Best Diet Tips and Websites to Help You Reduce Cholesterol

About the time you turn thirty, maybe even younger if you hit the beer hard or smoke, you begin to hear from your doctor that you need to reduce your cholesterol or suffer the consequences. My family has a history of heart disease and early deaths in my grandparents due to heart attack. My dad got the bad news about reducing his lipids when he had his first angina attack at 37. Combined with too much sugar, cholesterol shows up as a high lipid count. The consequences of failing to reduce your cholesterol are heart attack, angina, bypass surgery, and a slew of expensive medicines that interfere with the way your body operates. Think sex problems.

Foods that lower Cholesterol

Oatmeal is one of the best foods that help to lower cholesterol. A number of cereals and breads are made now with oatmeal and are a good way to start your morning or to stop sugar cravings at night. Butter was blasted early on for contributing to cholesterol is now approved by most heart doctors because the good fats outweigh the bad fats.

Diet tips to lower cholesterol

You will probably have to change some of your dietary habits in order to lower your cholesterol. These tips will help:

Don't mix meat and cheese. Both are high in cholesterol and chances are you are getting more protein than needed along with a great deal of fat and sugar in the form of the crust. If eating pizza, order the simplest type and add vegetables.

Eat low fat cheese if you're going to eat cheese. They make a mozzarella cheese that is the lowest in fats of all cheeses that is tasty and works well on sandwiches and pizzas with the side benefit you lower your cholesterol.

To reduce your cholesterol, cut back on the amount of protein you eat. Eight ounces of meat per day is sufficient for most active males, including my dad's case at 6' and 200 lbs.

Limit the amount of nuts you eat to help lower your cholesterol. Nuts are healthy and needed in your diet, but they replace all your diet calories for breads, protein and fats. Think twice before you toss down that handful of peanuts and decide if you really want it instead of a hamburger.

If you have the urge to snack on fattening salty snacks such as potato chips or corn chips, mix them with a cup of cheerios or other cereal made with oatmeal.

Minimize the number of eggs you eat per week to reduce your cholestrol. Replace a dinner with eggs instead of eating them for breakfast.

Minimize your intake of sausage, bacon, and salami, which all contribute to high cholesterol.

Baked goods are the largest source of cholesterol and sugar in most American diets. If you must eat a cookie, choose a low cholesterol brand and limit them to lunch time.

Limit the amount of ice cream you eat and replace it with pudding made with lowfat milk or chocolate syrup topped fruit.

Eat your most of your protein when you need it the most, early in the day to help power your brain and muscles. Eating meals late at night will tend to sit on your body and not digest as well.

When eating seafood to lower cholesterol, remember they are talking about light, white fishes and not about salmon, trout, lobster, or prawns which all have higher levels of cholesterol. Choose cod, redfish or red snapper, flounder, bass. Grilling your fish with a light amount of butter and lemon juice will make it tastier. Limit your intake of the higher cholesterol seafoods and shellfish.

When stir frying food, use a spray of a low-cholestoral or low fat cooking oil on your low stick pans, then add orange juice or sherry to help flavor the food and steam it done.

Natural foods to lower cholesterol

Cinnamon is known to help lower cholesterol and aid in digestion of sugars. Increase the percentage of cinnamon in you cinnamon-sugar topping for cereals and breads.

Olive oil is the best oil to use in cooking your food. Replace butter and lard in your recipes with olive oil.

Low cholesterol diet menus

Your doctor or dietician can provide you with a low cholesterol diet plan. The key tip behind low cholesterol diet plans is to vary your menu. Alternate meals with chicken, fish, beef, and pork. Find low cholesterol diet plans and recipes rather than just advice at the following web sites:

Ediets : Features 5-star Low cholesterol meal diet menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

Dr. Gourmet: Features recipes with hints about a variety of problems including cholestrol

Apollo Health Education : Features several recipes and advice about a specific issue in a low cholesterol diet.

Food Fit.com : 600 low-fat recipes plus advice about making ingredient replacements for low cholesterol diet recipes.

HealthCentral has a variety of articles including this one with a specific menu to lower cholesterol.