Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past 10 years, you’ve probably heard of bad cholesterol. As featured in many books, magazines, diet commercials and TV shows, bad cholesterol has been implicated as the leading cause of many heart-related illnesses. The best way to make sure bad cholesterol does not enter your system is to start with your diet.
1. Limit your intake of saturated fat
Use low-fat or non-fat milk and milk products including cheese and yogurt. They are great substitutes for other dairy products that contain bad cholesterol. Skim milk, for example, is a better choice than whole milk while low-fat yogurt is better than regular whipped cream.
2. Base your meals on fiber found in whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
Whole-grain breads, pastries, oatmeal and oat bran provide the right bulk to help you get rid of unnecessary fats and lower your bad cholesterol levels. They also help you lose weight. You can also keep bad cholesterol levels down by eating regular servings of fruits and vegetables. As little as 1 to 2g servings of fiber-rich foods daily can help lower your bad cholesterol by at least 1%.
3. Keep animal fat intake low
Good sources of animal protein include fish, chicken, turkey and lean cuts of red meat. These foods can be included in your diet and help lower your bad cholesterol, provided that you keep to the recommended serving amount. However, you can substitute the animal protein found in your diet using soy protein found in soy and soy products. As little as 25g of soy protein has been shown to lower bad cholesterol when used as part of your diet.
4. When cookies go bad
Another type of bad cholesterol you need to monitor in your diet is hydrogenated fat, often found in common foods as trans-fat. Trans-fat are known to disrupt metabolism and are toxic to the body. These include foods such as cookies, pastries, crackers and almost all processed foods. Also unsafe are foods that include white flour, MSG (monosodiumglutamate), aspartame and sodium nitrate, often found in food as additives.
