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The Western world is under attack from a disease of our own introduction! Health officials in every Western country are ringing the warning bells about general public levels of obesity, high blood pressure and cholesterol. The foremost culprits of this are said to be over eating, eating junk food and not exercising sufficiently.

At one time, not so long ago, most of the victims of these issues were middle-aged Americans. That extended to middle-aged Europeans. Then to American children and now it is spreading to European children. None of the warnings concerning eating too much junk food and not exercising enough seem to be having any impact at all.

All of these three issues are related and that is why heart disease is the primary killer of adults in the West. Cholesterol plays a big part in these conditions. However, not all cholesterol is bad. LDL cholesterol is often called the ‘bad cholesterol’ and HDL is known as the ‘good cholesterol’, because it assists to wipe up LDL.

Small amounts of cholesterol are also necessary for the production of vitamin D and bile salts and it is also functional in the balancing of hormones particularly in women. However, LDL cholesterol sometimes clings to the walls of the arteries and if it is permitted to build up too much, can block them.

If the arteries get clogged, the heart will have to pump harder to get enough blood to where it is required and this can lead to the first stages of high blood pressure.

The best way to get rid of excess LDL is to have high levels of HDL, because HDL encapsulates LDL and takes it back to the liver where it is treated and excreted.. HDL cholesterol can be eaten by eating nuts, fish, fresh fruit and vegetables, soya and remarkable spreads that were designed to lower LDL.

However, the best way of reducing LDL is by not eating it in the first place. LDL is most prevalent in saturated fats and hydrogenated trans fats. Saturated fats are usually in red meat and full-fat dairy products like milk, cream, butter and cheese. Trans fats are mostly in junk foodstuffs like potato crisps, potato chips, pies, pasties, hamburgers and hot dogs. Cut these out and that is half the battle for a great deal of individuals.

Replace the red meat in your diet with soya products like tofu, of which 25% grammes a day is said to be able to reduce bad cholesterol by 15-30%. Walnuts and almonds have a similar reputation as do olive oil and rolled oats.

In fact, all grains, pulses and beans are friends in the fight against LDL. In general, the foods that will help you are those that contain plenty of fibre and roughage; fresh is better than tinned (which will contain a preservative such as salt); and white meat or fish is superior to red meat like beef and pork.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on several topics, but is now concerned with low cholesterol diet recipes. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a main contributing factor in causing heart attacks. However, our own bodies make cholesterol so it can not be all that bad. In fact, we need some cholesterol and apart from that there are two kinds, one of which is called ‘good cholesterol’ and the other as ‘bad cholesterol’.

LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is the ‘bad cholesterol and HDL (high-density lipoprotein) is the ‘good cholesterol’. Both are fatty, waxy substances made in the liver that float about the body in the blood. LDL levels can increase to the degree that it can clog blood vessels and interfere with the operation of the heart causing heart disease and heart attack. LDL comes usually from the ingestion of saturated fats in red meat, full-fat milk, cheese and cream and from hydrogenated trans fats.

HDL assists clear out the LDL, so a diet that is good for cholesterol will endeavour to reduce the consumption of LDL-producing food and increase the consumption of HDL-producing food. In general, the foods that do this are fruits, vegetables, grains and fish. However, a high cholesterol level (bad cholesterol, that is) is more complex than just diet. It is also important to maintain a correct body weight and to exercise on a regular basis.

Having healthy levels of cholesterol is actually an on-going maintenance programme and has a lot to do with simply living an active, healthy life. This means not eating a lot of red meat, eating fish twice a week, consuming at least five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day, not over doing the dairy products, drinking skimmed milk (or none at all), cutting back on cheese and varying your diet and exercising each day, even if it is only in the form of going for a walk twice a day.

Although there can be genetic reasons for high cholesterol, most people can resolve this problem fairly easily by exercise and diet. Doctors say that cutting out all kinds of saturated fat and trans fat is the single most valuable way of decreasing your LDL cholesterol levels, so that is the obvious way to start. Grains and pulses are useful because they contain so much fibre which is good for removing cholesterol.

This suggests that eating porridge in the morning instead of bacon and eggs but having some kind of lentil soup with whole grain bread before dinner would be steps in the correct direction. Snacks throughout the day yet sweet at mealtimes should be fruit. Citrus fruits are especially good at helping to remove cholesterol

Other things of food that are thought to lower cholesterol are nuts like walnuts yet almonds; onions and garlic; olive oil yet soya bean products. Although cooking in olive oil will help a lot, it is also a good idea to avoid frying whenever there is a possibility of cooking in another manner. Grilling but steaming are the best methods of cooking most fish yet vegetables but it helps retain the vitamin and nutrient contents of the food too.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on numerous subjects, but is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diet. If you want to know more, please visit our site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?

There is plenty of evidence that all adults should keep one eye on their cholesterol levels. In early life, the body can handle a bit of abuse, but as we become older our bodies get less able to deal with the rubbish we feed it. Furthermore, younger people are normally more lively than older people and exercise is a means of lowering cholesterol.

It is worth having your cholesterol levels tested at various stages of your life, because some people have genetic problems that result in too much cholesterol and it is worth knowing if you fall into this group as early as possible.

Before you begin working on your cholesterol you should know what they are. So, get your figures and ask your doctor for their opinion. He or she might say that they are all right, that they are on the high side or that you had better do something about them immediately. Make sure that you make a note of these figures which will be for your HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) levels.

Once you have these reference points and your medical doctor’s opinion you can decide on what action to take. In this article, we will talk about the three most helpful ways of reducing your LDL level of cholesterol.

1] The most effective thing you can do to lower your LDL cholesterol is to reduce the amount of saturated fat and trans fat that you eat. People get most of their bad cholesterol from these two fats by a long chalk. Saturated fat comes from animal fat but particularly from red meat and full fat dairy products like milk, cream and cheese. Trans fats are hydrogenated fats, which are vegetable fats which have been ‘liquidized’ with water.

Merely cutting out these two types of fat may be sufficient to save you from taking medication for the rest of your life. However, every body requires fat, so in addition to cutting these harmful fats out, you will have to replace some of them with mono-unsaturated fats and poly-unsaturated fats. These words are listed on products in a lot of countries.

In essence, it means cooking with olive oil and spreading better margarine on your bread. In fact there are even margarines and salad dressings now that actually lower cholesterol in their own right.

2] The second means to keep your cholesterol levels under control is exercise. Exercise burns up your LDL cholesterol. You do not have to do a lot to create a big difference. Walking thirty minutes every morning and every evening can have quite a remarkable effect on your health especially if you do not exercise at all at the moment.

3] The third most effective method of keeping your cholesterol levels right is to maintain a decent body weight. As you can see, by following a sensible diet and doing regular exercise, you will of necessity get your right body weight. The whole system is actually telling you that if you have a difficulty with cholesterol, then you are not living correctly.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on numerous topics, but is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diet. If you want to know more, please visit our site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?

If you have recently been told that your cholesterol levels are out, you will probably be weighing up the alternatives that your GP gave you. One alternative would be to take medication and the other alternative would be to adjust your diet and carry out more exercise. The alterations in diet are not radical, yet they could have a big effect. Exercising may be more of a difficulty to most individuals who lead a sedentary lifestyle.

People talk about cholesterol levels because there are two kinds of cholesterol. The two levels are HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol). LDL comes from animal fats (saturated fats), which are prevalent in red meat and full-fat dairy products like milk, butter, cream and cheese but it also comes from hydrogenated trans fats, which are common in margarines, pastry and crisps.

The first thing to do is attempt to cut out saturated fats by switching to chicken and drinking low-fat milk. You could also replace the margarine or butter with one of the cholesterol-decreasing margarines in the supermarkets. Just taking these two steps will make a huge difference to numerous individuals, however, others may have to go a little further.

Grains are very useful in the battle against cholesterol, because of the quantity of fibre in them. Therefore, you could give up your traditional English breakfast of cereals with milk followed by sausage, bacon, eggs and fried bread and instead eat Scots porridge oats with water or low-fat milk followed by granary toast and cholesterol-reducing margarine. This step alone will also considerably alter your cholesterol levels.

If you like a steak for lunch sometimes, you may not have to give it up entirely, but if you usually order an eight ounce steak, order a four or six ounce one instead and if you have that four times a week, cut back to two instead. Replace the steak with meals of skinless chicken and fish. Omega 3 fish oil is thought to be a great ally in the fight against cholesterol.

If you eat a lot of junk food like greasy hamburgers and oily hot dogs, you will almost certainly have to give them up, but that is not a bad thing anyway. Strive to snack on citrus fruits as they are also your allies against LDL cholesterol.

It is not all doom and gloom on the dietary front for sufferers of cholesterol problems. The changes that will be suggested to you to sort out your cholesterol worries have probably already been suggested to you to sort out being over weight or having high blood pressure or even having diabetes.

They are fundamental, sensible minor lifestyle changes which will have a massive impact on a number of aspects of your body. The same is the case of exercise. Most individuals know that they ought to exercise more, it is just a pity that most of us have to have such a significant incentive before we do anything about it.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several subjects, but is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diet. If you want to know more, please visit our site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?

Whenever someone takes a cholesterol blood test, there will normally be four numbers given to you which refer to the levels for LDL (bad cholesterol), HDL (good cholesterol), triglycerides and total cholesterol. The doctor will be looking to see if any of these figures is considerably above the standard for your age and sex.

If they are rather high, then the medical doctor will make one of two recommendations. First of all, the GP should recommend lifestyle alterations but if these fail then it is a lifetime of tablets. Some individuals have cholesterol problems for genetic reasons and for these people, medication might be the only solution.

The most common lifestyle alterations that are normally recommended are dietary changes and exercise. If your readings are particularly high, you may have to take extreme measures to lower your cholesterol levels quickly.

Unfortunately, once people start taking anti-cholesterol tablets, they seldom come off them, so it is better to try other ways first of all. The predominant methods are decreasing dietary saturated fat and raising the degree of exercise dramatically.

Most people have an idea what cholesterol is and that it has two facets, but not a lot of people know what triglycerides are. Triglyceride is also a sort of fat and if it is in profusion, it is a frequent indication that cholesterol is high as well, which means that it is an indicator of possible future heart disease.

The quickest manner of reducing the levels of these fats in your blood is to stop eating saturated fats and trans fats. Red meats and full-fat dairy products are our foremost source of saturated fat. This means that if you want to engage the emergency brake, stop eating junk food, steak, pork, cheese and cream and stop drinking milk. You should also cut out trans fats which are hydrogenated vegetable oils as used in some margarines, pastry and crisps.

Putting an immediate block on these foods will have an immediate and spectacular impact on your cholesterol and triglyceride levels. If you need a spread on your bread, try one of those that actually reduce cholesterol levels rather than raise them.

The best thing is to start with breakfast. Forget anything fried; porridge is very good for you as is wholemeal bread. You can eat an occasional boiled, poached or scrambled egg, because it is a myth that eggs are dangerous to the sufferer from high cholesterol.

Steak and pork have to be restricted to very occasional treats, yet chicken without skin is not very bad for you and fish is positively good. Try to boil, grill or steam food rather than fry it yet if you need to use oil, use olive oil.

Fresh fruit, vegetables and grains are great allies in the battle against high cholesterol, but so is exercise. Exercise does not have to be energetic, a half-hour’s walk in the morning and the evening will help a lot. If you cannot find the motivation, adopt a dog.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several subjects, but is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diet. If you want to know more, please visit our site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?