Lower your cholesterol with diet

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Eating your way to lower cholesterol


Foods fortified with plant sterols or stanols can help nudge down high cholesterol.

By Harvard Health Publications

It’s odd, but true, that eating foods fortified with a cousin of cholesterol can lower your cholesterol. These substances, called plant sterols and stanols, are being added to foods ranging from granola bars to chocolate as companies try to cash in on an FDA-approved health claim. Although eating extra plant sterols or stanols won’t control seriously high cholesterol, it could be a boon for people who need a little extra help.
Plants contain a host of compounds that are chemically related to cholesterol. There are two main families: sterols and stanols. They do for plants what cholesterol does for us — they help make hormones, vitamins, and the “skin” that surrounds cells.

When eaten, plant sterols and stanols (also called phytosterols and phytostanols) gum up the body’s system for absorbing cholesterol from food. Since the liver needs cholesterol to make bile acids for digestion, it grabs LDL (bad) cholesterol from the bloodstream while leaving HDL (good) cholesterol alone. The result is just what the doctor ordered — lower levels of total and LDL cholesterol.

Eating two grams of plant sterols or stanols a day can lower LDL cholesterol by about 10%. That may not sound like much, but it could translate into a 20% lower risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Note that this average covers a fairly wide range. Some people see their LDL drop as much as 20%; others see little or no reduction.
The FDA has given food companies a green light to claim on packages that eating plant sterols and stanols might reduce the risk of heart disease. And federal cholesterol guidelines for Americans current in 2006 expressly mention eating plant sterols or stanols as part of the “therapeutic lifestyle changes” aimed at reducing the risk of heart disease.

More foods


Plant sterols and stanols, like cholesterol, are waxy substances that don’t mix well with water or many other substances. Getting them into foods has been a challenge. In the late 1980s, Finnish chemists figured out how to add them to margarines and other fatty foods without changing taste or texture. Agribusinesses interested in other uses for their products have spurred the development of new ways to extract and modify plant sterols and stanols. It’s now easier and cheaper than ever to add them to food.

The first sterol- and stanol-enriched products sold in the United States were margarines, such as Benecol and Take Control. These substances are showing up in other products. They include Minute Maid HeartWise orange juice, Nature Valley Healthy Heart granola bars, Rice Dream Heartwise rice milk, Lifetime low-fat cheese, CocoaVia chocolates, and Vivola cooking oil. If petitions and experiments here and abroad are any indication, this is just the tip of the iceberg — you could someday see sterol-fortified cold cuts, ground beef, or chips!

Sterols for you?


If you have high cholesterol, eating extra plant sterols or stanols could be a good addition to your portfolio of strategies for controlling it. If your cholesterol level is a tad high, this could be enough to rein it in. If it is substantially above where it should be, then a cholesterol-lowering statin, which can lower LDL as much as 50%, is a better first choice. Adding sterol- or stanol-enriched foods is as good as doubling a statin’s dosage.
You need to eat about two grams worth of added sterols or stanols every day to put a dent in your cholesterol. Doing it once in a while won’t work, and the cholesterol-controlling effect stops when you stop eating them.
If a food you already eat every day is being made with extra sterols or stanols, switching to the fortified version makes sense. If not, adding these foods to your diet is a high-calorie way to modestly reduce cholesterol. Two glasses of HeartWise orange juice, for example, deliver their sterols with 220 calories.

“If you don’t eliminate the equivalent number of calories somewhere else in your diet, the ensuing weight gain would likely counteract — or worsen — the cholesterol-lowering effect of phytosterols,” cautions Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition and chair of the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee.
The expansion of foods containing plant sterols and stanols seems like it would make it easier to lower cholesterol. That’s not necessarily the case. Trying to juggle a standard daily intake from several different foods could get complicated. It could also lead to getting higher-than-recommended doses of sterols or stanols. Exceeding the two-gram target doesn’t do anything extra for cholesterol. What’s more, no one knows the long-term effects of getting too much.

Finally, eating extra plant sterols or sterols won’t work magic. They can’t counteract a fatty diet, smoking, or other habits that boost cholesterol. Instead, use them as part of a package of healthy choices.

http://health.msn.com/centers/choles...ntid=100127813
The Cholesterol Connection


Five foods that fight it and five that feed it.
by Sally Wadyka for MSN Health & Fitness

There’s no denying that a healthy diet is the first line of defense against rising cholesterol. “If you eat a predominantly plant-based diet—with lots of fruits and vegetables plus some fish—you are on the right track to keeping your cholesterol at a healthy level,” says Lisa Dorfman, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. That said, certain so-called super-foods can actually help lower bad cholesterol and/or increase the good cholesterol. Ideally, you want to shoot for total cholesterol under 200, with LDL (the bad one) under 110 and HDL (the good one) greater than 35.

Try to incorporate more of these foods into your daily diet:

Almonds: Studies have found that eating just a quarter cup of almonds a day can lower your LDL by 4.4 percent, according to dietitian Leslie Bonci, who is also the director of sports nutrition at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “Eating nuts, especially almonds, which are high in good-for-you monounsaturated fat, is better than simply eating a low-fat snack like pretzels,” says Bonci. Of course, they can also be high in calories, so stick with a small serving and choose almonds that are dry roasted without oil.
Oatmeal: You’ve seen the commercials with people proclaiming dramatic drops in their cholesterol numbers thanks to a daily serving of this hot cereal. Those great results are due to the high levels of soluble fiber found in oatmeal. “The soluble fiber binds to the bile acids that are the precursor to the development of cholesterol and help flush it out,” explains Bonci. It doesn’t matter how you get your oats—those instant, just-add-water packets are just as good for you as traditional, slow-cooked versions.

Fish: Omega-3 fatty acids are widely considered to be the best of the “good” fats, and the best place to find them is in fish—especially fatty fishes like salmon, halibut and tuna. According to Dorfman of the ADA, you want to get 1.5 to 3 grams per day of omega-3. A 4-ounce piece of salmon will give you close to 3 grams, and you can also get these fatty acids from walnuts and flaxseed (two tablespoons of flaxseed provides 3.5 grams) and in fish oil supplements.

Red wine: Not everything that’s good for you has to feel virtuous. A glass of red wine, which contains flavanols, has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties that may help lower cholesterol and stave off heart disease. But in this case, more is definitely not better. “For women, the recommendation is one drink a day and for men it’s two,” says Bonci. More than that will, literally, dilute any potential benefits. These flavanols can also be found in red grape juice and dark cocoa.

Soy: Soybeans, soy nuts and edamame, plus any products made from soy (like tofu, soymilk, etc.) can help to reduce the production of new cholesterol. A little can go a long way—aim for about 25 grams of soy protein a day (the amount in a cup of edamame). And those who are at an increased risk of breast or prostate cancer may want to skip it since too much of soy’s phyto-estrogens can act similarly to the body’s own estrogen (which has been shown to feed some hormone-dependent tumors).

Now that you know the good stuff to add to your diet, try to reduce—or better yet, eliminate—these bad-for-you foods from your repertoire:

Whole-milk dairy products: Saturated fat, which clogs arteries and increases LDL levels, is the No. 1 cholesterol-boosting culprit. And foods like ice cream and cheese are where you’re likely to find them. Swap out the Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby for a lower-fat frozen yogurt, and skip the brie in favor of something less rich, like a part-skim mozzarella.

Processed meats: Bacon, sausage, liverwurst and the like are also wonderful sources of artery-clogging saturated fat. Look for lower-fat options, like bacon and sausage made from turkey and other lean protein sources.

Fast-food fries: Even worse than saturated fats are the dreaded trans fats. “You might as well take a gun and shoot yourself!” says Dorfman. The main source of trans fats are partially hydrogenated oils, and that’s exactly what most fast-food restaurants are still using to cook their fries. Trans fats hit cholesterol with a double whammy—in addition to raising your LDL, they simultaneously lower your HDL.

Tropical oils: Palm kernel and coconut oils are two of the fattiest of oils—100 percent of the bad-for-you saturated variety. Don’t use them when you cook at home, and try to avoid them when you eat out (most fast-food restaurants have eliminated them, but you can check their Web sites for detailed nutritional information). Use heart-healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats, like olive, canola and safflower oil, instead.

Baked goods: Many manufacturers of packaged cookies and cakes have eliminated trans fats from their recipes, but check the nutrition labels to be sure. But all baked goods—even those that are homemade—are high in saturated fats, thanks to the butter and shortening. Since no one wants to give up dessert completely, eat high-fat baked goods only occasionally, opting more often for low-fat sweets like sorbets.

source:
http://health.msn.com/centers/choles...ntid=100140710