Cholesterol,low cholesterol diet

What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a waxy substance the body uses to protect nerves, make tissues and produce certain hormones. Our liver makes most of the cholesterol in the body. Some cholesterol also comes from foods such as eggs, meats and dairy products.

Cholesterol is an essential ingredient of many physiological body functions.For example, it helps produce bile, combines hormones and vitamin D, and metabolises fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K). It is, therefore, important to keep cholesterol levels within an ideal range, not too low and not too high.

Good or Bad?

Cholesterol can be both good and bad however in many cases, high level of Cholesterol is always dangerous. So it becomes necessary to know how it affects your health and how to manage your blood cholesterol levels. Understanding the facts about cholesterol will help you take better care of your heart and live a healthier life, also it may reduce your risk for heart attack and stroke.

If your total cholesterol is less than 200 mg/dL, the risk of heart attack can be minimized with balanced low saturated diet and regular physical activity.

A low cholesterol diet can prevent illness

A low cholesterol diet can prevent illness and allow you to live a healthy life. Building this type of diet into your lifestyle can be the foundation for an excellent preventive program that is dedicated to giving you and your family many more healthy years.

Prevention is key. We need to institute programs that detect health risks early and prevent them from becoming life threatening diseases. Low cholesterol diet programs can go hand in hand with preventive diagnostics, health risk assessments, counseling and intervention.

Research has confirmed the undeniable relationship between cholesterol and heart disease. Studies have also verified the fact that too much LDL cholesterol leads to heart attack and stroke.

It must be conceded though that there are many causes of heart disease. However it is abundantly clear that when your LDL is high so is your risk for heart attack or stroke.

Diet

Despite the ATP-III’s endorsement, however, there has been no ”real-world” data that documents the LDL-lowering effectiveness of combinations of fibres and other foods added to an AHA Step II low-fat diet (fat 30% of calories). The diet advocated by the American Heart Association lowers cholesterol around 7%. Including ? cup of oat bran a day in your diet can powerfully lower cholesterol.

If you would like to find out whether you are one of the 80 percent of people who can control high blood pressure or cholesterol with diet alone, have your doctor give you your current numbers. Diet for just two weeks, then have your doctor re-check your cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure. These include diet therapy, weight loss and regular physical activity.

Psyllium or Metamucil is a soluble plant fibre and laxative that prevents cholesterol from your diet getting into the blood. Others may need to diet and the help of medications prescribed by their doctor. Changing your diet to lose weight is not the same as changing your diet to control your cholesterol level.