Engaging in a low cholesterol diet plan is not as hard as it looks. All you need to do is come up with a simple meal plan that cuts down on the cholesterol you eat on a daily basis. Finding recipes to lower cholesterol can be as easy as looking up health cookbooks and visiting web sites.
You can also develop your own recipes with the help of food nutritionists and doctors. Low cholesterol diets shave down on fats and sodium on by either substituting fatty ingredients with healthier options or introduce techniques to reduce cholesterol per serving.
Any recipe that aims to lower cholesterol must do either or both of two things. First, the ingredients of the recipes must be low on saturated fats and sodium. Saturated fats are the basic building blocks for Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) while sodium can increase blood pressure.
LDL is a type cholesterol found in fatty meats and other rich fatty foods. It can cause cardiovascular diseases and arterial blockages. Second, a recipe may incorporate a healthy dose of High-density lipoproteins (HDL) in your body. HDL can counteract the level of LDL in your blood. HDL is commonly found in grains and fishes.
Choosing the right ingredients
Substituting the fatty and salty ingredients in recipes makes a huge difference in the amount of cholesterol you put in to your body. For example, you can substitute red meat with chicken or turkey meat for your meal. White meats have less cholesterol than red meats.
Recipes which use white meat are a far healthier choice than recipes which require large serving of red meats, pork loins and meat offals. In selecting seafoods, choosing tuna over shrimp and lobster can cut your cholesterol intake drastically. Fishes like tuna are also rich in Omega-3 fatty acids which are the precursors of HDL.
When choosing bread to make a sandwich, you can also substitute white bread for whole grain bread. Whole grain bread does not only contain lower levels of LDL, they are rich in HDL which is good for the body. Likewise, you can substitute salt for in your condiments for other non-sodium based herbs.
Preparation
Choosing how to cook your food is as important as choosing your ingredients. As far as preparation is concerned, you shouldn’t add more fat in the processing of your food than you need to. Recipes to lower cholesterol typically favor steaming and boiling over frying. Frying incorporates more cholesterol into your food. When you do decide to fry, use oils which are low on LDL and trans-fat. Canola oil is one example of a healthier alternative to frying than oil from animal fats.
By: Laza Marius
