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Every day someone is told by their physician that they have high blood cholesterol. Cholesterol is a fatty substance that coats the walls of the arteries and can cause heart attacks and strokes if left untreated. Your doctor will give you a low fat diet to follow and recommend exercise.
Taking a brisk walk everyday is excellent excercise to lower cholesterol. The diet that the doctor will put you on is very low in fat so cut out as much fat in your diet as you can. Animal fat is in all meat and dairy products and is one of the major causes of high cholesterol.
These are some suggestions on the proper foods to eat to lower your cholesterol:
Daily Servings:
Lean meat, poultry, fish and shellfish - 6 oz a day
Skim/lowfat dairy products- 1 cup of skim milk
Eggs- 2 a week
Fats and Oils- 1 teaspoon
Vegetables- 3-5 servings a day
Breads, grains, cereals, rice, beans- 3-4 servings a day
Other food suggestions:
The white meat of chicken without the skin and ground turkey are very good lowfat meats. Some fish, like cod, has less saturated fat and cholesterol than chicken or meat. Limit meats such as bacon, bologna, salami, hot dogs, and sausage because they are high in fat and salt. Limit organ meats like liver and kidneys because they are very high in cholesterol. Ice cream is made from whole milk and cream so it is high in fat and cholesterol. Try to buy other frozen deserts, such as ice milk, low fat frozen yogurt, low fat frozen dairy deserts, fruit ices, sorbet, and popsicles. Use lowfat or nonfat sour cream or cream cheese blends; these taste as good as the real thing. Choose liquid vegetable oils such as canola, olive, safflower, sesame, soybean and sunflower oils. Buy lowfat mayonnaise. Most salad dressings have less fat than mayonnaise. Buy fruits and vegetables to have as snacks.
For breakfast, instead of doughnuts and muffins, try a hot cereal with skim milk and toast with jelly. Top your spaghetti with stir fried vegetables instead of a creamy sauce. If you're craving some cookies, buy the low fat cookies instead.
As you can see there are many ways to lower your cholesterol. Ask your doctor for some suggestions and he will most likely be happy to give you a lot of written information that you can follow. Go to your local library and check out books on cholesterol. The most important thing that you can do right away is to cut back on all fatty foods to lower your cholesterol.
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