If you have high cholesterol, the first step in treatment often comes in the form of making changes to your diet and exercise habits. The exercise element is fairly straightforward: For heart health, exercise should be slow, steady, and frequent. Health experts from the Surgeon General of the United States to the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend exercising for at least 30 minutes on most, if not all, days of the week. If you have heart problems, talk to your doctor before you start an exercise routine.
Guidelines for heart-healthy eating are a little more complex, but changing your diet is the safest, cheapest way to lower your cholesterol. If an overweight person who has been subsisting on cheeseburgers and fries switches to lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, total cholesterol levels can fall by 25% or more. Careful dietary choices by a highly motivated person (with close medical supervision) can even reverse coronary artery plaques that are already established. That said, even on a moderately low-fat diet, the average person will see a drop of 5%–10%. A 15% decrease can result from a more severely restricted diet. Even these smaller changes are important to your health.
In a nutshell, a cholesterol lowering diet means one where you keep saturated and trans fats low. Here are some specifics.
Nine guidelines for heart-healthy eating1. Eat meat sparingly. Relegate meat to a minor part of your diet instead of making it the centerpiece of most meals. Avoid fatty cuts of beef, pork, and lamb; instead choose lean ones, or substitute fish or skinless white-meat poultry. Trim off fat and skin from meats and poultry. When dining out, choose a smaller portion of meat, or choose pasta or fish dishes.
2. Choose low-fat dairy products and other foods. Avoid dairy foods that contain whole milk or cream; instead, use low-fat or nonfat ones. Choose low-fat snacks (pretzels, homemade popcorn, carrots, dried fruits, fresh fruits) instead of high-fat ones (potato chips and candy bars). Avoid store-bought bakery products unless they are explicitly low-fat or fat-free.
3. Cut down on saturated fat in cooking. Use liquid cooking oils rather than butter or margarine. Use nonstick pans. Instead of frying, bake, broil, roast, steam, or stew. Discard drippings, and baste with wine or broth.
4. Avoid palm and coconut oils. Most vegetable oils are unsaturated, but these two oils contain mostly saturated fats. Choose canola, sunflower, safflower, corn, soybean, olive, and peanut oils.
5. Avoid trans fats. Because trans fats increase your LDL and decrease your HDL, the Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board says there’s no safe level of trans fat intake, and the National Cholesterol Education Program urges people to eat as little trans fat as possible.
Avoid or eat only very small quantities of products that list shortening, partially hydrogenated oil, or hydrogenated oil among their first ingredients. These ingredients contain a lot of trans fat. Choose margarines labeled trans fat–free, or try using olive oil on your bread or cooked vegetables. Use canola oil or olive oil when frying. And be on the lookout for true-but-tricky advertising in restaurants and on packages of frozen fried foods. Food that’s fried in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils is often labeled “cholesterol free” or “cooked in vegetable oil.”
Trans fat is also found in unexpected places — commercial breads, soups, cereals, bean and other dips, and packaged entrees. Whenever possible, make these foods from scratch, using nonhydrogenated fats.
6. Reduce dietary cholesterol. Strive to eat less than 200 mg of dietary cholesterol a day. Limit eggs to no more than four egg yolks per week; two egg whites can replace a whole egg in most recipes. Limit lean meat, fish, and poultry to no more than 6 ounces per day (a 3-ounce portion is about the size of a deck of playing cards). Stay away from cholesterol-rich organ meats, such as liver, brains, and kidneys.
7. Increase complex carbohydrates and fiber. Emphasize foods with complex carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables, whole-grain products, and legumes (dried beans and peas) that are low in calories and high in fiber. Eat more water-soluble fiber, such as that found in oat bran and fruits. This type of fiber can significantly lower your blood cholesterol level when eaten in conjunction with a low-fat diet.
8. Read labels carefully. Avoid prepared foods that list any of the following among the first few ingredients: meat fat, coconut or palm kernel oil, cream, butter, egg or yolk solids, whole milk solids, lard, cocoa butter, chocolate or imitation chocolate, or hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat or oil. Watch out for fast foods and other unlabeled products; when you don’t know what you’re getting, eat sparingly.
9. Change strategy. If three months of this eating plan doesn’t bring your total and LDL cholesterol levels into the desired range, consult your physician and a dietitian.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
High cholesterol is a major contributor to heart disease, but how can you tell how much cholesterol is too much? What is the difference between “good” and “bad” cholesterol, and how can you achieve a healthy level of each? What to do about High Cholesterol is a special report from Harvard Medical School that gives you a step-by-step plan to set and reach your own cholesterol-level goal. Get tips on diet and exercise, medication options, and everything else you need to start lowering your cholesterol today.
Click here to join the group Harvard Med: Talking About Health on Gather
You can find the following related articles on Gather:
The Heart Disease "Time Bomb": Why Can It Strike Without Warning?
10 steps for fighting high blood pressure
Dealing with a heart attack
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 12