1. Limit your intake of foods full of saturated fats, trans fats, and dietary cholesterol.
Foods with a lot of saturated fat include butter, fatty flesh like red meat, full-fat and low-fat dairy products, palm oil and coconut oil. If you see partially hydrogenated fat in the ingredient list of a food label, that food has trans fats. Top sources of dietary cholesterol include egg yolks, organ meats and shellfish.
One type of fat – omega-3 fatty acids – has been shown to protect against heart disease. Good sources are cold-water fish like salmon, mackerel, halibut, trout, herring and sardines.
To help you translate the above guidelines into daily food planning, here are key guidelines:
- Select lower fat dairy choices, two servings a day.
- Limit your intake of meat, poultry, and fish to no more than 3.5 to four ounces per day.
- From the choices below, which are listed from best to poor, try to select almost always from the top
Best Choice: Omega-3-rich fish, such as salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel and trout. Choose at least two times weekly. If you’re using canned fish, such as canned sardines, select very-low-sodium or no-salt-added varieties.
Good Choice: Most other fish, plus shelled mollusks (clams, oysters, mussels, scallops).
Satisfactory Choice: Crustaceans (shrimp, crab, lobster, crawfish), poultry (white meat, skinless), game meat (bison, venison, elk, ostrich).
Poor Choice: Red meat (beef, pork, lamb, veal, goat). For all red meat choices, select cuts that are under 30% fat.
Red meats are the least desirable choice because they not only tend to have the highest proportion of saturated fats, but they are also higher in heme iron, which likely raises the risk of type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer. Red meats also alter the gut’s microbiome, which emerging research indicates may raise cardiovascular disease risk.
2. Avoid seed oils.
Use olive oil, avocado oil, ghee, small amounts of grass-fed butter and/or coconut oil in cooking. Avoid and eliminate as much as possible seed oils in cooking and packaged foods. Seed oils include: canola oil, corn oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, sesame oil, soybean oil, safflower oil and sunflower oil. These oils are industrially processed and highly inflammatory to our bodies
3. Choose protein-rich plant foods (such as legumes, beans, nuts and seeds) over meat.
Common legumes include lentils, peas, and beans, such as pinto beans, red beans, white beans and soybeans. They’re full of nutritional riches and are a very healthy, protein-packed alternative to meat. Legumes help lower LDL cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, blood sugar, and insulin levels, and may even lower cancer risk.
Nuts and seeds have been proven to modestly lower LDL cholesterol levels. To avoid blood pressure raising salt, choose raw or dry-roasted, unsalted varieties. Remember, nuts and seeds are dense with calories (averaging about 175 calories per ounce).
4. Eat a lot more fiber-rich foods (especially soluble fiber from foods like beans, oats, barley, fruits, and vegetables.)
Foods naturally rich in soluble fiber have proven particularly good at lowering cholesterol. Excellent sources include oats, oat bran, barley, peas, yams, sweet potatoes and other potatoes, as well as legumes or beans, such as pinto beans, black beans, garbanzo beans and peas.
Vegetables rich in soluble fiber include carrots, brussels sprouts, beets, okra and eggplant. Good fruit sources are berries, passion fruit, oranges, pears, apricots, nectarines and apples.
5. Lose as much excess weight as possible.
Losing excess weight is beneficial for all sorts of reasons, from improving your cholesterol profile to preventing diseases epidemic in industrialized societies, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, gout and many types of cancer.
Do keep in mind that it’s important to limit fat intake, even so-called “good” fats like olive oil, because any fat is dense with calories, which means heavy consumption can easily lead to a heavy body.
6. Limit added sugars in your diet.
Limit added sugars in the diet. Processed and refined sugars cause blood sugar balance issues due to insulin resistance. This can in turn affect different components of the cholesterol panel. This also includes reducing or eliminating artificial sweeteners (sucralose, aspartame. sucralose, acesulfame K, saccharin, xylitol). Artificial and processed sugars have been linked to chronic health issues. Aim for less than 25 grams of added sugar daily.
“If your LDL levels are still too high after trying these 6 nutrition-based approaches, talk to your doctor about cholesterol-lowering medications like statins, but give these 6 tips your best shot,” encourages Dr. Seth Marquit, MD, Medical Director at the Pritikin Longevity Center. “The right eating plan, like Pritikin, can be powerfully beneficial – and there are no adverse side effects."
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