Cholesterol

• Start to lower your cholesterol in as little as 2 weeks with Benecol Smart Chews
• Contains plant stanol esters, which are proven to reduce your LDL, or “bad” cholesterol
• May be used by those taking statin medications for additional cholesterol lowering
• Enjoy 2-4 delicious caramel chews twice a day with meals
• More than 25 clinical studies validate the safety of plant stanol esters

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Benecol Smart Chews, Caramel, 120-Count Soft Chews

THE POCKET LOW CHOLESTEROL DIET PLAN

Do you need to lower your cholesterol? Is it possible to lower cholesterol naturally? Hmmm, a perplexing question. And one which a huge number of people need an answer to as so many people have high cholesterol and need to lower their levels.

The question “can you lower cholesterol naturally” is one which needs to be preceded by another question. When you ask can you lower cholesterol naturally what do you mean by “naturally”?

Lowering cholesterol isn’t easy, and there are a number of options to lower cholesterol and achieve better overall heart health. Some involve risks.

You can try drugs, statin drugs are the common cholesterol lowering drugs that are regularly prescribed by doctors. Or you can try a diet to lower cholesterol. Or you can try other methods like natural nutritional supplements and natural products which utilize active ingredients that are not “drugs”, that are naturally occuring and are known to be safe.

There is no clear answer to what is a “natural’ way to lower cholesterol. So for the purposes of this article I shall assume that “naturally” lowering cholesterol is lowering cholesterol levels without the use of drugs.

Because it’s the use of drugs that scares so many people. Maybe they’ve had a heart attack or their doctor says they need to pay more attention to their heart health, and next thing they’re on statin drugs which they will, it is assumed, take for the rest of their lives.

Statin drugs have their problems and have been linked to various health problems. Many people are very wary of going onto a drug long term that is linked to health problems.

The first thing to do then, when you seem to have high blood cholesterol levels or your doctor has suggested that you need to be more heart smart and pay more attention to your heart health, is to try a natural approach.

Just about everyone can benefit from a better diet, and a diet to lower cholesterol is one of the most important steps you can take in a “natural” (ie non drug) approach. We all eat too many processed foods and foods high in bad fats and so we should pay more attention to our diet.

Plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables is the key when looking for a diet that helps lower our cholesterol. Avoid too much meat and diary high in saturated fats, and substitute this with grains, vegetables and fruits.

And get plenty of exercise, exercise helps a lot in lowering cholesterol as well as with our overall health, and heart health is also a factor of overall health as well as total cholesterol levels.

But often a change in diet, and incorporating exercise into your daily routine isn’t sufficient to reduce cholesterol levels significantly. This is often because your body manufactures it’s own cholesterol, and changing your diet doesn’t stop this.

So if you’re looking for a natural approach you need to consider natural cholesterol lowering supplements as well.

The best natural supplements are those which tackle the problem from a range of angles. The very best natural cholesterol lowering supplement helps lower your LDL cholesterol, the bad one, and raise your HDL cholesterol, the good one.

It also helps lower your body’s production of cholesterol, and also helps reduce your body’s absorption of it in your gut from your food. On top of this it increases the excretion of bile acid, and bile acid carries cholesterol, so this too helps reduce your overall levels.

And it has other natural ingredients that offer more wide ranging benefits to your cardiovascular system generally, so giving you a boost to overall heart health.

And as this product is made from totally natural ingredients you don’t risk nasty side effects to your health that you risk if you elect to take statin drugs.

So yes, there is a way to lower cholesterol naturally. It involves a total natural approach including diet and exercise, and the use of natural cholesterol lowering supplements. It works and you don’t take any risk to your health from unwanted side effects that may result from prescription drugs.

According to the University of Utah Health Services Center, low cholestrol foods are available that can be incorporated into any recipe or diet plan. These foods contain good cholestrol amounts, but are low in saturated fats.

Thanks to extensive research, scientists have found a way to create a diet to lower cholestrol by reducing margarine consumption, not butter and eggs as originally thought. A meal or recipe that does not incorporate processed/refined foods, as well as trans/hydrogenated oils and fats are far more beneficial.

The important criteria when cooking recipes is to find ones that lower bad LDL cholestrol, but increase good HDL cholestrol. LDL that attaches to artery walls acts like plaque does on teeth. It can partially or completely block not only arteries, but veins and capillaries, limiting or halting blood flow to body cells, organs and most importantly the heart and brain. Such build up can result in heart attacks and strokes.

With labels on food packages giving more information than ever before about the nutrients, carbohydrates and cholestrol they contain, it is getting easier to eat the foods we like without the high risk of heart disease or stroke. The following is a list, based on the four food groups, of healthy, low cholestrol foods:

Meat, fish, poultry and meat alternatives:

(2 to 3 servings daily of a maximum of 6 oz. per serving)

Beef – sirloin, loin, chuck

Eggs – organic or free-range, cholesterol-free substitute

Fish and shellfish – white, pink, red, grey (fresh or water packed only)

Lamb – leg, rib, loin, arm

Legumes – peas, beans, lentils, etc.

Pork – leg, shoulder, tenderloin

Poultry – chicken, turkey, and game birds (white or light meat only, and no skin)

Veal – all types, fat cut off

Dairy products:

(2-3 servings per day – 6 oz. milk or yogurt, or 1 matchbox size of cheese)

Milk – low-fat, 1%, 2%, no-fat, skim, low-fat evaporated, low-fat powdered or low-fat buttermilk

Yogurt – low-fat

Cheeses (soft) – low-fat cottage or farmer; part-skim ricotta, mozzarella

Cream cheese – light or low-fat

Sour cream – light or low-fat

Ice cream – low-fat

Breads, cereals, rice, pasta:

(6-11 servings daily of whole wheat, vegetable, Omega 3, fiber2c, or low-cholestrol varieties)

Bread – pita, pumpernickel, rye, whole wheat

Rice cakes

English muffins – whole wheat

Crackers – low-fat, matzo, rye crisp breads, saltines, zwieback

Cereals – low-fat, low cholestrol, low sugar, low sodium

Pasta – any type

Rice – basmati, Thai, very long grain, wild

Fruits and vegetables:

(3 to 10 servings daily of green, orange, yellow, red and dark green vegetables and varied fruit and juices)

Any vegetable – low-sodium canned, fresh, frozen, dried

Any fruit – low-sodium, canned, fresh, frozen, dried

Other foods:

Oils – (6-8 oz maximum daily) unsaturated corn, extra virgin olive, peanut, canola oil, safflower, sesame, soybean

The following foods should be avoided or kept to a minimum as they contain a fair amount of saturated fats and too high a concentration of LDL cholestrol:

All candies, cakes, soft drinks and sweet snacks

Animal fats – all types, lard

beef – corned, regular ground, short ribs, brisket

caviar – all types

cereals – high sugar, high saturated fat, granola

cheese – Neufchatel, Swiss, Brie, Mozzarella, Cheddar, American, Feta, processed, full chocolate

cream, full cream ricotta, Muenster

cream – most regular, and non-dairy

duck

ice cream – full cream

goose

luncheon meats – regular

most snack crackers – cheese, butter

organ meats – liver, sweetbreads, kidney, brain

pasta dinners – cheese sauces, cream sauces, butter sauces; egg noodles

popcorn – buttered

pork – blade roll, spare ribs, bacon

potato chips

rice dinners – cheese sauces, cream sauces, butter sauces

sausages – most varieties, including wieners and frankfurters

sour cream – full fat

vegetable dishes – buttered, with cream, with gravy, or with fatty sauces

yogurt – full fat

Excess cholesterol deposition in the body often turns out to be a facilitator of a host of maladies and complications such as coronary artery diseases. Although normal level of cholesterol is essential for hormonal functions, nerve protection and cell formation, its excess could affect the body adversely. Therefore cholesterol control seems mandatory for folks who are already having a high level of cholesterol or who are expected to possess high deposition of cholesterol. Normally obese or over weight people suffer from excess cholesterol deposition and they require to shed their extra body weight to normalize the levels of cholesterol.

All efforts to cholesterol control are aimed at bringing down the level of LDL cholesterol. LDL or low density cholesterol paves the way for narrowed arteries resulting in cardiovascular diseases. The other cholesterol HDL is not at all harmful.

There could be host of measures to curb excess deposition of LDL. From medication to exercises all contribute to the quest for lowering cholesterol. Although medication could give quick result, long term solution lies in a regulated diet along with daily workouts.

Dietary measures primarily focus on checking fat content. If you happen to be one suffering from this problem you should immediately stop consuming red meat and egg. If you can’t live without meat, you need to be contended with only poultry meat. Beef is particularly dangerous for folks with high levels of LDL. You should also avoid intake of milk products, although skimmed milk could be consumed.

In order to meet your calorie requirement you can increase consumption of fruits (particularly grape fruits), vegetables and other fiber products in absence of meet, milk products and egg. Vitamin E and C contribute in bringing down LDL cholesterol level, so products rich in these vitamins should be consumed in plenty.

Garlic and bean intake could be increased. Garlic is considered as one of the natural medicines for cholesterol control. You can consume few cloves of garlic everyday to reduce LDL. Different types of beans are rich in pectin that happens to be an effective cholesterol reducing agent.

Oat meal, omega 3 oils and olive oil are suggested to be used for folks afflicted with excess cholesterol. These dietary measures must be complimented with physical workouts in order to get desired level of slump in LDL cholesterol.

If you happen to be under stress you are likely to have excess LDL cholesterol because of high adrenalin secretion. So you are also needed to be stress free in order to reduce cholesterol.

These are some cholesterol controlling measures that could be easily adopted to curb the surge in LDL level. However for an alarming level of LDL deposition doctors recommend medication for quick results.