High cholesterol has been a common and major health condition in the world for many years now. A report, Centers for Disease and Prevention released early this year, indicates that in the United States, “95 million American adults aged 20 years old or older have total cholesterol levels higher than 200 mg/dL.” Relatively, having high cholesterol increases the risk factors of a heart attack. That is what these 10 great ways to lower your cholesterol level are here for, help you address this condition.
If you are among the millions of people who have high blood pressure and cholesterol, among the other common illnesses, don’t lose hope. Fortunately, there are countless ways to improve your cholesterol. You may opt for prescription medicines or natural remedies. Nevertheless, natural ways are more effective.
What is Cholesterol?
Your body definitely needs cholesterol for proper functioning. However, if you have too much of it in your blood, it can stick and stay to your arteries’ walls and bar them. As a result, you’re at risk for coronary artery disease, as well as other heart illnesses. One example of these conditions is the LDL or bad cholesterol. If you have high LDL levels, then, there can be cholesterol buildup in your arteries.
Cholesterol moves through the lipoproteins or blood on proteins. Relatively, one type of cholesterol is sometimes known as LDL or bad cholesterol. The high LDL, as mentioned earlier, carries cholesterol from the different parts of the body back to the liver. The liver, on the other hand, removes cholesterol from the body.
What Top 5 Food Should You Eat for Good Cholesterol?
If you want to reduce your cholesterol and improve your heart health, you should be conscious of your food consumption. Essentially, always include olive oil in your cooking ingredients. Indeed, what you eat can tell how good or bad your cholesterol is. Here are 5 of the many foods that can result in good cholesterol
1. Avocados
These fruits are undoubtedly rich in nutrients. They are good sources of monounsaturated nutrients, fats, and fiber which help reduce the high LDL and improve HDL cholesterol.
2. Nuts (Walnuts and Almonds)
Several studies have it that eating around 2 to 3 servings of nuts each lowers the ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol by approximately 10.2 mg/dl. In addition, eating an everyday serving of nuts is associated with a 28% lesser risk of both fatal and non-fatal heart illness.
3. Whole Grains (Oats and Barley)
Thorough research studies have tied whole grains to lower the risk of heart disease. In fact, the said studies have linked eating about 3 servings of whole grains every day to a 20% lower risk of stroke and heart ailment.
4. Berries and Fruits
Undoubtedly, these are excellent additions to your heart-healthy diet for Many reasons. One of them is that fruits and berries are rich in fiber that helps improve cholesterol levels.
5. Cocoa/Dark Chocolate
If you haven’t known, cocoa is the main ingredient you’ll find in dark chocolates. Research has already verified such claims that cocoa and dark chocolates are great contributors to improve cholesterol levels.
What are the 10 Effective Ways to Follow?
1. Include only Monounsaturated Fats in Your Diet.
Monounsaturated fats contain just one double-bond that changes the manner they are used in your body. Moreover, aside from the fact that a low-fat diet is ideal for your weight loss regimen, it is essential to know too, that this diet can also reduce the harmful LDL levels.
2. Eat a lot of Soluble fibre-Rich Foods.
Soluble fiber is a food group containing various compounds in plants dissolving in water and that any human being cannot digest. Nevertheless, the advantageous bacteria living in your intestines have the ability to digest soluble fiber. In fact, bacteria need this fiber for their own nutrition. Also called probiotics, these bacteria reduce both lipoprotein kinds such as VLDL and LDL.
3. Avoid Consuming Trans Fats.
These are unsaturated fats modified by a process, also known as hydrogenation. Similarly, this process is for the unsaturated fats which vegetable oils have, to become a more stable ingredient. This is the reason food companies have considered using trans fats in products such as pastries, cookies, and spreads as they give more texture than the liquid oils, which are unsaturated.
4. Use and Polyunsaturated Fats (Omega-3s).
Unlike saturated fats, polyunsaturated fats contain various double bonds bringing them to different behavior in your body. Studies have it that polyunsaturated fats lessen bad cholesterol and reduce the danger of heart disease.
5. Exercise Regularly.
Physical activity is one of the most effective ways to better cholesterol. It does not just improve physical fitness. It also helps fight obesity and decreases dangerous LDL and increases the advantageous good cholesterol. One study has it that if you combine resistance and aerobic exercises for 12 weeks, you will reduce the especially risky oxidized bad cholesterol.
6. Get Into a Weight Loss Program.
Dieting impacts the way your body is absorbing and producing cholesterol. In a study on older men as posted on Healthline, “bad cholesterol decreased” when the respondents went on a weight loss diet. It also reduced their risk of heart disease. In addition, the same study indicates that dieting can provide protection to the heart.
Moreover, a study of more than 30 young women, it showed that there was a decrease in the development of new cholesterol in their body while on a weight loss program over the past 6 months. Therefore, in general, weight loss has, indeed, doubled the benefits of cholesterol by increasing the advantageous HDL and reducing dangerous LDL.
7. Quit Smoking.
Among the ways to good cholesterol, quitting smoking is one of the most effective as this vice definitely increases the risk of a heart ailment in many ways. Relatively, the immune cells among smokers are not able to bring back cholesterol from vessel walls to the blood to transport to the liver. This harm has something to do with tobacco tar, instead of nicotine. More so, the defective immune cells are possible contributors to the faster progress of blocked arteries in smokers.
8. Drink Alcoholic Beverages Moderately.
When you consume it moderately, the ethanol in which alcoholic drinks contain increases HDL and decrease the danger of heart disease. Research with 18 adult women as respondents, “found that drinking 24 grams of alcohol from white wine every day, improved good cholesterol by 5%,” than drinking “the same amounts of white grape juice.”
9. Choose Plant Stanols and Sterols.
Several types of supplements exhibit a promise for cholesterol management and control. In relation to this, plant sterols and stanols are considered the plant forms of cholesterol. And, since they appear similar to cholesterol, these plants are consumed from the diet such as cholesterol. Nevertheless, since parts of their chemistry are distinctive from human cholesterol, they don’t play contributors to blocked arteries.
10. Start Taking Supplements.
Strong proof shows that soluble fiber and fish oil help improve cholesterol levels and promote a healthy heart. Additionally, coenzyme Q10, another supplement, shows promise in the improvement of cholesterol, even though its long-term benefits are still unknown.
