How Does Soluble Fiber Lower Blood Cholesterol Levels?

… Continuing …

1. Start it gradually to allow your digestive system gets used with the change!
2. Fruit juices are yummy in taste. If you love them a lot, it is great. But eating a whole fruit is much better. So, make sure to get most of your choices with eating whole fruits instead of fruit juices. Try eating a whole fruit at every meal!
3. Choose complex carbohydrates instead of simple carbohydrates. Though not all complex carbohydrates are high in fiber, at least they can help control your weight. They can provide a steady energy throughout the day since they are slowly digested. So, choose whole grains and brown rice instead of pasta, bread, white rice or other simple carbohydrates.
4. Choose healthy snacks! Raw vegetables are one of good choices you should prioritize instead of crackers and chips.
5. Take 2-3 times /week of substituting legumes for meat – this is simple idea but can be helpful enough to boost your fiber intake.
6. If you love salads, stews, or even soups – these can be good for your fiber intake. You can add more nuts, legumes, beans, or seeds.
7. For better result, you can try with a vegetarian meal once a week. This can help you in loving more veggies.

Trying with some international dishes that use legumes or/and whole grains as the part of the major meal are also great idea. There are several choices such as Middle-Eastern dishes.

To get your best result in lowering your LDL and improving your HDL (good cholesterol), it’s also much better to educate yourself about foods that can increase your LDL. It can be great if you get plenty of soluble fiber along with diet low in saturated fat & cholesterol.

The following are 3 major groups of foods that can raise your LDL.

Many studies found that the effect of dietary saturated fats is much greater than dietary cholesterol. Therefore, foods high in saturated fats is the top list you should restrict in your diet.

Fatty cut of meat, organ meats, skin of poultry, butter, coconut & palm oil, and lard are some common foods high in saturated fats.

As the name suggests, these foods contain many cholesterols. That’s why they can affect the amounts of cholesterols in your bloodstream – though not as much as saturated fats.

These foods include egg (especially in egg yolk – egg whites don’t contain any cholesterol), beef liver, cheddar cheese, butter, and whole milk products. Some foods high in cholesterols are also high in saturated fats.

Trans-fat is commonly used to enhance and expand the texture, shelf-life and flavor of many processed foods in this modern living (from frozen pizza to cookies).

Yap, foods with trans-fat are yummy in taste – but they come with a serious health risk because excessive consumption of trans-fat can raise your cholesterol and blood pressure.

Though most of trans-fat usually comes from processed foods, but they also can be found naturally in some foods such as lamb, full-fat dairy products, and beef. Processed foods that are high in trans-fat usually come from processing liquid vegetable oil (like coconut /palm oil). The use of canola oil /olive oil is much healthier than the use of palm /coconut oil.

According to the American Heart Association, your trans-fat intake should be less than 1 percent of your total calories. For instance, if you are an individual who require about 1,500 calories /day, your trans-fat intake should be not more than 15 calories!