The best way to lower your cholesterol with diet is to first eliminate certain types of foods altogether, says nutrition expert Dr. Neal Barnard. To find out what to cut, and the cholesterol lowering foods you should eat instead, watch this video.
Sometimes people will say to me, my cholesterol is so high, it must be genetic. I use a food approach first, and here's what I do. I take out all the animal products first, that means the meat, the diary and the eggs. Why? Because they all contain cholesterol. Plant products don't, so we're eating grains, beans, vegetables and fruits.
I also try to keep the oils very low. For 90% of people, their cholesterol levels fall so much that they really probably don't need cholesterol lowering drugs. So that's the food approach. The things to emphasize, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, because they don't have cholesterol, they have fiber to help carry cholesterol away.
The things we avoid during this test period are the meats, the dairy products, the eggs. When your cholesterol comes down you think, why was I eating all that stuff? It's a natural approach.
Healthy cholesterol helps prevent cardiovascular disease. Get tips to lower high cholesterol with diet, exercise and medication, to protect your heart and reduce your stroke risk. Learn about the difference between HDL and LDL cholesterol.
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