Friday, January 30, 2009

Cholesterol - the heart (sic!) of your diet

Do you know which is natures’ most potent killers? It resides in your body, and is one of the leading causes  in bringing the rich, the poor, the famous, the not-so famous to their knees.  It works on anyone without any prejudices! And whilst the majority of people in the world want to look like their favourite actor or actress, they forget that to get there, one needs to have a good heart (literally).

Cholesterol is one of the most potent hidden dangers in our body. People wanting to reduce cholesterol levels in the body are highly advised to follow a low cholesterol diet. This is ideal for keeping a check on the cholesterol levels. This is a known fact that the food one consumes or is habituated to eat everyday has a direct relation in the cholesterol levels of the body.

Higher cholesterol levels are associated with development of coronary heart diseases. Hence it is very essential for people to keep cholesterol levels under check regularly. The higher the amount of cholesterol in blood the more susceptible the person is in developing heart diseases later on in life. Apart from this the high levels can also lead to the person suffering from heart attack or a stroke.

Medications are available in plenty to lower the cholesterol levels but along with that the next best option is to adopt a low cholesterol diet. The person must eat plenty of vegetables, soy products and other lower cholesterol foods to reduce the cholesterol levels like medicines. Studies and research have shown that a vegetarian diet is helpful to lower the cholesterol levels by about one-third within a month.

The best low cholesterol diet consists of sizeable amounts of vegetables like red peppers and broccoli, soy products like soymilk and soy sausages, oat bran cereals and breads with lot of fruits and nuts to make perfect low cholesterol diet.  The cholesterol levels can be reduced up to seven percent on consumption of this diet.

The diet also needs the person to reduce their intake for saturated fats up to 7% and other fats by 25-30%. The consumption of omega-3 fats from fish, fish oil or plant sources like flaxseeds is advised while on a low cholesterol diet. The daily consumption limit of sodium should also be limited to about 2400 milligrams every day.
The low cholesterol diet should include the following three meals of the day:

Breakfast: A sumptuous breakfast consisting of soymilk, oat bran cereal along with chopped almonds and fruits, vegetable-based margarine, oatmeal bread and jam.

Lunch: The lunch should not be very heavy comprising of soy cold cuts, bean soups, oat bread with desert of fruits.

Dinner: A light dinner with tofu, fruit, stirs fry vegetables and almonds which are low in cholesterol.

The person following this diet religiously for long durations can help them drop the cholesterol levels by about 29% monthly.

These are just recommendations but with the help of a good Dietician, you can easily finalize a good diet that can then set you in the right direction. 

http://cutthatfat.blogspot.com/
http://losethatfat.wordpress.com/

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