Lifestyle Changes for Lowering Cholesterol
Lowering cholesterol is a must for people who have high cholesterol problems. Otherwise, they could be putting themselves at risk for heart attack, stroke, and other health problems. Here is a look at some of the lifestyle changes that you can do to get your cholesterol to a healthy level. Keep in mind that some people, particularly those with a family history of cholesterol problems, may not be able to control cholesterol through lifestyle changes alone, but may need to take a medication as well.
The National Cholesterol Education Program of the U.S. National Institutes of Health recommends three main lifestyle changes: following the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet for lowering cholesterol, getting exercise, and losing weight if you are overweight.
The second two changes are pretty self-explanatory. If you have never been on an exercise program before, you can talk to your doctor about recommendations on where to begin. The same with losing weight, though often the TLC diet and increased exercise will help that third step to happen on its own.
The basics behind the TLC diet is watching your saturated fat and cholesterol intake. 7% or less of the amount of calories that you eat in a day come from saturated fat, and your total cholesterol consumption should be less than 200 milligrams per day.
To achieve this, you will usually have to avoid foods that are high in saturated fat. This includes many of your animal-based products, such as meat, poultry, milk, cheese, eggs, butter, etc. Many processed foods and snack foods contain large amounts of saturated fat as well, such as French fries, cookies, and donuts.
The diet also recommends that you increase your daily fiber intake by increasing the amount of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains that you eat. Another option is to increase the amount of plant stanols and plant sterols that you consume. Plant sterols and stanols are found naturally in many plant sources, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains.
While it may seem that anything goes when it comes to lowering your cholesterol, there are actually a few things that are not recommended. The first of which is garlic. Garlic has been advertised for its benefits to heart health, however studies have not shown any difference in cholesterol levels on patients that took garlic supplements or ate large amounts of garlic as part of their routine. Garlic can also have some unpleasant side effects, such as gas, heartburn, body odor, and increased blood clotting time. It may also interfere with some prescription medications.
The other thing not recommended for lowering cholesterol levels is a very low-fat diet. A very low-fat diet is one that has less than 15% of the total calories eaten in one day coming from fat. The TLC diet recommends that 25% to 35% of your calories come from fat (just that you limit it to monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and cut back on saturated fats). Having too little fat in your diet can cause your triglyceride levels to go up (another risk factor for heart disease) and can lower your HDL cholesterol. HDL is the good cholesterol that removes cholesterol from the heart, and having too little of this type can increase your risk of heart disease. Very low-fat diets can also cause you to become deficient in some fat-soluble vitamins and minerals.
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