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If after a number of months these diet and lifestyle changes have not lowered your cholesterol sufficiently, though, your doctor may suggest more aggressive treatment, which may include cholesterol-lowering medication. Taking a few simple steps can make it easier for you to choose foods that will help you lower your cholesterol: 1) Shop for food once a week. For these reasons, diet and lifestyle should be your first defense against high cholesterol and medications should only be used to complement or supplement these positive changes in your life.

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Ask questions often and from as many people as you can. What this means is that you should make cholesterol-friendly food choices easier on yourself than bad-for-you choices. New research about barley and oats has suggested that these two foods may be beneficial in helping those with high cholesterol. Try the following varieties: Akane, Arlet, Blushing Golden, Braeburn, Centennial Crab, Chieftain, Cortland, Empire, Empress, Fuji, Gala, Honey Crisp, Jonagold, Kandil Sinap, Liberty, Mantet, Mcintosh, Mutsu, Northern Spy, Patricia, Red Astrachan, Red Secor, Russet, Starr, Virginia Gold, Yataka, Yellow Transparent, Wilson Juicy, and the many others available at your grocery store and farmers market) Apricots Bananas (try Fruit Bananas, Apple Bananas, Baby Bananas, Baking Bananas, Red bananas, and others) Berries (besides the usual strawberries and raspberries, there are dewberries, boysenberries, loganberries, cloudberries, wineberries, bearberries, bilberries, blueberries, cranberries, huckleberries, lingonberries, barberries, currants, elderberries, gooseberries, nannyberries, sea grapes, crowberries, and others) Cherries (from sour cherries, Monmorency cherries, and sweet cherries such as Black Russians, Chinooks, Lapins, Hedelfingers, and others) Clementines Dates Figs Grapefruits Grapes (there are many, many kinds, ranging from pale greens to very deep purples) Guava Kiwis Kumquats Lemons and Limes Lychee fruits Mangos Melons (Red water, Canary, Canteloupe, Cassava, Honeydew, Watermelon, and others) Nectarines Oranges Papayas Passion Fruits Peaches (including Encore, Reliance, Red Haven, and Sensation Dwarf Peach, among others) Pears (including Asian pears, Beirschmidt, Bartlett, and others) Persimmons Pineapples Plums (including Mt. Cholesterol Glossary As you lower your cholesterol over the next thirty days, you will likely encounter new words and terms.

Understanding the Causes of High Cholesterol

Besides diet, other causes of high cholesterol are lifestyle, gender and the heritage of the individual.


For some, even maintaining cholesterol at the right levels and being fit and thin will still not prevent the development of high levels of bad cholesterol. Due to heart risk factors besides diet, some people require a very aggressive approach which includes cholesterol lowing medication. We will address this issue as we progress in 30 days to lowering cholesterol.

Lifestyle issues and high cholesterol:

When we opt for convenience in eating over nutrition, we are setting ourselves up for problems. Eating fast foods and convenience foods results in eating too many fats and salts, which can raise our bad cholesterol levels. In addition, a more sedentary lifestyle also contributes to unhealthy levels of cholesterol. If you want to see a graphic representation of this, consider renting the documentary movie Supersize Me. This documentary details the attempts of one man to live on fast foods and little exercise alone. The results on his cholesterol and body health in just 30 days are truly frightening.

A visit to a nutritionist or dietician can help us all better understand eating for the right reasons and for optimal health. It is never too late to start on this path.

Regular exercise will effectively lower cholesterol and will maintain your body strength to function best. Just 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, including walking, each day will lower cholesterol. Exercise does not have to be a large time or money commitment. Simple activities that get you moving and that you enjoy enough to repeat are almost always adequate.

Diet:

An important consideration in eating is choosing lower fat.

Buy cooking oils that are unsaturated. Use low fat cooking sprays to replace heavy oils whenever possible. Reduce your overall use of oils even further by using cooking techniques that require little or no oil.

Age and Gender:

Cholesterol levels increase with age. Women generally have a lower level than men from age 50 to 55. Once a woman starts menopause, the cholesterol level starts to increase.

While there is not much that you can do about your age, you can make sure that age does not threaten your heart health by sticking to a healthy lifestyle and diet and by getting your cholesterol levels monitored.

Heritage:

Genetics play a key role in a person's health and this includes the amount of cholesterol you might have.

Find out if your family battles with high levels of cholesterol and then bring this to your doctors attention right away. If you have a family history of heart disease and high cholesterol levels, work harder and start earlier in adopting a healthy lifestyle and eating plan.

Over the next 30 days, lower your cholesterol by making sure that reaching for low-fat, heart-healthy foods is more appealing and automatic than reaching for high-fat foods. In general, foods that have had more done to them (such as deli meats, potato chips, cookies, and others) and foods that are considered fast foods or convenience foods (such as hamburgers, prepared hors doeuvres, and cocktail snacks, among others) are higher in fats and salt. Advertisers work very hard to make sure that you remember jingles and descriptions of foods - thats why you can often sing the slogans for popular advertisements years after the ads are no longer shown.