| Can Certain Foods Lower Your Cholesterol? |
|
|
| by Diet Detective Editorial Staff | |
| Thursday, 22 June 2006 | |
Eat your way to better health with the top five cholesterol-lowering foods.Usually, you hear about foods you should avoid when you're trying to not raise your cholesterol, such as eggs, red meat, cheeses and fried foods. But did you know that there are also foods which can actually help lower your cholesterol? Still, this doesn't mean if you're conscientious about consuming these foods that you can chow down on all the cheese fries or moo shu pork your heart desires. The top four cholesterol-reducing foods will only be effective if you make them part of a diet that gets no more than 30 percent of its total calories from fat and less than 7 percent from saturated fatty acids.
Be sure to include plenty of the following tried-and-true wholesome foods in your daily diet:
Oat bran: Oat bran is a rich source of soluble fiber, which has been shown to help reduce cholesterol. Colleen Pierre, R.D., a nutrition consultant for the Sports Medicine Center at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, says that oatmeal is a great, easy way to get the benefits of soluble fiber.
Beans: Cooked beans, such as pinto and kidney, are another great source of soluble fiber. Nowlin likes to make bean soups and dips.
Carrots: Although carrots are not a good source of soluble fiber, a recent study showed that one raw carrot a day at breakfast could lower total cholesterol by as much as 11 percent. Carrots contain insoluble fiber, which aids in normal bowel function and may help flush dietary cholesterol more quickly from the body, says Tori Hudson, N.D., author of The Women's Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine (Keats Publishing, 1999).
Canola and olive oil:These oils are high in monounsaturated fatty acids, which have been shown to help manage cholesterol when part of a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet. "They're still fattening, though," warns Nowlin, "so you can't go overboard with them." She suggests replacing other oils and butter with one of these healthier choices.
Bookmark:            Trackback(0)
Comments (0)
 Write comment
|
|
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 June 2006 ) |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
