How can I reduce my cholesterol?

Sometimes you hear people talk about a ‘low-cholesterol diet’, presumably imagining that the key to lowering your blood cholesterol level is to eat very little cholesterol. But that’s nonsense!

The body manufactures its own cholesterol and even if you didn’t eat any at all, you could still have a very high blood cholesterol level. You need to reduce production and increase elimination.

An effective cholesterol-lowering diet contains very little saturated fat because saturated fatty acids fuel the body’s cholesterol production programme. So avoid fat from meat and dairy products.

There’s no need to avoid meat and dairy products, but avoid the fat. Sometimes women at very high risk of osteoporosis tell me that they are avoiding dairy foods because they’re concerned about cholesterol. Tragic! Two-thirds of the fat in any dairy food is saturated – so avoid the fat. Skimmed milk contains all the calcium and protein of whole milk without the fat. And that goes for things made from skimmed milk such as fat-free yoghurt.

Meat should be lean, with all visible fat removed. Of course, if it’s a meat product such as sausage, burger or pie, a lot of fat (and who knows what else?) will be hidden.

Lowering blood cholesterol is not just about avoiding foods. There are lots of really helpful foods and you need to eat enough of them. Vegetables and fruit are top of the list. Good sources of soluble fibre (such as oats and beans) help the body to eliminate cholesterol. You can boost soluble fibre with psyllium husks. Soya (as in soya beans, soya mince, tofu and soya alternatives to yoghurt and milk) helps to lower cholesterol as long as you are getting at least 25g of soya protein a day (and if you are a menopausal woman with hot flushes, it may help there as well).

It’s important to bring down your LDL-cholesterol (the dangerous stuff) but not your protective HDL-cholesterol. A very low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet pushes down both LDL and HDL, while raising triglycerides.

Small changes in HDL mean BIG changes in risk. The 28-day plan provides the optimum composition of nutrients to rebalance your blood lipids (fats), reverse the metabolic syndrome and slim your waist. It’s helpful to include some nuts high in mono-unsaturates (such as almonds) and small quantities of olive oil or rapeseed oil.

 

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