What to Do About High Cholesterol Levels - Effective Changes to Your Diet that Will Lower Cholesterol

Did your doctor recently give you the bad news that you have high cholesterol levels? Well hope is not lost, as there are many small but effective changes you can make to your diet in order to lower your cholesterol.

The first thing to do is to increase your vegetable intake. Be sure to eat lots of vegetables every day. Romaine lettuce and other green vegetables like broccoli, peas, and spinach are great choices. Some other excellent choices are corn, olives, soybeans, and carrots. If you cook with vegetable oil, you will want to switch to olive oil, canola oil or safflower oil. A good vegetable side dish to make is sweet green, yellow, and red peppers. You can cook these with a little olive oil and garlic.

The next thing to look at is your fruit intake. It really is true that an apple a day will keep the doctor away, as apples reduce cholesterol and blood pressure. Other great fruits to eat are oranges, tomatoes, kiwi fruit, strawberries, other berries, grapefruit, bananas, raisins, plums, and red grapes.

Make a conscious effort to include the following foods in your diet more often: fish, lean red meat, rice, avocados, pasta, white-meat chicken without skin, turkey breast, low-fat turkey bacon, turkey sausage, flaxseed, oat bran, dried beans, lentils, tofu, nonfat yogurt, and nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, and cashews.

A great way to start your day is with a large bowl of oatmeal or cream of wheat. Other cereals that are good to eat are rice bran, Wheaties, shredded wheat, and raisin bran. The best varieties of bread to eat are whole grain, whole wheat, raisin bread, 7 grain, and wheat berry bread. When making an omelet or scrambling eggs, use one whole egg with 3 egg whites.

One group of foods that has been shown to greatly benefit people wanting to lower their cholesterol is the onion and garlic group of foods. These include onions, garlic, shallots, pearl onions, leeks, chives, and asparagus.

Now this won't be total torture. You can even order pizza! Just limit your serving to 1 or 2 slices and make it a vegetable pizza so that you are getting your veggies.

As for beverages, it is wise to limit your milk intake, and when you do drink milk, make sure it is low-fat, fat-free, or even better, soy milk. Also, be sure to increase your water intake. Aim to drink an eight-ounce glass of water eight times a day. But if you are heavier than the average person, you may need more than that. It seems that most people do not enjoy the plain taste of water. You might want to drink water flavored with lemon or Crystal Light. Water has been shown to fight high blood pressure and decrease cholesterol levels. It is also recommended to drink one glass of grape juice daily to lower cholesterol levels.

Of course, with every dietary change, there is the list of no-no's (foods to avoid). Here is the list: ice cream (nonfat ice cream and sherbet are okay), egg yolks, cheese (reduced-fat cheese is okay), sausage, hot dogs, shortening, margarine (light margarine is okay), fried foods, fast food, potato chips, sugar, beer, and lunchmeat. Lunchmeat has preservatives that are dangerous to your heart. If you cannot completely avoid lunchmeat, at least reduce your intake to 2 pieces on a sandwich, and do not eat it frequently.

But don't let the list of no-no's discourage you. If you focus on all the good foods that you can eat that will benefit your health, you will not have time to notice what you are doing without. It's when our focus is on what we can't eat that we end up sabotaging our efforts. So I encourage you to implement these healthy changes to your diet and watch that cholesterol level come down.