I've read many studies that show high carbohydrate diets raise cholesterol so if you are dealing with this disease you should eat a low carbohydrate diet. I have also read many studies that say vegetarians have lower cholesterol levels so it would be beneficial for people with high cholesterol or borderline high cholesterol to begin a vegetarian diet. Yet most vegetarian diets are high in carbohydrates. Interesting!
First let's look at exactly what is a vegetarian diet. There are different kinds of vegetarian diets and what differentiates them is the amount of animal products allowed.
The Vegan eliminates ALL animal products including animal products found in processed foods.
The Lacto-ovo-vegetarian abstains from meat, fish or any animal flesh, but does enjoy eggs and other dairy products.
The Lacto-vegetarian does not eat animal flesh or eggs, but does eat dairy products.
The Ovo-vegetarian does not eat animal flesh or dairy products, but does eat eggs.
A 2007 study that included 67 vegetarians found that as a whole, vegetarians have lower total cholesterol levels than the 134 meat consuming participants; 73% of the vegetarians involved in this study consumed eggs. According to the results of this study, 79% of the vegetarians had desirable total cholesterol levels. While 71% of the meat consuming participants had borderline high risk total cholesterol levels; only 3% of the vegetarians had borderline high risk cholesterol levels. Vegans had significantly lower cholesterol levels than vegetarians who ate egg or non-meat animal products.
So studies show that for the most part, vegetarians have lower total cholesterol levels than people who consume meat products; so what are vegetarians eating? Grains, fruits, dairy substitutes, beans, vegetables and nuts are usually on the foods list for vegetarians. You can see there are plenty of carbohydrate foods included. So how do vegetarians manage to keep their cholesterol levels down and still consume a good amount of carbohydrates? It all has to do with the type of carbohydrates.
I'm not going to get into this "good" carbs vs "bad" carbs debate, but I am going to tell you that obviously quality counts. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains provide high quality carbohydrates, filling fiber, vitamins and phytochemicals. If you get your carbohydrate fix from white flour products like such as: donuts, cookies, white or enriched breads and crackers, potato chips, French fries then you are defeating the purpose of eating a vegetarian diet to improve health. Those types of foods are processed, fried and filled with low quality carbohydrates and in some case fat and cholesterol.
Eating a clean vegetarian diet provides endless variety and many health benefits such as:
1. Low cholesterol and low-fat protein sources.
2. Vitamins C and E, folate, magnesium and fiber.
3. More phytochemicals due to eating more plant foods.
4. Decreases risk of high cholesterol, heart disease, hypertension, some cancers and type 2
diabetes.
5. Can help you lose weight.
6. Improve your energy.
7. Healthier skin.
And the list goes on and on!
I know going from consuming meat to a vegetarian life style can be difficult, no one is saying to make a radical change. How about having just one vegetarian day a week for starters? Then once you begin to see how easy and tasty vegetarianism really is how about adding a few more vegetarian days to the week. At the very least, you may want to try to add more clean fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains to you diet and decrease the amount of meat eaten at each meal.
Give it a try; you just may be surprised at how delicious a vegetarian diet can be. Don't focus on what you can't have, focus on all the delicious foods you can enjoy. Chances are that if you have high cholesterol, your physician may have already suggested moving to a more vegetarian eating plan.
Listen to your doctor, follow through and happy eating.
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