The last topic I touched on was about eating the right type of foods in lowering your blood pressure. Now I’m going to share the five best foods to include in your diet to lower your cholesterol. The dietary choices we make every day help contribute to our elevated LDL (or bad) cholesterol levels. When bad cholesterol gets too high, it starts to build up in the arteries, creating the plaques that cause heart disease. So what are the best five foods to eat in lowering your cholesterol? This article answers that question.
The first food that helps in lowering cholesterol is fish. Fatty-fish filets of albacore tuna and salmon are rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which lower triglycerides in the blood and heart. High cholesterol has a detrimental effect on your heart and eating a minimum of 2 servings of 3.5 ounces of fatty fish per week could protect its health.
We cook with it and it is also beneficial in lowering your cholesterol. I am talking about olive oil. By using it instead of butter, you will be swapping saturated bad fats for heart-healthy good fats. Olive oil increases HDL or good cholesterol and trims your waistline. This is all because it contains phytosterols, which are plant-based compounds that help block cholesterol absorption.
I can’t say enough good things about beans, except that it also good for your heart and reducing your cholesterol. From garbanzos to my favorite, black beans, they are packed full of fiber, which reduces bad, or LDL, cholesterol. In fact, a study from Arizona State University in 2008 showed that people who eat a half-cup of beans a day, over a course of 24 weeks, lowered their cholesterol by an impressive 8 percent. While I did wrote in a previous article about the downside of beans, the food’s heart-healthy components makes it a worthy food in reducing your cholesterol.
We already explored savory cholesterol-friendly foods. Now we are going to explore sweet foods such as strawberries. Everybody loves strawberries. But now you have a good reason to love them because they’re rich in pectin, a type of soluble fiber, which can actually help decrease bad cholesterol or LDL. A 2013 Harvard study shows that females who regularly consume strawberries and blueberries lowered their overall risk of heart attack due to high anthocyanin content in both berries. So don’t stop getting your strawberry fix!
Along with strawberries, why not have some oatmeal with it? A bowl of morning oatmeal is a rich source of fiber, which not only keeps you slim, but lowers cholesterol. It could also keep you full throughout the day, keeping you from going for that late night snack. The Mayo Clinic recommends consuming 5 to 10 grams or more of soluble fiber every day to lower LDL cholesterol.
So those are just some of the foods to add to your diet for lower cholesterol, if you personally haven’t already. Remember lower cholesterol means stronger heart health. Be sure to share your thoughts and comments on this issue at the bottom of this article.
