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Control Cholesterol Without Medication! : Part 2

Do's to Control Cholesterol -

Lowest fat foods of all are vegetables, fruits, grains (rice, barley and pasta), beans and legumes. Try substituting some of these for meat and high fat dairy products.

• Don’t douse your pasta with butter or your potato with sour cream
• Use tomato base sauces instead of cream base
• Use lemon juice, low sodium soy sauce or herbs to season vegetables.
• Make chili with extra beans and seasonings while leaving out the meat

Go for Nuts

If you do, sprinkle a few on your cereal, bake them into muffins or pancakes or add them to casseroles or stir-fries. Walnuts and almonds are especially good. Eating about three ounces of walnuts a day is shown to decrease blood cholesterol levels by 10% more than an already low fat, low cholesterol diet. Walnuts are high in fat, but it is mostly polyunsaturated fat, which is the kind that lowers cholesterol.

Eat Chocolate

Aha! All you chocoholics rejoice! Studies indicate that the fat in chocolate is stearic acid and has no effect on cholesterol levels. The chocolate does not increase LDL and could raise HDL a wee bit. But chocolate is still high in fat and calories so, don’t go overboard.

Eat Garlic

Cholesterol lowering effects of garlic have been demonstrated repeatedly in people with normal and high cholesterol. Eat all the garlic you can. It also seems to raise the HDL levels as well. If you are worried about the odor, take the tablets instead. They have proven to be nearly as effective as the cooked or raw cloves.

Take Calcium

One study indicates that when 56 people took a calcium carbonate supplement, their total cholesterol went down 4 percent and their HDL increased 4 percent. That was taking a dosage of 400 milligrams of calcium three times a day with no harmful effects reported. That does refer to calcium carbonate.

Take a Multivitamin – It Can’t Hurt

While you are building your Calcium and Vitamin E intake, remember the old standby, Vitamin C. It is the number one immune system booster and also drives up HDL. A study of people who took more than 60 milligrams of Vitamin C per day (60 milligrams is the RDA) had highest LDL levels.

Fill up on Fiber

Remember several years back when oat bran was the latest craze for lowering cholesterol? Later studies arrived at inconsistent results, but the medical community does agree that soluble fiber, the kind found in oat bran, does help lower LDL and raise HDL.

Exercise Regularly

There is positive evidence that exercise can lower LDL cholesterol and boost HDL cholesterol. Both aerobic exercise such as walking and jogging and strength training like lifting weights and using weight machines all promote the improvement of cholesterol levels.