How Lower Cholesterol Is The Key To Good Health

You really don't have to be an expert on nutrition to understand how lower cholesterol levels can be good for your body. With just a little understanding of how to lower your cholesterol, can have a dramatic effect on your overall health. If you're able to control the foods you eat, and incorporate a certain amount of exercise each day, you can make a real difference to your overall health and life expectancy.

Maintaining a healthy and balanced diet can be crucial to prevent future health issues such as cardio vascular disease, strokes and heart attacks. So that is why learning how to lower your cholesterol levels is very important.

So what is cholesterol? It's a wax-like substance made from fatty cells that over time can clog the arteries. It's produced naturally by the liver, but foods such as some sea foods, red meat, eggs and dairy foods all contribute to raising cholesterol levels. When talking about cholesterol it's important to point out that there are two kinds, LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) "bad cholesterol" and HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) "good cholesterol". If you can maintain a good level of HDL, this will help your body to produce good amounts of vitamin D, acids and hormones which will help the body to produce digest properly and produce bile. However if you eat the wrong foods and do little exercise, then your body will produce LDL which will clog the arteries and put you at risk of heart disease and heart attacks.

In a recent report by the American Heart Association, the recommended amount of dietary cholesterol to be consumed by the average person is 300 milligrams per day, unless the person has been diagnosed with high cholesterol, In which case the recommended amount of dietary cholesterol is 200 milligrams per day.

Ways to lower your cholesterol.

A good start would be to reduce your intake of LDL and HDL cholesterol. More important would be to try and lower your intake of LDL foods which are high in saturated fats. Always look at the labels on foods and try to make this a habit. Some of the key foods to avoid are lobster, crabs and shrimps. Other foods you might want to avoid are egg (yolks), butter, chicken skin, red meats, and dairy products. Other things to look out for are foods that contain hydrogenated vegetable oils, coconut oil and palm oil.

If you're looking for foods cooked in oils, then look for the ones cooked in olive oil, sunflower oil, canola oil and (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats).

Some more great HDL rich foods are walnuts, almonds and lentils. You might also like to try fish that are rich in omega 3 fatty acids. On top all this it's always a good idea to try and eat around 10 grams of soluble fibre per day. Oatmeal and beans are a good source of soluble fibre, and will help to soak up any bad cholesterol. If you're serious about lowering your cholesterol then you could also try eating berries which are full of antioxidants.

One last point to make and of equal importance, and that is to give up smoking and try to incorporate 60 minutes of exercise a day. By doing these two things you will dramatically lower your chances of heart disease, cancer and heart attacks. If you learn how lower cholesterol levels can benefit your health, and incorporate some of the key points above, then it's possible to sustain a healthier and happier life style.

Richard Bratt is a nutrition expert. For more great tips on loweringcholesterolmadeeasy.com/how how lower cholesterol can help you, please visit loweringcholesterolmadeeasy.com/how-lower-cholesterol loweringcholesterolmadeeasy.com.