Recipes to help lower cholestrol

Making lifestyle changes like losing weight, by eating a healthy low-fat calorie controlled diet, and starting an exercise regime can have a dramatic effect on your cholestrol, lowering it within a few weeks in some cases. Buy books of recipes to help lower cholestrol or use the following cholestrol lowering foods in your recipes to help lower cholestrol:-

• Oats – Eat oats as porridge or in homemade muesli with other great sources of fibre like rice bran.
• Wholegrains – Find recipes for wholegrain breads and muffins. Wholegrains are great sources of nutrition.
• Eat more beans and pulses. Add beans and pulses to recipes like casseroles and curries. Try out bean soup recipes to help lower cholestrol.
• Add sources of Omega 3 fatty acids to your recipes – flax seed oil and linseed oil. Add walnuts to yogurts and cereals, they are great for lowering cholestrol. Eat more oily fish like salmon, fresh tuna, sardines and mackerel. Check out the fish section of your recipe books.
• Fruit and vegetables. Try vegetarian recipes and fruit desserts to ensure that you eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. Replace your usual meat with vegetables. Cook vegetable casseroles, vegetable moussaka, vegetable curry etc. This will also help you cut down on saturated fat (in meats) and will also boost your intake of cholestrol lowering soluble fibre. Try to eat some fruit peel, don’t peel apples and pears as the peel contains vital fibre. Look for recipes for fruit smoothies, they are a great breakfast idea.
• Add garlic to recipes. It is great fried with onions in olive oil in recipes for curry or bolognese. Garlic has been found to help lower cholestrol and to be good for your heart.
• Use products containing cholestrol lowering plant sterols in recipes to help lower cholestrol. You can buy spreads, low-fat milks and yogurts which contain these sterols.
• Avocados – find a recipe for guacamole. You can also use avocado oil in recipes to help lower cholestrol.
• Add spices like cayenne pepper, turmeric and cinnamon to recipes. Research has shown that these may help lower cholestrol levels.
• Eat or drink soya products and use them for recipes. Canadian research has shown that eating a vegetarian diet rich in soya can be as good at lowering cholestrol as some medications. Use soya milk instead of your regular milk.
• Replace butter in recipes with polyunsaturated spreads and replace lard or oils with olive oil which is a mono unsaturated oil and is actually good for your heart and cholestrol levels.

Think of ways to incorporate the above foods into your everyday meals. If you lack inspiration then treat yourself to a cookbook or two full of recipes to help lower cholestrol.