Conquer Your Cholesterol (Part 2)
LDL Cholesterol
What Do Raised LDL Cholesterol Levels Do To Me?
LDL cholesterol travels from the liver through the arteries to other parts of the body. Over time, raised LDL cholesterol levels can allow it to stick to the inner lining of your arteries or blood vessels, causing narrowing, hardening and ultimately blockage of the fine blood vessels that bring blood around the body to
vital organs like the heart and the brain. Imagine sticky goo like sticky toffee pudding: this is just what LDL cholesterol is like, sticking to the walls of the blood vessels. This process of narrowing and hardening, known as atherosclerosis, occurs over many years. Raised cholesterol can be a silent condition, with no symptoms whatsoever, until one of the tubes blocks over and results in a heart attack or a stroke. High levels of LDL cholesterol increase your risk of heart disease.
Dietary Sources of LDL Cholesterol
Saturated fats can raise your LDL cholesterol levels and you find saturated fats in foods like butter, hard margarine, lard, cream, cheese, fatty meat, cakes, biscuits and chocolates. Processed foods are usually high in saturated fats.
Hydrogenated fats or trans-fats also raise the level of LDL cholesterol as well as accelerating the rate of artery blockage. Recently it has been shown that starchy carbohydrates can also increase your LDL cholesterol level. Examples of starchy carbohydrates include white bread, biscuits, cakes and many cereals (excluding oat-based cereals).
How Can I Lower My LDL Cholesterol Level?
There are a number of things you can do to help reduce your LDL cholesterol levels. Start off by having a good look at your diet. Keeping a diary of everything you eat over a seven-day period, or at least over a weekend and one or two weekdays, can give you an ideal opportunity to look at not only what you eat but also when and why. This might throw up a few surprises for you. Cutting down significantly on starchy carbohydrates like white bread, biscuits and cakes and also on fries is a good place to start. It is useful to focus on positive changes that you are likely to stick to rather than being negative and saying ‘I can’t have this’ and ‘I can’t have that.’ Therefore, I would encourage you to think about heart-healthy options where possible:
- Eating oat-based cereals such as porridge seems to be very good for cholesterol because oats appear to bind to LDL cholesterol in the gut, thereby helping its removal from the bloodstream.
- Cut back on red meat intake significantly. Switch to lean white meat such as chicken instead. Avoid the skin of the chicken as it is high in cholesterol.
- Throw away the frying pan.
- Eat less saturated fat. Choose low-fat dairy products and low-fat spreads made from sunflower or olive oil.
