The best diet for lowering cholesterol
I have high cholesterol. My father had high cholesterol. His father had high cholesterol, and his father’s father probably had high cholesterol too. So I know a few things about this subject.
Back six or seven years ago I didn’t have high cholesterol, and the idea of changing my diet for lowering cholesterol never was a concern. But when I hit my mid-20s, somehting happened. My metabolism slowed down, my hairline receded, and every six months my cholesterol would go up 10 percent or so. It got to the point that I could predict, within a point or two, what my cholesterol would be before I even set foot in the doctor’s office.
It happens as you get older. Your body changes, and the ability to eat steak five nights a week is something that disappears with that change. Like many before me, I needed to find a diet for lowering cholesterol or face going on medication like crestor or lipitor. That’s something I didn’t want to have to deal with.
So I changed what I ate. Red meat, which I love more than any other food in the world, was the first to go. The beef you get at the store is, simply put, very bad for you. No diet for lowering cholesterol includes it. Not only does it come from cows that are injected with hormones and never allowed to move more than a few feet at a time, but it comes from animals that are fed strictly grains. And grain fed beef is five times higher in saturated fats than grass fed beef. This is largely because cows haven’t evolved to eat and process grains the way they have grasses.
Also excised from my diet were all dairy products. Cheese, sour cream, milk, and of course stuff like ice cream, just couldn’t make the cut. This isn’t to say that I never ate any of the above, but it means that it’s not a regular part of my food choices. I’d maybe eat red meat twice a month, and the same for dairy. It seems like a sacrifice at first, but you get used to it in a hurry. Esepcially when the alternative is an early death, or a lifetime of popping pills to stay healthy.
I made other additions and subtractions to my diet for lowering cholesterol, of course. No more fried foods, no more processed foods, no more transfats. Instead I made sure to eat lean proteins like white meat chicken and fish, and fresh vegetables and fruits instead of the prepackaged junk. And of course, anything with high fructose corn syrup was right out.
