Foods to Avoid High Cholesterol

This is a compilation of foods to avoid high cholesterol. You will find information on the best diets for high cholesterol. Also, how to diet to lower LDL cholesterol with the foods to avoid high cholesterol.

Why Lower Your Cholesterol?

When ever getting a blood test, one of the things that can affect the cost of your insurance is your cholesterol levels. Here is the good news, you can improve your levels in a short time.

This can save you hundreds of dollars, even thousands over several years time. It can save you money, if you know and act on this knowledge.

But is it ethical? Well, considering that cholesterol has very little relationship to your health, no, it is not wrong to use this info to improve your wealth (and health). Actually, studies show that in some cases and for some people, cholesterol that is too low can increase the risk of heart attacks.

We have included amounts of fiber necessary and fiber to portion ratio where we can. The last is quite difficult as there are numerous ideas on what a portion is.

Note: After reading about the foods to avoid, please check out the deeper understanding of cholesterol. Many leading experts believe inflammation is the real problem. The latest study (July 2009) points to Apo B/A-1 ratio as being a better predictor of heart disease.

Latest study shows Apo A-1 is also associated with increased risk.

The bad news, diet and exercise do not help reduce Apo A-1. You need to check out the other information after your finished here.

So, does diet make a difference. Absolutely yes. While the diet will help reduce cholesterol levels, the same foods help your body fight inflammation.

Note: Soluble fiber reduces the ability of the intestines to absorb cholesterol.

Foods that Fill Your Fiber Needs

Eating 10 grams or more of soluble fiber per day can decrease your total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. That is the minimum. Optimal health will require more.

Women need 25 grams per day

Men need 30 to 38 grams per day

Foods to Avoid High Cholesterol Goal

Try to maintain a diet that is made of 2/3 of vegetables and fruits and 1/3 of other foods.

Unfortunately, not all grams are created equal. Included where we can, there is a rough estimate of how much fiber is in each serving or portion.

Foods to Avoid High Cholesterol List

Nuts The polyunsaturated fatty acids in walnuts can help reduce blood cholesterol. Almonds and other nuts also have a similar effect.

Dietary Suggestion: eating about a handful or about 1.5 ounces, a day of most nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, some pine nuts, pistachio nuts and walnuts) can reduce your heart disease risk.

Since all nuts are high in calories, only eat a handful.

Instead of using cheese, meat or croutons in your salad, try a handful of walnuts or almonds. To make them go farther, cut them.

How Much? Nuts — 6 to 8 grams per serving.

Cinnamon not only can be used as a seasoning, it has many healthful properties including cholesterol lowering. Only 1 gram or less than a table spoon is needed. More is wasted with no additional benefit according to one study.

Fish

Fatty fish have cholesterol lowering benefits because of high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids helps the heart in other ways like reducing blood pressure and the risk of blood clots. Fish oil supplements have some of the benefits, but lack other nutrients in fish, like selenium.

Studies show that if you have already had a heart attack, omega-3 fatty acids reduce the risk of sudden death.

The highest levels of omega-3 fatty acids are in mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon.

Dietary Suggestion:

Doctors recommend eating at least two servings of fish a week. Bake or grill for best results. Sardines are an inexpensive way to supplement your diet if you cannot afford other fish.

This is among the best foods to avoid high cholesterol.

Olive Oil

Olive oil has a few potent antioxidants that will help lower your "bad" (LDL) cholesterol with out touching your ...good... (HDL) cholesterol. Research has shown that any antioxidants that you take need glutathione to be effective. Yep, you also need to boost your glutathione to get the max effect of any foods to avoid high cholesterol.

Use about 2 tablespoons of olive oil a day to get this heart-healthy benefit.

You can saute your vegetables in it, add it to a marinade and even mix it with vinegar as a salad dressing. You can also use virgin olive oil as a butter substitute when basting meat and when eating out.

When bread is served at a restaurant, ask for a little virgin olive oil on a small plate. Sprinkle some garlic salt or powered garlic, even a tiny bit of Parmesan (parmigiano) cheese. Then lightly dip your bread and you are in for a delightful treat.

Some research suggests that extra-virgin olive oil increases the cholesterol-lowering benefit. Extra virgin is less processed and has more antioxidants. On the other hand, avoid the ...light... olive oils. These are processed more, lighter in color but not fat or calories.

Whole Grains

Whole grains slow down the progression of cholesterol build up for those who eat them regularly.

Dietary Suggestion: Have a fiber rich breakfast with oatmeal, topped with fruit or nuts.

Choose cereals with 5 grams or more of fiber per serving. Oat bran and rice bran are the most effective and best choice.

Make the switch to whole grains. Whole grain breads, crackers, bagels, muffins, waffles, and even pancake mix.

How Much? Fortified cereal has about 5 - 10 grams per serving.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal has a soluble fiber that specifically reduces the bad (low-density lipoprotein or LDL) cholesterol. Other foods with soluble fiber include bran, kidney beans, apples, pears, psyllium, barley and prunes.

Make oatmeal cookies with alternative ingredients and make cholesterol reduction fun.

Remember, women need 25 and men need 30-38 grams for optimal health (think weight loss, decrease heart attack risk, decrease stroke risk as you look at this list).

Dietary Suggestion: Use a little fruit with your oatmeal. Oatmeal cookies if bakes using heart healthy techniques can help.

How Much? 1 1/2 cups of cooked oatmeal has 6 grams of fiber (eat only 3 days on, 2 off). Oatmeal is one of the top foods to avoid high cholesterol.

Flax Seed

Flaxseed is a whole grain available in health food stores and some supermarkets.

Flaxseed Oil has the omega-3 fat known as alpha-linoleic acid. Daily supplementation of eight grams has been shown to significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. If you don't like fish, get your omega-3 fats from ground flaxseed or canola oil.

Beans

Have beans at least three times a week. However, to avoid developing a food allergy, only eat two to three days in a row and at least two off.

Black soybeans have been shown to help prevent obesity, lower LDL cholesterol, and reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes.

Dietary Suggestion: Bean soup, add cold beans to your salad, hummus sandwiches, salad made of cold beans, dips made of black beans.

Note: If you have never tried hummus, you are in for a treat. It is an easy middle eastern dish to make. Experiment and have fun.

Note: Soak the beans overnight to soften the skins and decrease gas risk.

Or boil the water, put the beans in for a few hours and do a quick soak.

How Much? 1/2 cup beans has 6 - 10 grams of fiber (eat these 2 to 3 times a week).

Vegetables

Have five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. This is one of the essentials of having a diet with foods to avoid high cholesterol.

Dietary Suggestion: Add some to your eggs at breakfast, one veggie serving (e.g. carrot sticks, celery sticks, tomato slices) and one fruit (e.g. orange wedges, apple slices) at lunch, and a salad and cooked vegetable for your evening meal.

Want to enjoy great breath on awaking with out getting up to brush your teeth? Have a couple of apple wedges in a container at your bedside. On awaking, indulge and clean your pallet at the same time.

How Much? 2 to 3 grams per servings.

Carrots have 5 grams per half cup (eat 3 days a week, none for 2 days.

Garlic

Garlic has numerous benefits. One of the biggest is that it provides many of the cofactors of glutathione. It is associated with boosting glutathione in the body. This can result in lowering both cholesterol and triglycerides. Some studies refute the benefits of garlic.

Dietary Suggestion: Although dried garlic powder if it has not been heated too hot can be beneficial, raw garlic that gets chewed in the mouth has the best health benefits.

Note: This is one of the best foods to avoid high cholesterol and has numerous other benefits.

How Much? One clove a day. Follow the three on two off rule.

Water Cures Protocol

Do it right and you boost your glutathione. Also, increase your metabolic rate by increasing your water along with unprocessed salt intake. Consumption of water so that you are fully hydrated requires that you take unprocessed salt on the tongue. The result, get numerous additional health benefits.

How To Best Hydration: follow the water cures protocol. Put a pinch of unprocessed sea salt on your tongue and let it dissolve. Then drink 10% your body weight in ounces of water.

This is one of the most under recommended and simplest of ways to lower high cholesterol.

Try the Water Cures Protocol

Fruit

Whole fruit, that is, including the skin is beneficial.

Dietary Suggestion: Blueberries have a compound (pterostilbene) that may help lower cholesterol as good as or better than commercial drugs with fewer bad side effects. When in season, use on top of your cereals.

Pomegranate juice in particular has been shown to reduce cholesterol plaque buildup and increases nitric oxide production (nitric oxide helps reduce arterial plaque).

How Much? In general, fruits have about 1 to 2 grams per serving Bananas and you add about 4 more grams of fiber.

Alcohol

Some studies have found that a little wine or beer helps cholesterol levels.

Dietary Suggestion: If you drink mixed drinks, do not mix alcohol with diet drinks. The sweeteners in diet drinks, in addition to being neurotoxins, help the alcohol be absorbed faster. The sugar in regular drinks slows down this process.

How Much? Little means only one liquor or wine and no more than two beers.

Yogurt

Yogurt With Live Active Cultures (probiotics) Studies have shown that the probiotics Lactobacillus Reuteri and Lactobacillus Acidophilus help lower cholesterol. They prevent the reabsorption of cholesterol back in to the blood stream.

Note:Word of caution: Only eat organic yogurts to avoid exposure to antibiotics and hormones. Avoid the ones that have extra sugar and fruit added. Add your own fruit to be safe.

Dietary Suggestion: Substitute yogurt for your milk on cereal.

How Much? Generally, three servings a day depending on your needs?

Foods Fortified with Plant Sterols or Stanols

p>We are not going to report on this until there is more peer reviewed research available.

This foods to avoid high cholesterol list is going to be an ongoing project. Please let us know if you find anything we have missed. All we ask is that you also provide peer reviewed research with your suggestions.

Beyond Foods to Avoid High Cholesterol

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