Diet For High Cholesterol - Foods You Should Avoid

Diet For High Cholesterol - Foods You Should Avoid

Cholesterol and the difference between "bad" (LDL) and "good" (HDL) cholesterol has become a source of endless discussion and worry but do you know which foods to avoid if you are on a diet for high cholesterolall

It helps to know that cholesterol itself comes from animals. Which is why fruits and vegetables have zero cholesterol; if the food you are eating didn't come from an animal, it has no cholesterol.

But, unless we're vegetarians or fruitarians, we all eat some food that does come from animals and there are very big differences on how much cholesterol some popular foods have compared to others.

Here is a brief guide of the foods that you want to avoid if you are really serious about achieving and maintaining a normal cholesterol level:

Dairy Products: This includes butter, ice-cream (one of my favorites!), cream cheese, cream, and whole milk. Better choices for lower cholestrol are diary products with reduced cholesterol include 2% and no-fat milk and a number of "low-fat, no-fat" butter and cheese products.

Meats from Organs: Kidney, liver, brain, etc. Also, untrimmed red meat.

Processed Meat: Sausage, bologna, salami, hot dogs.

Poultry: Particularly duck and goose; the skin of both birds is very high in cholesterol. A better choice is chicken or turkey.

Egg Yolks: Egg whites are fine but avoid the yolks.

Fried Food: chicken, etc.

Now is probably a good time to point out that, despite all the bad press cholesterol get, it is critical to good health to get the right amount in your diet. The problem is that our western diet is way too heavy in high cholesterol foods and we do need to pay a lot more attention to what we eat. The obesity facts are pretty clear, we must eat more fruit and more vegetable and much less red meat and processed foods.

You can also help your diet for high cholesterol by adding a concentrated source of omega-3 fatty acid daily. Omega-3 is crucial to lowering "bad" (LDL) cholesterol.