How to lower cholesterol in your body
How to lower cholesterol
Eating a healthy diet and regular exercise can help to lower the level of cholesterol in your blood.
Adopting healthy habits, such as eating a healthy balanced diet and exercising, will also help to prevent your cholesterol levels from becoming high in the first place.
It's important to keep cholesterol in check because high cholesterol levels increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.
If you're concerned about your cholesterol, talk to your doctor.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners recommends that you regularly review with your doctor or specialist any medications you are taking for high blood pressure or high cholesterol to assess the ongoing benefits and risks
Fats and cholesterol
There are two main types of fat: saturated and unsaturated. Eating foods that are high in saturated fat can raise cholesterol levels in the blood.
Foods high in saturated fat include:
- meat pies
- sausages and fatty cuts of meat
- butter
- lard
- cream
- hard cheese
- cakes and biscuits
- foods containing coconut or palm oil.
Try to replace foods containing saturated fats with foods that are high in unsaturated fats, such as:
- oily fish (for example, mackerel and salmon)
- nuts (for example, almonds and cashews)
- seeds (for example, sunflower and pumpkin)
- vegetable oils and spreads (for example, sunflower, olive, corn, walnut and rapeseed oils).
Counterfeit trans fats can be found in hydrogenated fat, so some handled nourishments, for example, bread rolls and cakes will contain trans fats.
As a major aspect of a sound eating routine, attempt to eliminate sustenances containing trans fats or soaked fats, and supplant them with nourishments containing unsaturated fats.
You ought to likewise lessen the aggregate sum of fat in your eating routine. Take a stab at microwaving, steaming, poaching, bubbling or flame broiling as opposed to simmering or singing. Pick incline cuts of meat and go for low-fat assortments of dairy items and spreads (or eat only a little measure of full-fat assortments)
Foods containing cholesterol
A few meals comprise cholesterol. This kind of cholesterol is referred to as 'nutritional cholesterol'. meals together with kidneys, eggs and prawns are better in dietary ldl cholesterol than other ingredients.
The ldl cholesterol discovered in food has a lot less impact on the level of cholesterol in your blood than the quantity of saturated fats which you consume. The coronary heart basis recommends six eggs every week can be blanketed as a part of a weight loss plan low in saturated fat for all Australians.
if your health practitioner has counseled you to trade your eating regimen to reduce the extent of cholesterol to your blood, the most critical thing to do is to cut down on saturated fat. it's also a terrific idea to boom your intake of fruit, greens and fibre.
Fibre and cholesterol
There are two different types of fibre: soluble fibre and insoluble fibre. Most foods contain a mixture of both.
Soluble fibre can be digested by your body (insoluble fibre cannot), and it may help reduce the amount of cholesterol in your blood.
Good sources of soluble fibre include:
- oats
- beans
- peas
- lentils
- chickpeas
- fruit and vegetables.
Cholesterol-lowering products
There's evidence that foods containing certain added ingredients, such as plant sterols and stanols, can reduce levels of cholesterol in the blood. Plant sterols and stanols are found in nuts, seeds and legumes, vegetable oils, breads and cereals and fruits and vegetables. You need to eat two to three grams a day of plant sterols and stanols to manage cholesterol.
To meet this requirement you also need to eat foods that have been enriched such as some margarines, low fat milks, low fat yoghurts and breakfast cereals, lower fat cheese and processed cheese. People who don't have high cholesterol shouldn't eat these products regularly, particularly children and pregnant or breastfeeding women.
If your doctor has told you that you have high cholesterol, you can help lower it by changing your diet.
If you do eat foods that are designed to lower cholesterol, read the label carefully to avoid eating too much.
Get active
An active lifestyle can help to lower cholesterol levels. Activities can range from walking and cycling, to more vigorous exercise such as running and dancing.
Doing 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity on most days can improve your cholesterol levels.
Moderate-intensity aerobic activity means you're working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat.
One way to tell whether you're working at a moderate intensity is if you can still talk but you can't sing the words to a song.