Lower Cholesterol Naturally With These Tips and Foods -Real Food for Life

It is important to learn how to lower high cholesterol as it is linked to heart disease and stroke, both of which are leading causes of death in the world. Let’s learn what cholesterol is and what creates high cholesterol. Also, below you will learn how to lower it naturally with 10 foods.

There are no obvious early symptoms of high blood cholesterol to help you be aware that you have it. It is best to get it checked to reduce your risk of developing a stroke or heart disease.

Did You Know That Bad Cholesterol Affects Your Memory? Another good reason to learn how to change this.

“Seventy-one million American adults have high cholesterol, but only one-third of them have the condition under control,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

What is cholesterol?

It is a waxy, fat-like substance that your body needs to function.

Helps to make the outer coating of cells.
Makes up the bile acids that work to digest food in the intestine.
Allows the body to make Vitamin D and hormones, like estrogen in women and testosterone in men.

It has been found that too much of this fat-like substance cholesterol can build up on the walls of your arteries and form blockages under certain conditions. This can lead to heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

There are two kinds of cholesterol:

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) called ‘good cholesterol’.
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) called ‘bad cholesterol’.

Safe and Unsafe Levels of Cholesterol

The infographic below reveals safe and unsafe levels:

What Makes High Cholesterol

Learn what you can do to prevent high cholesterol or to reduce your bad cholesterol level. What we eat is a major cause of build-up in the body.

9 Things That Commonly Cause An Increase

1. Saturated fats and oils. Limit butter, bacon drippings, lard, and palm oil consumption.

2. Excessive weight. Being overweight can increase your bad cholesterol level.

3. Avoid trans fats and hydrogenated vegetable oils found in some hard kinds of margarine, snack crackers, cookies, chips, and shortenings.

4. Drink alcohol in moderation. When you drink alcohol you increase the number of free radicals in your body and create a toxic environment for your liver. The moderate use of alcohol may increase your levels of HDL cholesterol but does not lower LDL cholesterol.

5. Limit fatty meats. Stay away from bacon, corned beef, ground meat, steak, hot dogs, sausages, and processed meats like bologna.

6. Don’t smoke. “A chemical found in cigarettes called acrolein stops HDL from transporting fatty deposits to the liver, leading to narrowing of the arteries,” according to NHS UK.

7. Reduce Caffeine. Caffeine stimulates your body and raises your heart rate.

8. Eliminate snacks made with saturated or hydrogenated fat. Skip foods like crackers, muffins, quick bread, croissants, and cake.

9. Avoid fast foods. Fries, hamburgers, fried chicken, and tacos are high in total fat and saturated fat.

It is obvious from the above list that it is usually unhealthy foods that are the culprit when it comes to healthy cholesterol levels. Almost EVERY degenerative disease is related to an unhealthy lifestyle.

Let’s Learn How to Lower High Cholesterol or Reduce Bad Levels

10 Foods to Naturally Decrease High Cholesterol

1. Oats are full of soluble fiber which helps bring down bad cholesterol and keeps arteries flexible. Manufacturers of oats and oatmeal are allowed to state these products are “heart-healthy” by the FDA. Warning: adding enough sugar and fat in breakfast cereals and oatmeal bars turns oatmeal into a portion of junk food.

2. Walnuts, almonds, and other nuts are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. In a 2014 study, those who ate 1.5 ounces of whole walnuts 6 days a week for 1 month lowered their total cholesterol by 5.4 percent and LDL cholesterol by 9.3 percent. The nuts were not salted or coated with sugar.

3. Eat your beans. Eating 4.5 ounces of cooked beans daily lowered bad cholesterol by five percent. Beans ar also known as pulses are vegan superfoods that come in many shapes, sizes, and colours such as lentils, chickpeas, black beans, and kidney beans to name a few. Learn more: Pulses Are Red, White, Orange, and Brown Superfoods

4. Eat fruit. Gravitate toward citrus, which is full of pectin. Pectin turns into a soluble fiber to carry the cholesterol out of your body. Other fruits like apples and grapes can help raise the level of antioxidants in your blood and reduce cholesterol’s ability to do any damage. Keep in mind, fresh fruit is much better than canned.

5. Drink tea to help to keep blood vessels relaxed and prevent blood clots. The flavonoids in tea prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol that leads to plaque formation on artery walls.

6. Chocolate is full of powerful antioxidants and helps build HDL cholesterol levels. A 2007 study found that those who were given cocoa powder had a 24 percent increase in HDL levels, compared with a 5 percent increase in the control group. Note they eat cocoa, not chocolate bars full of sugar and milk.

7. Spinach contains lots of lutein. Research suggests that just 1/2 cup of a lutein-rich food daily, guards against heart attacks by preventing artery walls from getting clogged.

8. Avocados are full of monounsaturated fat, which may actually help raise HDL cholesterol while lowering LDL. This superfood is full of beta-sitosterol, a beneficial plant-based fat that reduces the amount of cholesterol absorbed from food. Avocados are high in calories and fat so try to stick to one per day.

9. Garlic can lower cholesterol, prevent blood clots, and lower high blood pressure. Garlic also prevents artery-clogging plaque in its early stage by keeping cholesterol particles from sticking to artery walls.

12 Health Benefits of Olive Oil With Infographic

10. Olive oil is full of monounsaturated fatty acids which lower LDL cholesterol. Bonus: they help trim belly fat! Make your own Healthy Salad Dressings with olive oil.

Bonus Food: salmon & fatty fish are full of omega-3 fats that have been found to lower cholesterol. Replacing saturated fats with omega-3s like those found in salmon, sardines, and herring can raise good cholesterol as much as 4 percent according to research from Loma Linda University. This is for you non-vegetarians.

Also important:

Physical exercise may lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol levels.

Go for walks every day and try to do 2 or 3 each and every day.

Not only will it help with cholesterol, but you will also feel good being out in the fresh air.

Conclusion:

When we eat ‘Real Food‘ we are deeply nourishing our body for good health. The body has tremendous powers for regeneration and healing. When you just give it the proper fuel, your body can take care of the details by itself. One of those details is strength and balance within our circulatory system.

Here is How to Get Those Helpful Foods Into You

1. Oats are full of soluble fiber which helps bring down bad cholesterol and keep arteries flexible.

I like old fashioned oats because they have a fuller flavour and are more nutritious. You can eat oatmeal as a raw meal or make it into regular porridge. Since they take longer to cook, I often soak them overnight, but you don’t have to. Here is the recipe: Oatmeal Cinnamon Porridge & Sultanas

2. Nuts are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. In a 2014 study, those who ate 1.5 ounces of whole walnuts 6 days a week for 1 month lowered their total cholesterol by 5.4 percent and LDL cholesterol by 9.3 percent.

I love my homemade almond milk. It’s healthier than almond milk you can buy. I only use all-natural healthy ingredients and no sugar! Almonds are the only nuts that are alkaline-forming.
Recipe: Almond Milk: Healthy Dairy Free Alternative

3. Beans: Eating just 4.5 ounces of cooked beans daily lowered bad cholesterol by five percent.

Chili Con Veggie This is my very tasty vegan chili recipe which is always enjoyed whenever I serve it. It is full of delicious superfoods so it is very healthy.

White Bean Vegetable Stew My white bean vegetable stew is a delicious, healthy vegan protein meal filled with vegetables. This stew is high in potassium for those of you who need a boost in that area.

Creamy Chickpea and Rice Pie This chickpea pie is a very tasty meal which does take a little extra time to prepare but it is worth it. The great news is that it is dairy-free meaning it is vegan and gluten-free too!

Delicious Black Bean Stew This black bean stew is delicious and so good for a cold fall or winter day. It is delicious and easy to make and filled with nutritious superfood ingredients. Black beans are a favourite bean of mine.

Adzuki Vegetable Bean Stew This adzuki bean stew is a simple recipe made with one of the easiest to digest beans; adzuki beans. I love Adzuki beans and this tasty stew is filling and delicious.

3. Greens. Spinach is a great and easy healthy choice. It contains lots of lutein. Research suggests that just 1/2 cup of lutein-rich food daily guards against heart attacks by preventing artery walls from getting clogged.

Greens are the highest alkaline-forming foods and they are full of vitamins A, K, and D. Adding spinach to your meal is an excellent way to alkalize your diet. This is a very simple and tasty salad that is full of superfoods. Here is the recipe: Power Spinach Salad.

4. Garlic can lower cholesterol, prevent blood clots, and lower high blood pressure. Garlic also prevents artery-clogging plaque in its early stage by keeping cholesterol particles from sticking to artery walls.

Try this recipe Simple Garlic Zucchini This is a very simple recipe and very tasty if you like garlic. The first time I saw it being prepared was by a friend in my hippy days. I watched with amazement while he added clove after clove of garlic. I’m sure he put in more than I’ve listed below! In those days, the idea was to eat as much of garlic as we could for all of its health benefits.

5. Avocados are full of monounsaturated fat, which may actually help raise HDL cholesterol while lowering LDL.

Avocado Vegetable Dip is Delicious What I like about this raw avocado vegetable dip is that it is full of vegetables; adding the celery makes it crunchy and not so rich as well as healthier.

Tasty Vegan Sandwich with Avocado, Cucumber and Pumpkin Seeds This vegan sandwich is great for a quick simple lunch or snack, some even like it for breakfast. The avocado adds creaminess, the cucumber is juicy and the pumpkin seeds add a salty crunch. It is so tasty and I like how easy it is to make.

Very Healthy Green Salad with Grapes and Avocado – This green salad with grapes and avocado makes a delicious refreshing lunch or as a first course for a bigger meal. It is very nutritious with all the greens. Adding the grapes gives it a sweetness and the avocado a creaminess.

6. Olive oil is full of monounsaturated fatty acids which lower LDL cholesterol. Bonus: they help trim belly fat! Make your own Healthy Salad Dressings with olive oil.

Now we get two helpful ingredients in one recipe: olive oil and avocados!

This is avocado tomato salad dressing is an easy way to jazz up any salad! It is a base recipe that you can alter with your choice of herbs or salty flavors. Also, it’s enough for 3 salads.
Here is the recipe Avocado Tomato Salad Dressing

7. Chocolate is full of powerful antioxidants and helps build HDL cholesterol levels. Note: eat cocoa, not chocolate bars full of sugar and milk.

Join the Healthy Chocolate Project to learn how to make healthy chocolate. All vegan and only small amounts of healthy sugars are used. A couple of the recipes are raw too.

Cherry Pecan Dark Chocolate Bar – This is totally decadent chocolate that everyone loves that I gave samples to. This is just one of the recipes from the Chocolate Project where I carefully teach you how to make all the healthy chocolate you would ever want.

Check out this:

Recipes To Lower High Cholesterol That Are Delicious and Healthy

Those are a few steps that will help reduce cholesterol.

Getting some help is good too. All my courses naturally help people to create a healthier diet and lifestyle that will naturally decrease things like ‘bad’ cholesterol.

Check out the 2 5 30 Courses.

All the recipes at Real Food For Life are exceptionally balanced and healthy for all situations. I also teach people how to plan and prepare healthy meals online.