There are multiple reasons you may have high cholesterol. You may have inherited it, your diet plays a part and your lifestyle will determine how much cholesterol you have.
To find out if you have too much cholesterol you need to go to your doctor after fasting for twelve hours. Your doctor will draw blood, send it to the lab and call or mail you your results.
If you have high cholesterol your doctor will almost always give you information on which healthier foods you should eat, foods to avoid, if you are overweight he/she will tell you-you must lose weight and you will be given exercise recommendations.
Foods to eat are fruits, vegetables, cereal, rice and pasta. When eating these items do not load them up with fat. For instance, if you are going to eat pasta, do not add a lot of meatballs as red meats are high in cholesterol. Also, do not load up your pasta with Alfredo Sauce which is high in fat.
Foods you should avoid are those that contain saturated fats. These are your typical snacks such as potato chips, Doritos, Cheetos, etc., dairy products such as ice cream, custard, butter and other high fat dairy foods and deep fried foods. You should get some fat in your diet from nuts, Omega-3 fat found in salmon, tuna and other types of fish.
You can help lower your cholesterol by eating oatmeal, apples, pears, nuts as mentioned above and olive oil.
Lose weight by eating a healthier diet that is more centered around complex carbohydrates and not saturated fat. Lose weight by exercising. Brisk walking will help to lower your cholesterol. If you are morbidly obese you can start your exercise off by joining a swimming class or swimming on your own. Swimming will be gentle on your joints and make it easier to move your weight around in the water versus jumping on exercise machinery.
After trying all of the above measures your doctor may give your cholesterol lowering medication.
You can help lower your cholesterol by trying out for our Get Downsized Weight Loss Contest every Saturday! Get healthy today!
This runs big time in my family. Thank you for the easy to read information.
ReplyDeleteTime to make a change in our health! Sharing your blog with my family.