Managing Our Cholesterol Levels Is As Easy As Managing Our Diets

Eating Your Way Out Of High Cholesterol

Controlling cholesterol in the human body is often as simple as controlling the intake of the fat vs. fibre-ratio. Doing this, coupled with regular exercise, literally helps the body take care of its own cholesterol levels. Exercise is important and so is building stamina– but diet is the number one factor to taken into account.

If nothing else, the most important thing to remember is that a diet (way of eating) high in what we call “saturated fats” raises the levels of cholesterol in the body, and a diet high in “unsaturated fats” lowers the levels of cholesterol in the body. It really is as simple as that.

About Saturated Fats

Cholesterol is, in fact, a saturated fat, and a saturated fat only ever found in foods we get from animals – meat, eggs, and dairy products. The math of the matter dictates that eating too much of these types of food increases the amount of cholesterol in the body.

The good news is that there are foods that can help us drastically reduce the cholesterol levels in our bodies and in our blood:

• Grains typically contain very small amounts of fat – mostly only about 3 per cent of their weight. Also, most of the fats found in grains are the types of fat that lower our cholesterol levels. And since grains are filling, they’re a great way to get a healthy diet off to a fantastic start.
• Dairy products really do vary a great deal from one product to the next. Some, for example whole-cream milk and whole-milk cheeses, are high in fat. A great alternative would be skim or low-fat milk. Since milk is a great way to top up the body’s calcium levels, it’s always a good idea to try and balance it out by sticking to low-fat dairy products instead of cutting dairy completely out of the diet.
• Veggies and fruits. These types of food groups both classify as unsaturated fats. What’s more, veggies and fruits have only traces of fats. Filling up on these is always a good idea.
• Meat and poultry. Most of the fats found in meat are saturated fats – i.e. “bad” fats. Healthier options would be chicken and turkey. And by removing the skin, the remaining fat content can be lowered even further.
• Fish and shellfish. These two foods make for an interesting topic from a cholesterol point of view. Even though fish such as salmon, herring, sardines, and trout are high in fat, their fats are “good” because of being high in omega-3 fatty acids.

 About Omega-3 Fatty Acids

The really great thing about Omega-3 fatty acids is that they are good for more than just lowering the levels of bad cholesterol in the body.

Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to fight anxiety and depression, improve the health of our eyes, improve our risk factors for developing heart disease, and even help fight auto immune diseases and inflammation in the body. They’re as good as the best gaming sites, only in food form!

They can even help us sleep better – making of them really “good guys” all round.