Top Foods To Eliminate for Lower Cholesterol

The easiest and fastest way to lower cholesterol is with your diet. It is very possible, and desirable, to naturally lower cholesterol through dietary changes. But, to do so, you have to think of all of these changes as having a cumulative effect as a totality. Eating steak one night is not offset by eating beans the next night. This is because dietary cholesterol and animal fat is affected by conditions in your blood at the time of consumption. If your system is not tuned to handle the extra cholesterol, it will end up on your artery walls. And a steady diet of this stuff will overload your liver in no time, causing it to produce all the wrong kind of cholesterol.

So, it's important to think about what not to eat before we talk about what is beneficial to eat for lowering your cholesterol levels. As mentioned above, avoid steak and red meat as much as possible. Also avoid other meats with visible fat, and trim off any fat you do see. Typically, chicken and turkey, without the fat-rich skin, are fairly lean, and can be eaten in moderation. Consuming fatty meats will escalate your LDLs faster than if you consumed pure dietary cholesterol. So, stay clear of bacon, sausage, salami, pastrami, and all of those "pressed" meats too. If you're a gourmand of delicacies like goose liver pate, I don't need to tell you it's almost all pure animal fat, delicious as it may be.

I used to love cheesecake a young man. Looking back at those days I now realize cheesecake combines all the worst of cholesterol-raising traits: concentrated dairy fat and sugars. Eat a piece of cheesecake every day, and you can bet on a trip to the emergency room somewhere down the line when your arteries narrow to a pinhole.

Dairy products such as butter and cheese are to be avoided wherever possible. Low fat alternatives such as low-fat milk, are satisfactory choices, and provide many other high quality nutrients such as calcium and protein. Hard cheeses have the highest concentration of cholesterol. Dairy substitutes such as margarine are made of trans fats, and should be always avoided. Egg yolks have a high concentration of dietary cholesterol. There are few egg substitutes on the market, but be careful there are no processed ingredients in them. Many bakery products should be avoided as they are very often made with eggs and butter, and milk.

Often overlooked in assessing the total cholesterol picture are triglycerides, or VLDLs (very low density lipoproteins). Triglycerides are fats produced in the liver, like regular LDLs, but in response to high sugar and/or alcohol consumption. These fats are stored in the fat cells of the body. No wonder the obesity rate is skyrocketing, with all the soda consumption out there. Even "diet" drinks can fool the body to going into fat storage mode. So, avoid sugar and alcohol as much as possible, as these will tend to push your LDLs up.

Marc Preston has been a nutritional expert for over 25 years. He is dedicated to educating readers on the benefits of healthy nutrition and lifestyle. This article provides basic but important information about cholesterol and its effects. Please visit our website for more FREE information about cholesterol at secretsofcholesterol.com secretsofcholesterol.com

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