When you have too high cholesterol, changing your eating habits is essential. The objective: to get as close as possible to the Mediterranean diet. Here are the top 6 keys to lower your cholesterol.
Summary for 6 Keys to lower cholesterol
- Give pride of place to fibres
- Focus on antioxidants
- Watch your omega-3 intake
- Prefer lean meats
- Select the right dairy products
- Moderate sugar
“By making the right food choices, we can act on the” cholesterol parameter “, but the objective should not stop there: it is cardiovascular health in the broad sense that we must aim for”, believes, as well other specialists. And on this point, the Mediterranean diet is far ahead of other nutritional models.
1. Give pride of place to fibres
By increasing satiety, fibers promote weight loss, which can lead to a 5 to 15% drop in LDL, the “bad” cholesterol.
“Among the fibres, the so-called soluble fibres also have the capacity, by binding to cholesterol in the intestine, to facilitate its elimination by the stools”, explain experts.
- Mediterranean Diet: 6 keys to lower cholesterol
- They are found in all fruits and vegetables. Apple, pear, dried fig, berries, banana, grape, orange, peach are particularly rich in soluble fibre and, in the vegetable category, chicory, onion, garlic, leek, asparagus, artichoke, Jerusalem artichoke, salsify, endive, turnip, eggplant.
- They are found in legumes: lentils, chickpeas, dried beans, beans … which also provide magnesium and potassium, involved in the regulation of blood pressure. Soy contains proteins that reduce LDL-cholesterol levels by 2 to 3%, according to several studies.
- Oats (bran, flakes, flour) and barley (pearl, hulled) are particularly rich in beta-glucan, a very viscous soluble fibre which, at a rate of 3 g per day (equivalent to 30 to 40gm oats or barley), lowers total cholesterol and LDL.
2. Focus on Antioxidants
Polyphenols, carotenoids, vitamins A, C and E reduce the oxidation of LDL and thus limit their atherogenic power. Polyphenols also have vasodilatory properties.
They are found –
- in fruits and vegetables;
- in nuts, which combine other cardioprotective elements (phytosterols, soluble fibres, monounsaturated fatty acids, vegetable proteins). Several studies have shown that almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts increase HDL and lower LDL.
3. Watch your Omega-3 intake
Because they are beneficial to arterial health as a whole! “They also lower triglycerides slightly, which increases HDL. “
They are found –
- Mediterranean diet: 6 keys to lower cholesterol
- in rapeseed oil.
- in nuts and walnut oil.
- and especially in fatty fish (sardines, herring, salmon, anchovies, trout, etc.), the species and places of supply (wild, farm, etc.) must be varied to limit the risk of overexposure to chem0ical contamination. Lean fish and seafood are also interesting.
4. Prefer lean meats
Poultry, veal and rabbit are excellent sources of protein and contain far less saturated fat than other red meats and deli meats.
Little present in the traditional Mediterranean diet, the significant consumption of red meat and processed meats (including cold meats) is also associated with an increased risk of infarction and colorectal cancer. If it is difficult to eat little, choose the least fatty pieces: 5% minced steak, rib eye, beef bourguignon, roast beef, tenderloin, roast veal, filet mignon, roast pork.
5. Select the right dairy products
“The saturated fatty acids of fermented milk products (cheeses and yogurts) are less absorbed in the intestines than those of butter and cream,” said expert.
In addition, they are not all atherogenic. Clearly, the first, consumed reasonably, do not increase or little cholesterolemia, unlike the second.
The ideal would be to replace the butter with margarine based on rapeseed oil (omega-3) or olive (polyphenols). But if you can’t do without it, you have to be parsimonious.
Mediterranean diet : 6 keys to lower cholesterol
6. Moderate sugar
“It does not directly modify cholesterol, but promotes weight gain, which increases total cholesterol and especially triglycerides, which has the effect of lowering HDL (the” good “cholesterol)”, reports experts.
In case of high triglycerides, he even advises to limit himself to one fruit per day, because fructose risks to make them climb again.
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