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HEART HEALTHY DIETS
The first step in creating your low cholesterol diet plan is identifying the usual suspects and eliminating them from your diet, the foods you eat regularly which are high in saturated fat and bad cholesterol.
You might find this hard to do at first though, which is why it you may find it easier to start from the other side by creating a complete low fat low cholesterol diet plan that covers every day of the week.
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Include plenty of fruit and vegetables
While this doesn’t actively reduce cholesterol, getting your five-a-day is the basis of any healthy diet. When making your plan, include vegetables as side dishes, meat alternatives, or use them to bulk up one-pot dishes like curries and casseroles. Fruit makes a great dessert or cereal topping, and a tasty smoothie makes a great breakfast.
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Get fat-savvy
Saturated fats, found in butter, full fat milk, cheese, meat products (as well as many prepared foods) have been linked to an increase in LDL or “bad” cholesterol – something you’ll need to take into account when planning a diet for lowering cholesterol. Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats in the diet has been shown to lower blood cholesterol.
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Go for Lovely Lean Meats
Many people with cholesterol problems tend to eat a lot of fatty red meats like steak and beef (if you’re a hamburger lover, this is probably you). There’s no reason you can’t enjoy meat and maintain low cholesterol levels – you just have to focus on lean meats in your low cholesterol diet plan. Chicken and turkey are great – they’re delicious and filling, and they go well in sandwiches, salads and a variety of dinner meals.
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Make room for high fiber foods in your plan
To up your fiber intake, choose brown and wholegrain versions of cupboard staples like bread, pasta, and rice, rather than white or plain versions. Getting plenty of fruit and vegetables is also important, along with grains like oats or barley – consider including oat cereal or porridge topped with chopped dried or fresh fruit in your low cholesterol plan.
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Choose Your Cooking Oil with Care
Some of the people who develop cholesterol problems are used to eating substantial amounts of fried foods. Think about how you can change your cooking habits to use methods which don’t rely on high cholesterol oils, like boiling. When you do fry something, use oils that are high in monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats rather than saturated fats. Good cooking oils to include in your low cholesterol diet plan are options like olive oil and macadamia oil.
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Fish and Other Omega 3 Rich Foods
Many types of fish are excellent sources of omega 3, a nutrient which large numbers of people are lacking in modern diets. Omega 3 fatty acids reduce your overall risk of blood clots and heart attacks. In terms of actual fish as opposed to fish oil supplements, salmon is an excellent source of omega 3 as are some types of tuna.
As always, take the method of preparing the fish into account. If you fry your salmon in oils high in saturated fats you’ll simply end up cancelling out many of the benefits. Consider using no fat cooking methods, or use oils with monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats.
It’s a good idea to set goal and time frames for reducing your cholesterol levels. You can do this with your health consultant when you have your cholesterol levels tested – discuss what a realistic reduction target could be based on where you are now. This allows you to keep track of whether your low cholesterol diet plan is working as well as you’d like it to. If you set a goal and you find on your next cholesterol level test that you haven’t hit your mark, you can then make further changes to your low cholesterol diet plan and physical exercise regime.
