Low Cholesterol Foods
We have a variety of foods that are presented to us all the time and when your cholesterol is up, low cholesterol foods can be helpful if you know what these foods are and where to locate them. Generally, you can find a lot of foods right in your store.
Saturated fats are those things that are animal based foods like meat, butter, yogurt, cheese and ice cream. You can replace this type of fat with olive oil or nuts and this will reduce your LDL cholesterol.
Trans fats are those things that are those fats that are supposed to improve the shelf life for many processed foods. These are fats that you will find in potato chips, other snack foods and fried foods.
After getting to know some for the foods to stay away from, you may want to know what types of low cholesterol foods you can eat that will keep your heart healthy. Part of the challenge for people is that some of the foods were things they grew to dislike when they were children. It means lots of vegetables, fruits and fiber. These were things that many children were taught to eat, but they ate so much of it that they grew away from it as adults.
However, there are so many varieties in these areas that if you take a little time, you'll find something you will like. Soluble fiber is a food you can get from foods like oatmeal, barley, Brussels sprouts, peas, beans, oranges grapefruits, dates and figs. Sweet potatoes also have this type of fiber. You can mix and match each of these to get 5-10 grams a day and lower your cholesterol by 3-5 %. This may not seem like a lot but in the numbers it really helps.
Good fats are another thing that is missing from a lot of diets and these are necessary for elimination and digestion to happen properly. Omega-3 fats and monounsaturated fats have been shown in many studies to lower cholesterol by 30 to 40% in those people who had a diet high in these fats.
Now, this doesn't meant to go out and eat as much of this type of fat as possible, but it does mean to put more of it into your diet. Experts recommend 4 ounce servings of fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel or anchovies. If you don't like fish, you can take the oil in capsules or eat lots of soybeans, walnuts and ground flax; there are also eggs that are fortified with Omega-3 oil.
Studies have found that by using these oils, they seem to reduce inflammation and high blood pressure while decreasing the triglycerides; they also seem to lower HDL cholesterol.
There are a variety of categories for food that you can find if you look on the Internet for "healthy heart" foods or just for low cholesterol foods. This will give you more than enough to take care of those cravings for the wrong foods.
For a more detailed list of low cholesterol foods, click here.