How to Improve Your Cholesterol
Lower Your Litoprotein Levels
Learning how to improve your cholesterol can extend your life by years, if not decades.
Not only that, lowering your cholesterol levels will improve the quality of your life.
Maybe both of those facts are axiomatic, but people who are trying to reduce their cholesterol numbers should be reminded that their life will improve, even if they don’t get to eat everything they’ve grown used to over the years.
When I list off a group of cholesterol improvement suggestions, you’re either going to completely revolt at the notion or try an unrealistic attempt to cut everything out of your diet, setting yourself up for a backslide.
Unless a severe medical condition has brought you to this article, I suggest you choose a half-dozen of the tips and try them out first. Take realistic steps to improve your health, then make incremental improvements as your body and mind adjust to the changes in your lifestyle.
Quick Cholesterol How-To Chart
Below is a quick set of tips for improving your cholesterol. While living healthier entails more than what’s on this list, if you can follow most or all of the following items, you should be in pretty good shape. That might be harder done than said.
- Eat Smaller Portions
- Eat Smaller Evening Meals
- Eat Less Red Meat
- Eat More Fish
- Eat Few Egg Yolks
- Eat Whole Breads and Cracker
- Eat Whole Grain Pasta
- Eat Whole Grain Cereal
- Eat More Legumes
- Don’t Eat Fried Foods
- Eat Less Saturated Fat
- Eat Only 3-4 Ounces of Fish
- Eat Only 3-4 Ounces of Poultry
- Eat More Soy Products
- Eat Much Less Refined Sugar
- Eat Less White Flour
- Eat Less Sugar of All Types
- Eat Fewer Fatty Condiments
- Drink Less Alcohol
That’s a daunting list of directions. Anyone with high cholesterol is better off consuming no alcohol whatsoever, but most of us already assumed that drinking alcoholic beverages is something not done optimally, anyway. Reduce as much as you can. In cases where you don’t feel you can cut foods out cold turkey, make an effort to reduce intake and reduce as much as you can.
In the case of the egg yolks, I’d suggest eating no more than two or three of these in a week’s time. Legumes include black-eyed peas and lentils, which are among some of the healthiest beans to eat. Refined sugars tend to be the sugars you find in candy, cookies, cakes, and a myriad of other goodies. It’s hard to avoid sweets altogether if you have a sweet tooth, but try to replace some of the refined sugars with fruits instead.
What is a Good Cholesterol Level?
There is no one answer for that question, so I’ll talk in generalities here. For your average person, a low-density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol level under 130 milligrams per deciliter of blood is best. If you are considered to be an “at risk” patient, your LDL cholesterol level may need to be significantly lower.
For instance, someone with a history of heart problems or who’s had a heart attack in the past may need a cholesterol level in the 70 mg/dl range. Other risk factors that might change your optimum level of cholesterol includes smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure. If you smoke habitually or you have either diabetes or high blood pressure, you need to keep your cholesterol level lower. Smoking hardens your vascular system, so when you have hardened arteries combined with high cholesterol, that’s a recipe for disaster.
What Is Low-Density Cholesterol?
LDL is considered the bad cholesterol, so this is the one most people look at when getting their cholesterol level checked. That doesn’t mean you should totally disregard your other cholesterol, though.
High-Density Cholesterol
HDL cholesterol is the good cholesterol (or is considered as such), because its appearance in large amounts tends to unclog your arteries. As a general rule, the higher this count goes, the better. But if your total cholesterol count (LDL and HDL combined) goes above 200 mg/dl, then you are still considered to have a high cholesterol levels.