NoExcusesGym

  Do you have high cholesterol? Beside exercising some food can help you to lower it. Your “good” HDL cholestrol should be 60 or more. Your “bad” cholesterol LDL should be 100 or less. Doctors also look for the total number. It should be 200 or less. (HDL + LDL = 200 or less).

Certain food can actively and powerfully lower a person’s bad cholesterol. You can always get a prescription but I would try to go a natural way first. That means to start exercising and improve the diet. This food have cholesterol - lowering power:

Almonds

Flaxseed

Apples

Soy protein

Olive oil

Each one works in a slightly different way so together, you get a synergy that can dramatically lower your cholesterol.

Almonds and olive oil are high in monounsaturated fats, which are thought to blend with LDL molecules in a way that speeds LDL’s clearance from the blood by the liver.

Flax is high in both soluble fiber, which lowers LDL by absorbing cholesterol from both food and bile inside the intestines, and omega-3 acids, which studies show have anti-inflamatory effects. Apples and oat are also high in fiber.

Soy may mimic natural estrogens in their LDL-clearing effects.

I read recently in Health magazine that a really high good cholesterol - HDL is not so good too. I always thought and heard that higher HDL is better. This article says that really high HDL may be actually harmful! It can boost a heart disease risk. I tried to find some more information about this but all other sources say that higher HDL is better. Does anyone have some more informatin about this?

source: Health magazine, jan/feb 2008, page71-77.

(by Marcela Vanharova)