DietIf you need to lower your cholesterol, there are two important steps you should take right away: 1. Follow a low- fat, low-cholesterol Diet
2. Lose weight if you are overweight Are these steps easy to understand? Yes. Are they easy to follow? Not always, especially in a world where there's little time to prepare healthy meals and where junk foods — filled with empty calories — are everywhere you turn. While diet alone may not lower your cholesterol level enough, adopting dietary changes is usually the first step in a cholesterol- lowering plan. In this section, you'll find tips and strategies designed to help you make a healthy diet part of your routine. Creating a diet plan There's a lot of information available about diet, nutrition, and cholesterol. It can be hard to focus on what's important. Try to remember these three basic rules, recommended by leading health authorities, including the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health:
1. Avoid high-fat foods · Fatty red meats · Butter · Lard · Tropical oils (coconut, palm, palm kernel) · Bacon · Whole milk and whole milk dairy products (cheese, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream)
2. Replace animal fats with vegetable oils · Use vegetable oil or olive oil instead of butter or lard
3. Enjoy low-fat foods · Fruits · Vegetables · Fish, chicken (skinless), and lean meats · Whole-grain cereals, pastas, and rice · Fat-free or 1% milk · Fat-free or low-fat yogurt
The TLC diet If your cholesterol level is too high, your doctor or nutritionist may recommend the Therapeutic Lifestyle Change (TLC) diet developed by the National Institutes of Health. The TLC diet is a low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol eating plan that recommends that: · Less than 7% of calories come from saturated fat
· Dietary cholesterol be limited to less than 200 mg per day
· You consume only enough calories to maintain a desirable weight and to avoid weight gain If you follow these guidelines and your LDL (bad) cholesterol is not lowered enough, you can try increasing the amount of soluble fiber in your diet. Certain food products, such as cholesterol-lowering margarines and salad dressings, can be added to the TLC diet to boost its cholesterol-lowering power.
Published: December 10, 2006
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