Not Just a Man's World

Following on from all that technical research yesterday, here are my top ten tips on reducing and controlling your blood cholesterol levels.

The final top ten are loosely based on the top ten tips produced by Ryan Andrews.  However, I have changed a few since I have strong views on the potential gut problems that may be caused by some sources of fibre, such as oats and legumes, and there were a couple of other points that I stumbled upon in my quest for the truth which I thought were important to include in any top ten for cholesterol reduction.

1. Get lean and reduce your body fat – the research suggests that if you carry a lot of body fat then you’ll have higher blood cholesterol levels.  I’m not convinced how much of this is cause and effect (what diet you use to maintain a lower or higher body weight anyway), but this advice is always good.
2. Eat 10 servings of fruit and vegetables a day – you can’t go wrong here and I would say that 10 is a minimum.  For something a bit unusual try artichoke leaves which are believed to reduce blood cholesterol levels.
3. Increase your soluble fibre intake – an easy one to do if you are significantly increasing your fruit and vegetable intake, since these are a good source for soluble fibre.  The soluble fibre binds to cholesterol in the digestive tract.  I particularly recommend ensuring that you take in plenty of apples, broccoli, carrots, oranges and courgettes since they seem to have higher levels of soluble fibre in them.  As mentioned earlier, I would continue to avoid legumes and oats, despite their high soluble fibre levels.
4. Avoid all processed and refined carbohydrates – apart from anything, it’s an easy way to avoid trans fats in the hidden soy oils.  They are also poor for soluble fibre and won’t help you to reduce your weight.
5. Increase your omega-3 fats, especially DHA and EPA – these have been reported to reduce LDL.  For those who are allergic to fish I’ve found recommendations for flaxseed oil, hemp oil and algae.
6. Increase your sweat-inducing exercise – this is one of the few ways to boost your HDL levels.
7. Reduce your caffeine intake – this can apparently increase cholesterol levels so try green tea instead for all of its beneficial properties.
8. Increase your use of herbs and spices – I particularly recommend curcumin (which blocks cholesterol uptake in the gut), fenugreek (reduces LDL) and cocoa (a super food that decreases LDL, increases HDL, reduces platelet stickiness, is high in flavanoids… the list is endless).  But for the cocoa take it in as pure a form as possible – ideally sprinkle cocoa powder on meals but if you choose to eat chocolate then look out for the 90% or 100% strength, otherwise you’ll be taking in large amounts of soy oil and sugars, amongst other things.
9. Increase your egg consumption – for once ignore your doctor!
10. Use dairy products sparingly – don’t replace your butter with margarine but be moderate in your use of all dairy, including the butter, and consider changing your milk to skimmed for the short term, or perhaps even converting to goat’s milk (but not soy).

There’s more to be said about cholesterol.  Lots more.  Especially on the issues of whether having high cholesterol is really a problem and if taking statins is a good idea.  I mean, if you want to really kick off, then we could explore the research on whether statins actually do anything positive at all.  But I’ll save it for some other time.

In the meantime, would you agree with my top ten suggestions?

Related posts:

1. Lessons learned this week: the Cholesterol Story
2. Top ten tips for writing a weight loss diet
3. Top ten tips for sticking to a diet (part 1)
4. Top ten tips for sticking to a diet (part 2)