Foods To Lower Cholesterol – A to K

In the article Foods To Lower Cholesterol, I presented a general overview of foods that are heart healthy and play an important role in a low cholesterol diet.

Here, in the second part, I’ll go into detail about some of the “superfoods” that have been shown to really help reduce cholesterol naturally. Of course, they have many other health benefits besides. I won’t go into these here because my aim and focus is to help you choose the right nutrition to help control your cholesterol levels and to create your low cholesterol diet plan.

You will see that I have been careful in the description of the health benefits of these foods that lower cholesterol. It is best not to rely on just one of these but to keep to a varied and healthy diet plan. Mixing colors is a great guide: it will give you a variety of phyto-nutrients, the plant based nutrients that are so vital for our health. Your safest bet is to integrate these foods in the general guidelines of my previous article.

For your convenience, foods are listed in alphabetical order. This article covers foods from A to K. In the following article, I go into Foods To Lower Cholesterol – L to Z.

Research has shown that avocado can help lower LDL levels while raising HDL levels significantly, which is precisely what we are aiming at.

Fat in avocados is mainly monounsaturated (oleic acid). It is high in beta-sitosterol, a natural compound that has been shown to lower cholesterol (LDL) levels. It also contains essential nutrients such as potassium, calcium, vitamin C, and K, folic acid, copper, sodium, and dietary fibre.

For our purposes, potassium regulates blood pressure. Folic acid has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, and vitamin C is a well-known antioxidant helping to stabilise LDL cholesterol.

Because avocado contains a lot of fat, it is important not to go over the top. Replace butter and other spreads like mayonnaise with a tablespoon of avocado, but don’t use it in addition to other fats.

Blueberries are a true superfood. They are very low in calories but jam packed with phyto-nutrients (plant based nutrients) that help our body. In fact, I simply can’t resist listing some of the health benefits of blueberries:

Help fight cancer, obesity and heart diseaseContain anti-diabetic propertiesHave memory-enhancing benefitsPowerful anti-aging food

For our purposes, we are above all interested in pterostilbene, a natural antioxidant compound occurring in blueberries that not only can help lower cholesterol, but also has been found to be as effective as some commercial prescription drugs yet without many of the side effects.

Pterostilbene is chemically related to, and therefore shares properties with resveratol, an antioxidant found in grapes and wine that can also help lower cholesterol. In fact, juice or wine made from blueberries has been shown to contain more cardio-protective plant compounds than that made from grapes.

The main function of antioxidants is to neutralise the harmful effects of free radicals. Blueberries do this extremely well; in fact, they also enhance the effects of another antioxidant, vitamin C.

Blueberries, like their cranberry cousins, can help reduce LDL levels while raising the levels of “good” cholesterol, HDL.

Yes, chocolate is good for you, and not only because it releases endorphins that make you feel good. Chocolate, or rather cocoa is a potent source of polyphenols, which can help protect among other conditions also against heart disease.

Studies have shown that cocoa polyphenols help activate genes that boost HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels and receptors that help lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels at the same time.

Beyond the beneficial effects on cholesterol levels, cacao derived polyphenols also can help reduce blood pressure and prevent the formation of blood clots.

These results apply only to chocolate with a high in cocoa content, to dark chocolate. We are talking here about 70% or more cocoa content. A recent study showed that a diet including about 100 g (3.5 ounces) of dark chocolate daily led to a 10 percent drop in LDL cholesterol levels. However, these results are not achievable with highly processed chocolate products with low cocoa content because the other ingredients in these chocolate bars more than offset the beneficial effects of the cocoa polyphenols.

Cranberries are cousins of the blueberry, and like blueberries they contain pterostilbene. While cranberry juice is famous for its healing effect on urinary tract infection, its support of cardiovascular health is still less well known by the wider public.

Pterostilbene in cranberry juice is the main contributor to lowering LDL levels and to raising HDL levels. This powerful antioxidant compound has been shown in studies to outperform both, ciprofibrate, a lipid-lowering drug, and resveratol, the antioxidant found in grapes and wine.

Together, blueberries and cranberries, act as powerful protectors against high cholesterol levels.

Fish is a great source of protein and Omega 3 fatty acids.

While Omega 3 fatty acids do help prevent heart disease, their main impact is not on cholesterol but on the other blood lipids, triglycerides.

Eating fish several times a week and/or taking fish oil supplements (but not cod liver oil) will lower your risk of heart disease by reducing triglycerides.

Flaxseeds have a nutty flavour and are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids and alpha-linolenic acid. Flaxseed oil is a great substitute for people who do not eat fish.

Studies have shown that flaxseed (20 grams per day) had a comparable effect on people with high cholesterol to that of statin drugs. In addition, the fibre content of flaxseed meal and flour can contribute to lower cholesterol levels.

While garlic, a member of the onion family, is generally good for you inasmuch as it can help reduce blood pressure and the formation of spontaneous blood clots, its effect on cholesterol levels are not conclusive.

In some studies, garlic was found to reduce the level of LDL ( “bad”) cholesterol only for a short period. Others found no direct impact on cholesterol levels over longer periods of time.

In brief, garlic is good for you, but don’t rely on it to lower your cholesterol as effectively as other foods.

It is not the fleshy part of the grape but its skin and seeds that are the effective ingredients that reduce cholesterol levels. In addition, grapeseed oil has displayed better cholesterol lowering properties than other oils. That’s why drinking grape juice or red wine or using grape seed oil is more effective than merely eating grapes.

Grapes, like blueberries and cranberries, contain polyphenols. Among these phytonutrients, flavonoids, phenolic acid and resveratol play the most important roles. Grapes also contain pterostilbene.

Grapes and grape products (juice and red wine) receive their colour from flavonoids – the darker the colour the more flavonoids in the juice or wine; purple seems to be best.

Of particular interest to us are the antioxidant properties of the phyto-nutrients in grapes: they help protect LDL from being oxidised (damaged by free radicals) and then in turn from damaging the walls of our blood vessels. As long as LDL remains unoxidised, it is not harmful.

Numerous studies have shown that grapes and grape products can help lower LDL levels, raise HDL levels and reduce free radical damage in the body.

In addition, these compounds also reduce the danger of blood clot formation that can then lead to heart attacks.

Other studies have shown that red grape juice is more effective than red wine and that not only because you can drink more of it without getting drunk. The alcohol in wine actually contributes to the generation of free radicals and thus counteracts the beneficial effects of the antioxidants in the wine.

Red wine, nevertheless, seems to score over red grape juice in one aspect: it is more effective in raising HDL levels.

Detailed information about the remainder of the foods to lower cholesterol is in the second part of this article.

Before we turn to the second part of my list of foods that lower cholesterol, allow me address one question: How Do You Lower Cholesterol when your cholesterol lowering diet is not enough?

One of the challenges we all face when we start with a healthy diet plan, be it a low cholesterol diet plan or any other, is that we can only eat so much before we reach our limit.

For instance, it may not always be possible to obtain the necessary cholesterol lowering nutrient levels through our food. In these cases, we can resort to adding cholesterol supplements to support our low cholesterol diet plan and still reduce cholesterol naturally.

Cholesterol Supplements provide us with concentrated plant extracts. As we have seen, if taken correctly, some plant extracts can be as effective as prescription drugs. But never replace prescription drugs with cholesterol supplements without consulting a suitably qualified medical practitioner first.

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