Low Cholesterol Diet

If you have found out from your doctor or from doing
home cholesterol test that you have a high total cholesterol level, one
of the first things you need to do is to change your diet to a low
cholesterol diet to help you lower your cholesterol. This is because a
high cholesterol level is very dangerous for you and might cause you
serious heart diseases or even a heart attack.

A low cholesterol
diet does not have to be hard to stick to, as you can still enjoy some
of the foods you always like. However, you really need to stay away
from foods that contain saturated or trans fats, as they are among the
major leading causes to having a high cholesterol level.

To have
a low cholesterol diet means that you should replace the saturated fat
in your diet with unsaturated fat besides eating less high-cholesterol
food and choosing foods that are high in complex carbohydrates. You
should also make sure that you get more physical activity and try
reducing your weight if you are overweight.

Determining What is Low Cholesterol Food and What Isn’t

Before
starting on a low cholesterol level, you should first know what low
cholesterol food is and what isn’t. This will help you create a diet
which is low in cholesterol to help you lower your total cholesterol
levels. There are many different types of food that can be classified
as low cholesterol foods, so that you do not need to give all the food
you love to have a low cholesterol diet.

Cholesterol is most
usually found in foods of animal origin, such as meat, poultry, and
eggs, including milk and cheese. In animals, cholesterol is part of the
cell membrane structure of all cells. That is why removing the skin
from a chicken will remove most of the fat, but will not remove all the
cholesterol.

However, in dairy foods the amount of cholesterol
involved depends on the amount of fat as milk is secreted from animal
cells and not made up of cells like meat. Although it has no
cholesterol-containing cell membranes, but because cholesterol is fat
soluble, it can b found in fats in milk and milk-based foods. That is
why if a dairy product contains more fat, it will also contain more
cholesterol, so always choose low fat dairy products when sticking to a
low cholesterol diet.

Converting To A Low Cholesterol Recipe

If
you found out that you have high cholesterol, you must start converting
some of foods you love to a low cholesterol version. You must also
learn to live without some of the foods that have been causing you to
get a high cholesterol level in the first place. Learning how to make
your foods using a low cholesterol recipe is one way to lower your
cholesterol levels

Converting your food to a low cholesterol
recipe is not a very difficult thing to do. All you need is a little
bit of willpower and you can start enjoying cholesterol free or lower
cholesterol version of your favorite foods. The taste will not differ
much as long as you know how to add flavor into your cooking without
using saturated fats and other harmful foods that contribute to more
cholesterol problems.

The easiest way to get started on low
cholesterol recipe is to start with one day’s menu. You can include a
safe amount of food fats into your diet at first so that you can ease
the transition period from your normal food to the low cholesterol
diet, and make this change easier on you.

A good way to start a
low cholesterol diet with a low cholesterol recipe is trying a serving
of oatmeal, honey, and an apple for breakfast. Mixing oats, fat free
milk, and a little honey and chopped apple will make a great delicious
cholesterol free breakfast. For lunch, you can follow up with a salmon
and tomato sandwich with a side salad. For tasty salad dressing, you
can try using lemon juice and black pepper as a low cholesterol option.
For dinner, you can have stir-fried chicken breast, veggies, and some
rice will make you enjoy your low cholesterol diet. You can also try
using brown rice instead of white rice for a lower cholesterol diet.

Make
changes one step at a time, and in no time you will start enjoying a
healthier life with lower cholesterol level. These changes will prevent
you from having heart diseases caused by your diet. You will soon find
that you enjoy the low cholesterol food as much as or more than your
previous high cholesterol food.