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Dr. Helen is having some cholesterol hell. She wants to keep her LDL cholesterol low and HDL cholesterol high, and having suffered a heart attack in the past this is of the utmost importance. The product she was using was Benecol Smart Chews, which, judging by the nutrition facts, don’t seem to have anything particularly wrong with them. It uses plant sterols, proven to lower LDL cholesterol in the human body. Yet her LDL cholesterol and triglycerides level went up. What gives?

Whatever the reason, cholesterol is something you should try to keep in check whether young or old. Sometimes, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol come from crazy places you wouldn’t even think of. Below are my tips for getting your cholesterol under control through the use of a good diet, exercise, and supplements.

Avoid Processed Foods and Artificial Sweeteners

This is so hard to do nowadays because almost everything is processed and almost everything has corn syrup in it (even the chews!). Processed foods like corn syrup — and even white bread and white pasta — are turned into glucose (sugar) rapidly by the body. Excess sugar that your body doesn’t use fast enough will be turned into fat. In this case, most often these foods will be turned into triglycerides, a kind of fat that is easy to burn off but is detrimental to your health.

Buy truly whole grain products whenever possible to avoid this affect on the body.

Limit Your Alcohol Consumption

Certain alcohol beverages, such as beer and especially wine, have been shown to have incredible health benefits in moderation. A couple glasses of wine a day is no problem. However, when you drink alcohol, the liver prioritizes the metabolism of alcohol over other substances such as glucose. This results in even more glucose than usual being converted into triglycerides. This will happen especially when drinking cocktails that involve fruit juices and syrups. This is especially a warning to all the college students out there!

Eat Your Fiber

This can’t be stressed more. Fruits, vegetables, and legumes have so many different qualities that are amazing that they shouldn’t be passed up on. In terms of helping with your cholesterol, there are some benefits that your greens can give you that few foods can. The soluble fiber in fruits and legumes, as well as oatmeal, form gelatinous substances in the intestine and bind with cholesterol so that it is removed rather than absorbed. Eating just 15 grams of soluble fiber a day can reduce your LDL cholesterol by 10-15% over time.

Exercise and You Won’t Be Sorry

A regular regimen of exercise is extremely helpful in burning off triglycerides and reducing LDL cholesterol while boosting HDL cholesterol. There is no doubt that cardiovascular exercise as well as weight training reduces inflammation, excess fat, and LDL cholesterol. Truly, any amount of exercise is beneficial but those who do it regularly will see the most benefit. You need to remember though that the heart is also a muscle, and while it may seem strange, a whey protein shake after a jog is just what it needs to build itself stronger than ever before.

Get Acquainted with the Good Fats, Throw Out the Bad

A supplement with plant sterols alone is not going to do the trick — essential fatty acids have the most control over your cholesterol levels. Before I say anything, I just wanted everyone to know that I am extremely biased against low/no fat diets. I think they are ridiculous and led to a generation of people coming down with cardiovascular diseases. That’s because fat in your diet is so absolutely necessary that you can’t afford to cut it out. In terms of cholesterol, fat can save your life if you eat the right kinds. So what are they?

Monounsaturated fats are what you want the most of in terms of lowering LDL cholesterol. When eating a salad or some whole wheat pasta, feel free to drizzle a good helping of extra virgin olive oil. Salad dressings based on olive oil are also good. Seriously, olive oil is amazing and shouldn’t be passed up on.

You should also make sure to get a large amount of your essential oils from food sources. Fish have a lot of good fats in them, such as the polyunsaturated omega-3 and omega-6. Avocado is great. Some coconut oil, a medium-chain saturated fat, has been shown to be beneficial as well. You should also eat a decent amount of nuts, as they contain a great amount of oils that are beneficial to the body.

So what are the bad? Any kind of processed or refined oil. That giant, cheap gallon of vegetable oil should be thrown out immediately. There is no better way to raise your triglyceride and LDL cholesterol count than to cook everything in vegetable oil. When oils are heated they undergo a chemical transformation that makes them much less healthy for you. Basically, anything that says processed, hydrogenated, or partially hydrogenated should be thrown out especially if found in packaged food. These are generally trans fats — the biggest culprit in terms of bad cholesterol.

You will also want to trim as much fat off of red meat as possible as, unlike coconut oil which is a medium-chain saturated fat, these are long-chain saturated fats and do have a connection to higher LDL cholesterol. Replace some of your red meat meals with fowl and fish instead.

Some Supplements Do Wonders

There is a reason that bodybuilders and nutritionists are absolutely obsessed with certain supplement products. Their benefits are proven, visible, and effective in everyone.

Flax seeds and flax seed oil are one of nature’s best sources of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Taken as a supplement or whole, these little guys do wonders for your cholesterol and heart. Cod liver oil is a good alternative, containing these fats along with vitamins A and D naturally.

Like I said, bodybuilders and nutritionists take these because they work. AI put a bit of flaxseed oil in every protein shake I make. While I’m sure the Benecol Smart Chews has had some kind of effect given the plant sterols, I don’t believe that it can have nearly the effect as supplementing with essential fatty acids.

Conclusion

There are many lifestyle changes that you can make in order to boost your cardiovascular health and tackle cholesterol problems. As a natural substance that your body needs, dietary cholesterol itself has very little impact on the cholesterol in your body. When you eat more cholesterol, your body simply makes less. The terms HDL and LDL actually refer to lipoproteins that surround the cholesterol the production of which has much more to do with dietary fat than dietary cholesterol. A good exercise regimen, but most of all a healthy diet full of unprocessed foods and essential unsaturated fatty acids, are essential to raising your HDL and LDL levels, thus preventing the kind of arterial plaque that can lead to so many cardiovascular diseases.

These tips worked for me, and I hope that by following my suggestions you can successfully achieve your goals. Good luck Dr. Helen and everyone else!

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Cholesterol is an important part of your body’s natural function. You can not live with out it. When your body starts producing too much of it then it becomes your hearts mortal enemy. If you have high cholesterol then you need to declare war. Anything less is not good enough. When you fight any war you need to have weapons and the more powerful they are the better. Modern medicine has given us some great weapons for fighting cholesterol. Sometimes that is not enough and unfortunately using them can come with severe side effects. I for one have not found one yet that I can take. The good news is that nature it self has provided us with weapons to fight cholesterol. With these natural weapons against cholesterol many people can avoid drugs and most of the rest can lower dose or improve the effect of their cholesterol drugs.

Here is a list of some of nature’s most powerful weapons against cholesterol.

Exercise: Exercise especially cardiovascular exercise is one of you body’s natural ways of lowering your cholesterol. I list this first because it can also strengthen your entire cardiovascular system, help manage weight, lower you risk of many diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

Weight Control: This is hardest weapon to use yet it is probably the most effective at helping control your cholesterol. Being over weight is not as much of a problem in most of the world. In Western Europe and especially the United States our diets have become extremely high in fat and simple carbohydrates. I saw a study that showed that now the average American consumes more than 100 times as much sugar than those who lived in the early 1900’s. I know it is hard to do, I have to fight this fight every day, but if you are serious about your health it something you need to do.

Soluble Fiber: A diet high in high fiber foods will help you lower you cholesterol. Soluble fiber absorbs stomach acid and caries it out of the body. You body is then forced to convert cholesterol into stomach acid. For those who are striving to lose weight taking a fiber supplement before meals with help you feel less hungry. Fruits and vegetables such as apples, citrus fruit, berries, carrots and cabbage are high in soluble fiber and pectin both shown to be helpful in lowering cholesterol. Oats and barley are also great sources of cholesterol lowering fibers.

Soy Protein: This is a powerful weapon against cholesterol. To achieve the benefit you need to consume about 24 grams a day of soy protein. There are many companies that now make soy bars and shakes that can help you reach this goal. People with high cholesterol have seen a drop of 15 to 20 percent with this level of supplementation.

Plant Sterols: Plant sterols and stanols, are found in all plants. The are similar to cholesterol in composition. Because of this they compete with cholesterol for absorption. Leafy vegetable, nuts, vegetable oils, corn and rice are high in plant sterols. You can also find cholesterol lowering cooking oils and margarine’s that have these added to them. There are also a number of supplements out on the market today to provide your body with higher livers of plant sterols.

Nuts: Several studies have shown that nuts such as pecans, walnuts and almonds can help your body lower cholesterol. The combination of monounsaturated or polyunsaturated and plant sterols are an effective combination. I replace candy snacks with nuts and include them in my cooking.

Olive Oil: Olive oil especially extra virgin olive oil is high in mono-saturated fats that help the body lower cholesterol.

Flaxseed: Flaxseed is high in alpha-linolenic acid, which is a type of poly-unsaturated fat that has been shown to lower cholesterol. You can add flaxseed to your diet or there are many flaxseed and alpha-linolenic acid supplements on the market.

I hope the information above can help you in your battle against high cholesterol. I wish you much success it this battle.

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