Ways to Decrease Cholesterol in Diet

Cholesterol is essential for the functioning of your body. It becomes dangerous only when your cholesterol levels go high. High undetected cholesterol levels are the single important reason for heart attacks in many people. Contrary to popular belief, your size does not correlate with the amount of cholesterol you have in your body. A big person can have normal cholesterol while someone thin can have dangerously high levels of cholesterol in their body. A proper diet is needed to control and maintain optimum levels of cholesterol in your body ad here are some ways to decrease cholesterol in your diet.
1. Avoid fatty and greasy food

Deep fried fatty foods are good to taste but they come loaded with saturated fats and oil which when taken on a regular basis can shoot up your cholesterol to dangerous levels. Have these foods once in a while if you really have to indulge your taste buds and even then make sure that you exercise well to burn all the extra calories.
2. Replace saturated fat with unsaturated fat

Natural foods such as oily fish, nuts such as almond and cashews, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, vegetable oils and spreads are great sources of unsaturated fat. Bring these into your diet and get rid of the French fries and fried chicken.
3. Lower the amount of salt in your diet

Irrespective of the cholesterol levels in your body, try to limit the amount of salt that you add to your food. It may taste a little different but after a few days you will get used to little amounts of salt in your food. High sodium levels are a main cause of worry for people with cholesterol levels.

4. Add cholesterol lowering products to your diet

Research now supports the fact that certain cholesterol lowering products actually do the work. The products include plant sterols and stanols which can be found in specially developed products such as yoghurt and vegetable spreads.
5. Increase the amount of soluble fibers in your diet

Fibers come in two forms, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fibers get digested by the body and insoluble do not. Soluble fibers are good as they reduce the amount of cholesterol in your body. Sources of natural soluble fibers include oats, beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, fruit and vegetables.
6. Go for lean meat and stay away from red meat

Baked chicken and lean meat should be on your plate instead of red meat and stakes which increase your cholesterol levels.

Add a lot of greens and fruits to your diet, get rid of the fatty stuff, eat a lot of spices and you will see your cholesterol levels dropping. A bit of physical activity and exercise also helps.
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