How to Reduce Cholesterol

If you are unfortunate enough to find out you suffer from high cholesterol chances are your doctor will tell you it's time to start on a program to reduce your cholesterol. Finding out you have high cholesterol is not the best news in the world but there are quite a few ways to fix this problem without to much effort. In fact all it usually takes is some simple lifestyle changes.

The first thing your doctor will recommend is a low cholesterol diet. This will take a little sacrifice but the idea is to simply eat a healthy diet. The main culprits of high blood cholesterol are saturated fats, trans fat, and cholesterol in food. What many people don't realize is that the first two, saturated and trans fat, both play a greater role in high cholesterol levels then actual cholesterol found in food. By cutting these two risk factors from the diet, along with a moderate cholesterol intake, we can reduce levels back to the normal range.

The biggest contributing factor to this problem many times is the way foods are prepared. Fried foods are dripping with saturated fats and trans fats and are some of the worst when it comes to increasing cholesterol. It is best to go with lean cuts of meat such as poultry or fish and either bake or broil them. When preparing low cholesterol food it is important to remove as much of these two types of fat as possible, and at the same time do not add any back in, which is exactly what frying does.

Another dietary area to watch is your intake of dairy products. While dairy products are a good source of many necessary daily nutrients they also have a lot of saturated fat in them. The way to get around this is to by low fat dairy products. Instead of whole milk go with one-percent or even skim milk. This goes for cheeses and ice cream as well.

The second part of any program to reduce cholesterol is exercise. This doesn't mean you need to join a gym because even moderate exercise such as taking a thirty minute walk every day has been shown to reduce blood cholesterol levels. Exercise will also benefit you in other ways, including building muscle, increasing your metabolism, building your cardiovascular system, and reducing stress. All of these will contribute to a more healthy mind and body.

Cholesterol is a very real problem in this day and age. Sedentary lifestyles and poor eating habits are causing problems related to coronary artery disease, heart disease, and stroke to become the number one health problem in the United States today. Fortunately it doesn't take much effort to reduce cholesterol by simply changing how and what we eat and getting some much needed exercise.