Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Hot on the Trail of Cholesterol Reducing Foods

As more and more research starts to appear, it is becoming obvious that cholesterol increases the chances of arterial plaque and ultimately heart attack or stroke. Perhaps, you have heard about the advantages of cholesterol reducing foods, but only now have you found the time to investigate. In this article about happinesslifetime.com cholesterol lowering foods we will briefly walk through the main categories of cholesterol, quickly explain what they mean, and then reveal a list of cholesterol reducing foods that will knock your socks off, or at the very least lower your cholesterol levels.

Most people think of cholesterol in a singular fashion, when in essence it has at least three important components; HDL, LDL, and total cholesterol. HDL and LDL are responsible for transporting cholesterol through the blood stream, with HDL standing for high density lipoproteins, and LDL being the low density variety. The levels of LDL and HDL have opposite effects on the heart. High levels of LDL "the bad cholesterol" are associated with a buildup of plaque in the arteries, leading to atherosclerosis, and heart disease. High levels of HDL, " the good cholesterol" reduce the risk of disease and may even clean up arterial plaque.

I'm sure your head is spinning right about now but stay with me! In our quest to find cholesterol reducing foods the perfect food would be one that was able to reduce bad cholesterol, improve good cholesterol, all the while reducing overall cholesterol levels. Although there are a couple of foods that can do this, generally speaking it is rarer than a big food sighting in northern California.

Most happinesslifetime.com cholesterol lowering foods simply lower bad cholesterol and possibly overall cholesterol. The well respected researchers at the world famous Mayo Clinic recently released a list of what they consider to be the five best foods for lowering cholesterol and protecting your heart. They are oat bran, walnuts, fish, olive oil, and foods fortified with stanols and sterols. The American Heart Association recommends foods fortified with plant sterols for people with LDL cholesterol above 160 (100 to 129 is considered desirable). Plant sterols and stanols block the absorption of cholesterol and can be found added to such family favorites as margarines, yogurt drinks, skim milk, and orange juice. This group of five is an excellent foundation to build the rest of your list of cholesterol reducing foods around. Now let's move on to two other irresistible foods worth considering.

Avocados: Once avocados were considered to be one of the worst cholesterol foods now they are one of the best. Talk about a rags to riches story. In the battle against cholesterol saturated fat is the enemy, and avocados only contain 0.5 grams of saturated fat. The rest is made up primarily of cholesterol lowering monounsaturated fatty acids.

Blueberries: Some experts have called blueberries the number one food for good health, and it probably comes as no surprise that they have been shown to lower cholesterol. A compound in blueberries (pterostilbene) is believed to be responsible for their mastery over problematic LDL cholesterol.

In summary, there are many more cholesterol reducing foods that can help you in your quest to overcome troubling high cholesterol. Additionally, many natural health minded individuals have found that by combining diet modification, including the foods above, with lowered-cholesterol.com natural cholesterol reducing remedies they have been able to improve their results even more. Natural remedies for cholesterol are a safe and affordable treatment alternative worth considering.








Rob D. Hawkins is an enthusiastic advocate for the use of safe and effective high quality alternative health products and natural living, with over 10 years experience in the field. Learn more about natural remedies and natural health at purchaseremedies.com purchaseremedies.com

No comments:

Post a Comment