• Using Low Cholesterol Recipes To Lower Cholesterol

    Date: 2010.01.08 | Category: Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,

    If you have recently seen your doctor for the results of your cholesterol blood test, then it’s probably because you have some valid concerns about your diet, the role cholesterol plays in your diet, and have lots of questions about which foods lower cholesterol and how you can adapt your recipes to a more cholesterol friendly diet.

    Now, eating a healthy diet needn’t be as complicated as you may think. Basically you should be eating a diet that is rich in lots of fresh fruits and vegetables (the healthy carbohydrates), as well as protein from legumes (dried beans, peas and lentils), and meats or dairy products.

    But this is where the trouble starts. Animal products, and this includes butter, meat, poultry, eggs and cheese, everything that comes from an animal contain cholesterol, with butter, egg yolks and red meats having the highest cholesterol levels.

    For your recipes and your cooking, you should try to include as many low cholesterol foods as you can, while you also work on lowering the volume of high cholesterol foods.

    This will result in a decreasing of the risk that you have for heart attacks and strokes.

    The protein that these foods provide is very important for the health of your internal organs, and for building strong muscles and tendons, as well as maintaining blood, hair and bones. So, somehow you still need to have this protein in your daily foods, but it shouldn’t be from high cholesterol foods available. Seafood can also provide you with protein, and seafood is a good source too, especially sardines, salmon and herring which contain the omega 3 fatty acids that your body also needs.

    Milk also contains protein, but because it is an animal product it too has fat so you need to drink skim milk, or 1% milk in place of whole milk or 2%. If your relatives are used to drinking the higher fat milk, you may get some complaints initially, but given time, if you still buy the better choices, they will probably come to accept it.

    Instead of cooking with butter (animal product), try using olive oil (plant product) in its place, especially the virgin olive oil which is processed less than the light olive oils. You should note that the light olive oil refers to the color, and not the number of calories it contains – very misleading when we usually use light meaning less calories.

    One way of lowering the fat level in baking is to use apple sauce, pureed prunes, or mashed bananas instead of the fat, and this also increases your fruit in your diet too.

    Nuts are good for you when you are worried about lowering your cholesterol, but only eat a handful a day, or you will be eating too many calories which is never a good idea.

    When you are preparing hamburgers, put in some oats, as this is a good food to help you lower your cholesterol. Pulses are legumes as they are also called, or more commonly, dried beans, peas and lentils are also good foods to lower cholesterol and they contain soluble fibre, as do barley, pears and apples.

    There are a lot more hints and tips about low cholesterol foods as well as foods to lower cholesterol with recipes here .