CHOLESTEROL LOWERING FOODS

Cholesterol is a yellow fatty substance and a principle ingredient in the digestive juice bile. It performs several functions such as transportation of fats, providing defense mechanism, protecting red blood cells red blood cells and muscular membranes of the body.

 Most of the cholesterol found in the body is produced in the liver. However, about 20 to 30 % generally comes from the food we eat. Some cholesterol is also secreted into the intestinal tract in bile and gets mixed with the dietary cholesterol. In blood, cholesterol is bound with certain proteins- lipoprotein, which have an affinity for blood fats, known as lipids. There are two main types of lipoprotein, a low density one (LDL) and a high density one (HDL). The LDL is the one, which is considered harmful and is associated with cholesterol deposits in blood vessels.

 The higher the ratio of LDL to the total cholesterol, the greater will be risk of arterial damage and heart disease. The HDL on the other hand plays a beneficial role in removing  cholesterol from circulation and thereby reduce risk of heart disease.

Foods can lower bad type of LDL cholesterol, raise good type  HDL cholesterol and help prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol that makes it more destructive to arteries. On the other hand, some foods, such as oats, are considered to reduce supplies of bile acids in the intestinal tract that otherwise would turn into cholesterol.

 Antioxidants may also help in keeping bad type LDL cholesterol from becoming oxidised and toxic to arteries.
Several years ago, scientists at the U.S Department of Agriculture’s laboratory at the University of tocotrienols suppress an enzyme that hampers the lover’s manufacture of cholesterol. Cells take the cholesterol, suck it out of the bloodstream and thus cholesterol blood levels go down.

Other foods create different chemicals that seems also to turn down internal cholesterol production. That is precisely how the potent cholesterol-reducing drug Mevacor (lovastatin) also works.

ALMONDS

Almond, the most important of all nuts, is a highly nutritious food. It is high in monounsaturated fat, which is known to reduce cholesterol.

In a research study, Dr. Gene Spiller made men and women with fairly high cholesterol, averaging around 6.24, eat 100 grams of almonds a day for three to nine weeks. Others ate equal amounts of fat from cheese or olive oil. The average cholesterol of the almonds eaters came down to 10 to 15 per cent compared to that of the cheese eaters. Almonds and olive oil exercised beneficial effects, as most of the fat contained in both is chemically identical.

APPLE

Apple with its high soluble fibre called pectin, can help lower cholesterol. In a recent research, French scientists had a group of middle aged healthy men and women. They added two or three apples a day to their ordinary diet for a month. LDL cholesterol fell in 80 per cent of them. Good type HDL cholesterol also went up. Interestingly, the apple benefited women more than men. One woman's cholesterol came down by 30 percent.

Most experts attribute cholesterol lowering quality in apple to pectin contained in it, although other components in this fruit also help lower cholesterol. As Dr. David Kritchevsky says that, a whole apple lowers cholesterol more than its pectin content predicts. “Something else is at work also”, he says.

BEANS (DRIED)

Beans or legumes are one of the fastest acting and safest cholesterol lowering foods.

Studies shows that they consistently help lower cholesterol. According to James Anderson, M.D., of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, eating 170 grams of cooked dried beans a day generally reduces bad cholesterol by about 20 per cent. The result can be expected in about three weeks. All types of bean are valuable in this respect. About 170 grams of dried or 340 grams of baked beans a day also raise a good type HDL cholesterol by about 9 per cent. This does not happen immediately, but usually after a year or two.

According to one test, beans improves the HDL-LDL cholesterol ratio by 17 per cent. Dr. Anderson advises an intake of 85 grams of beans each at lunch and dinner to obtain best results. Beans contain at least 6 cholesterol reducing compounds, the most important of which is soluble fibre.

CARROT

The vegetables helps lower bad LDL cholesterol and raise HDL. According to Dr. Philip Pfeiffer, Ph. D., and Peter Hoagland, Ph.D., scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Eastern Regional Research Centre, carrots contain high anti-cholesterol soluble fibre including pectin. Dr. Pfeiffer calculates that the fibre in a couple of carrots a day can lower cholesterol by 10 to 20 per cent, which would bring many people with moderately high cholesterol into the normal range. After he started eating a couple of carrots a day, his own blood cholesterol came down by 20 per cent.

A test carried out in Canada discovered that men who ate about two and a half carrots every day found that their cholesterol level came down by 11 per cent on an average. According to a German study, the amount of beta-carotene in one or two carrots also raised good HDL cholesterol significantly. The carrot fibre continues to have medicinal properties whether the vegetable is eaten raw, cooked, frozen, canned or in liquid form says Dr. Pfeffer.

CORIANDER SEEDS (DRIED)

The seeds of coriander are a popular spice used extensively in Indian cooking. The seeds are dried when they are ripe. They have an aromatic odour and agreeable spicy taste. These seeds possess cholesterol lowering property. Their use has thus been found beneficial in the treatment of high blood cholesterol.

A decoction should be prepared by boiling two tablespoons of dry seeds in a glass of water. It should be cooled and strained. This decoction should be taken twice daily for few months to bring down blood cholesterol level.

FENUGREEK SEEDS ARE ONE OF THE BEST CHOLESTEROL LOWERING FOODS (click to tweet)

Scientists all over the world are discovering the medicinal benefits of fenugreek seeds.

 Daniel Misery of the American Phototherapy Research Laboratory in Salt Lake City, Utah, firmly believes that they reduce cholesterol. The seeds also help reduce sugar levels in non-insulin dependent diabetics.

Indian researchers have done significant work on fenugreek and it’s medicinal properties. According to research studies conducted at National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, fenugreek seeds were given in varying sides of 25 grams to 100 grams daily, to diabetes patients. Besides reducing their levels of glucose, the seeds also reduced serum cholesterol and triglycerides in them.  The seeds can be used as an infusion, or in the form of tea.

GARLIC

Garlic is of great value as a cholesterol lowering food. The use of garlic has been found highly beneficial in treatment of high blood cholesterol. About 20 published human tests show that fresh garlic and some garlic preparation reduce cholesterol substantially. According to Robert Lin, Ph.D., Chairman of a recent international conference on the health aspects of garlic, three fresh garlic cloves a day can lower cholesterol by 10 percent on an average and up to 15 percent in some cases.

GRAPEFRUIT

The pulp of grapefruit, the segments with membranes and tiny juice sacs, contain a unique type of soluble fibre called galacturonic acid that helps lower blood cholesterol. It last helps dissolve plaque or reverse plaque formation already clogging the arteries.

GRAPE SEED OIL

The oil extracted from grape seed, which is used for a mild dressing, is a valuable food for raising good HDL cholesterol.

ONION

Onions are credited with the property to lower bad LDL cholesterol and raise good HDL type. Raw onion is one of the best treatment for boosting beneficial HDL cholesterol.

 According to a cardiologist half a raw onion, or equivalent in juice, raises HDL an average 30 Percent in most people with heart disease or cholesterol problems. Based on folklore tradition about the use of onion as medicine, he tested it in his clinic. The test proved very successful. So, he advices all his patients to eat onions. He, however, says that more you cook the onions, the more they lose their HDL-raising power. The onion therapy works in about 70 percent of patients. If a person cannot eat half a raw onion a day, he may eat less. Any amount may help raise good HDL cholesterol.

WALNUT

This popular nut is also a food of great value in lowering blood cholesterol. This has been seen in a research in Loma Linda University.

They studied persons with normal blood cholesterol. All were on a low fat diet, but for a month they are 20 percent of their calories in walnuts, about 55gm of walnuts in a daily 1800 calorie diet. For another month, they are no nuts. On the no nut-diet, their cholesterol dropped on an average 6 percent but on the walnut-eating regime, their cholesterol fell 18 percent. Average cholesterol dropped 0.57 points. Thus, walnuts added a cholesterol-reducing substance even to an ordinary low fat diet.