Posted by bunches on 26th February 2007
How To Plan Low Cholesterol Diets
Cholesterol lowering diet plans could possibly save your life as high cholesterol levels in your blood can cause severe heart conditions. Even though there are medications available a longer term way to tackle the high cholesterol is to improve your diet. In order to make this easier for you you will need to choose foods that you like and which are also healthy for you. Certain foods can reduce your cholesterol level and help you live a healthier life.
How to create a cholesterol lowering diet plan
The first step towards creating low cholesterol diets is to do away with most of the saturated fats that may be in your current eating habits. This is because saturated fat is one of the leading causes of high cholesterol and so removing or cutting down on these foods will instantly improve things even if only a little bit.
You should also eat more fruits and vegetables and soy Products for example. The following guidelines give you an idea of what good low cholesterol diets would look like:
1. polyunsaturated fat intake should be 8% to 10% of calories
2. saturated fat intake should be less than 10% of calories
3. total fat intake should be no more than 30% of calories
4. monosaturated fat intake should make up the rest of total fat intake
If the person has a severe heart condition, some experts suggest and that a diet make up of extremely low fat food is a good idea if no other programs work. The most important thing is to make sure that whatever your cholesterol level is you go to the doctor regularly so that you can keep a watchful eye on your health overall.
Also, all different resources for cholesterol lowering diets should be checked to ensure that you gain the maximum benefit. Look at the other articles on this website, for example, and then take advantage of the links to other great resources. The speed and efficiency of the internet will allow you to quickly and easily find exactly what you are looking for, thus narrowing your search dramatically.
When all is said and done the most important thing is that you don’t give up. High levels of cholesterol are dangerous but it is within your power to change them. It may be a little difficult and it may take time but with a diet that suits you you will be on the the road to improved health before you know it. Just remember that a cholesterol lowering diet will be worth the effort when you feel energetic and healthy.
Tags: cholesterol diet
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Posted by bunches on 26th February 2007
How to Maintain a Normal Cholesterol Level
You have considerably more chance of living a long and healthy life if you can maintain a normal cholesterol level in your body. But what is cholesterol and is it always bad? Actually no, not all cholesterol is bad for you. There is good health-friendly cholesterol too. It is called HDL or High-density Lipoprotein. HDL moves cholesterol to the liver and away from the arteries. Once in the liver it is broken down into harmless components. Research studies conducted into the different types of cholesterol suggest that with every unit decrease in bad cholesterol, the risk of heart disease is also reduced by twice the percentage.
Control Your Diet to Maintain a Normal Cholesterol Level
Remember the old saying, “Take an apple a day to keep the doctor away”. The fact is, there is enough provided by nature to keep us healthy and if a person takes care, then a doctor will be hardly needed. If our diets were balanced as they were meant to be, there would be far fewer health issues. However, our diets often include high levels of meat and saturated fats that contain high levels of the bad cholesterol. Some examples of these types of food are, shell-fish, eggs (emphasis on the yolk), beef steak and so on.
So, first ensure that you have a normal cholesterol level and if you can achieve this you can go ahead and enjoy eating such food from time to time. You should never overdo it. A normal cholesterol level will get imbalanced when high fat foods become the rule instead of the exception.
There is no need to turn into a veggie but eating too much greasy non-veg food daily for a long time will surely affect the health. And when such a person falls sick, they tend to stay sick for longer. This is why one should always endeavor to maintain a proper diet as a matter of habit which, in turn, will help maintain a normal cholesterol level in the body.
Eat a lot of foods rich in anti-oxidants and vitamins and you should be on your way to sound health. You will be able to maintain a normal cholesterol level with the help of food which contains niacin (reputed to increase HDL or the good cholesterol). Taken with moderate exercise it can be highly beneficial.
But everyone doesn't want to follow a strict regimen and or exercise. They can turn to some useful drugs like statins that stop the human body from producing cholesterol. This way the drugs help to stop the occurrence of heart conditions. However, statins are liable to cause serious damage to the liver in certain cases and therefore, should only be administered only under the guidance of a physician. So better to achieve a normal cholesterol level by eating a diet rich in vitamins, minerals and leafy green vegetables and making the effort to do regular and light physical exercise.
Tags: cholesterol diet, Cholesterol Information, cholesterol levels, normal cholesterol level
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