are fatty but their fats are of the good HDL kind.
- Seek to eat high fiber foods like whole wheat bread, oatmeal, some cereals (not all kind, read the labels). Fruits and Vegetables are also good source of fiber foods.
- Yes, you don't have to skip enjoyment of foods like steaks and burgers. The only requirements are that they of lean meat and try as much as possible to grill them. Grilling them takes most of the grease (fat) out.
- You can never go wrong with fruits and vegetables. Splurge on them, for these are good sources of lots of nutrients like antioxidants and they are void of cholesterol. You will find fruits and vegetables like apples, broccoli, oranges, tomato, blueberries, ets., very useful sources of good food with little or no cholesterol to worry about.
- Eating salads is very well recommended but what goes with salads - the salad dressings and other "supporting actors" are what can turn good thing to a bad thing. By this I mean that you have to be careful what goes with your salad. The salad dressing is something to be careful about. Look for the ones that contains less or no Trans fat and/of cholesterol. By all means, avoid bacon bits, croutons and egg yolks.
Finally, allow yourself the pleasure of adding flavor to your food with the use of spices like pepper, oregano and others. But most importantly, add exercises to your weapons to fight your cholesterol level. Exercises like walking, playing basketball, running and any other thing that makes your move your body, should be in your arsenal.And very soon, you will be the WINNER in your fight to lower your cholesterol level.
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