Worried About Cholesterol Drugs? - Diet Can Lower Your Cholesterol

High cholesterol is bad news because it can lead to heart disease and cause strokes. It is now clear from the latest statistics that more and more younger people are on these cholesterol lowering drugs and that is yet another sign that the obesity epidemic is raging.

Normally older people take these drugs but there has been a big increase among the younger age group (20-44). In fact the increase is just under 70% in the last five years. One way of looking at these figures is that more and more young people are taking heart disease prevention more seriously. But the general consensus is one of alarm.

The most effective and widely tested cholesterol drugs are called the statins, which block the formation of cholesterol in the liver and increase the production of the receptors on liver cells that clean the bad cholesterol from the blood. If you are worried about the side effects of statins, you may want to consider lowering your cholesterol levels a more natural way and that is through a healthy diet. Here are my four top foods which will definitely lower your cholesterol without having to take any drugs.

Tomatoes are top of my list because they contain lycopene. This substance prevents the oxidation of LDL (bad cholesterol) before it can start causing damage. Research has shown that lycopene has a role in lowering this tye of cholesterol so include plenty fo tomatoes in your diet, preferably cooked.

There have been lots of studies done on Eskimos to ascertain why their levels of heart disease and cholesterol are lower than ours. Because they eat lots of fish such as whale meat which contains good fats such as Omega-3, they live longer healthier lives than we do. So, my second top food is high fat fish such as mackerel, herring, trout, sardines and wild salmon which should be baked or grilled. Other great sources of Omega -3 are flaxseed and canola oil.

My third one is soy because it contains fibre and lots of vitamins and minerals. Recently the American Heart Association stated that the effects of soy on blood pressure and on triglycerides was actually minimal. But it is a great source of low-fat protein and that is why I eat or drink it all the time.

Any type of nuts from walnuts, almonds, cashews and so on, come in fourth place. The first reason is that nuts are great sources of the healthy kind of fat and also contains Omega-3, not to mention some valuable minerals. I try to aim for 20% of my daily calorie intake. I am on 1,200 calories a day so nuts will account for about 200 of those. Actually researchers have shown that if you do that, it can reduce your cholesterol by about 12% - just with one small adjustment to your diet.

These are just some of the many foods which are recommended in The Mediterranean Diet which has been studied the world over as a healthy way to reduce the risk of heart disease, high cholesterol and many other diseases. The incidence of these diseases in the Mediterranean area is much lower than in other nations.

Mark L Robinson is a writer on Food and Nutrition but also writes on a wide variety of Health, Medical and Sports topics. Visit The Wellness Bible at : thewellnessbible.blogspot.com thewellnessbible.blogspot.com for more details on the Mediterranean Diet. Click on the box on the right.