05 May 2009

What foods help in lowering cholesterol?

"Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be food"
Hippocrates

Back to The Great Cholesterol Challenge. I thought I'd leave it up to the National Cholesterol Education Program, The Mayo Clinic and for some Australian figures, The Heart and Diabetes Institute to explain what healthy cholesterol levels are. This is also a good thing to talk to your Doctor about because there are different reference ranges related to your risk of cardiovascular disease.

On to the exciting stuff, food. I am constantly surprised at how powerful food has been in my life. Be it cutting back on sugar and loosing the crazy mood swings or eating more protein and having more energy, the relationship between what we eat and how we feel both physically and emotionally isn't something to be sneezed at. The case of cholesterol and food is no different.

The Lipid Management Guidelines for Australians and New Zealanders recommends that dietary management of elevated cholesterol levels be tried before any drug treatment. Unfortunately, as Darya at Summer Tomato points out, most GPs as well as cardiologists aren't well versed in nutrition and most can't offer us much more advice than; eat less meat and eat more veges, as my Dr told me.

There's much more to it than that and this is what some of it looks like.

Foods to enjoy


This list is far from exhaustive, but it's a start. Not only are these foods specifically heart healthy they are also packed with nutrients that can benefit all of us no matter what our state of health. How many of these foods did you eat today?

Avocado on Foodista

5 comments:

  1. great post and fun to find how things are in other countries

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  2. my husband needs to read and print and CARRY AROUND the list of foods he SHOULD be enjoying....

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  3. Thank you for mentioning me! All these foods you mention are incredibly healthy and worth seeking in your diet. In the simplest words, the way to lower LDL without lowering HDL is to eliminate refined grains and sugars and replace them with more vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats. Some animal fats are ok, but too much can cause problems. It is also important to get regular exercise.

    Keep up the great work!!

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  4. Great post!I think some people do need to know more about the food that's good for them.Hope you wont mind but I'd love to bring over Foodista readers to your site, just add this little widget here to this post and it's all set to go, Thanks!

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