Scientists worldwide agree that the single most important thing you can do to lower your risk of a heart attack is to lower bad forms of cholesterol like LDL and non-HDL. Learn the safest, most effective ways to lower cholesterol with diet and exercise.
When it comes to food and its effects on your health, don’t rely on the latest headline-grabbers in the media. Rely instead on the real health experts, like the 12 reviewers of this recent paper in Circulation. They’re actually focused on your health, and your health alone.
Freezer aisles are full of ice creams that tout themselves as heart-healthy because they’re dairy-free. But manufacturers are often replacing the dairy with things that have more (yes, more!) artery-clogging saturated fat, like coconut milk. A serving of Coconut Bliss Ice Cream, for example, has as much saturated fat as a Quarter Pounder With Cheese.
Many people think they’re doing everything right to lower cholesterol, and a lot of what they’re doing is right. They’re ordering egg-white omelettes and fish. They’ve cut out butter, cheese, and beef. They drink nonfat milk. This is all fantastic. But there’s one thing they haven’t done, and many nutrition scientists believe it’s the most important thing of all.
Many people ask: “Why bother with diet? I can lower my cholesterol with pills alone.” Sure, drugs like statins can reduce cholesterol. But following a heart-healthy diet, or adding heart-healthy eating to your statin regimen, may lower your cholesterol even more, research has found. Plus, a heart-healthy lifestyle can help clean up virtually all modifiable risk factors for heart disease, not just high cholesterol.
A growing body of research is finding that for many people, getting healthy again does not require a medicine cabinet full of drugs. Fast and profound benefits can happen simply with diet and exercise. Good food. Good fitness. That’s all we need, asserts science.
When we exercise regularly and eat well, focusing on heart-healthy whole foods as the Pritikin Eating Plan does, we’re not only taking good care of our hearts; we’re taking good care of all kinds of lesser-known but incredibly important heart-protective systems within us, like our ability to prevent chronic inflammation.
New evidence suggests that high levels of HDL cholesterol may not always protect against heart disease.
It is important to not only stay educated about your health and wellbeing, but to also take preventative action now, so that you can stay committed and enjoy all of life’s pleasures for a long time to come.
LDL cholesterol is not the only bad thing embedding itself in our artery walls. To get a sense of all our plaque producers, non-HDL cholesterol is the number to look at.
We can keep piling on the pills, but the best protection against a heart attack should start with a healthy lifestyle, especially healthy food. With this Shopping List For Lowering Cholesterol, you’ll get a real good sense of which foods work against you, sending your cholesterol levels soaring, but also which foods work for you, taking your cholesterol down.
