Tips On Lowering High Cholesterol Naturally

If you're thinking you don't have to worry about cholesterol because you don't have heart trouble, you may want to think again. About 25 percent of American adults over age 20 have blood cholesterol levels that are considered high. More than half of all Americans have levels that are borderline-high.

Eating the typical American diet of fatty meats, processed cold cuts, dairy products, fried foods, eggs and commercially baked breads, cakes and cookie, can lead just about anyone down the high-cholesterol path. Only a small fraction of the population can eat high-fat diets and have low cholesterol. You don't need to eat any cholesterol. Your body makes all it needs. Any extra you get is either eliminated from your body or is deposited in your arteries. That's when problems begin.

Of course, even if your cholesterol is a little high, it doesn't mean you'll have a heart attack, but elevated cholesterol is one of the main risk factors. And if your cholesterol isn't high, you may want to take steps to keep it that way. Fortunately, that's fairly easy to do. Most people can lower or maintain their cholesterol just by making a few additions and subtractions to their diets.

Strangely enough, eating cholesterol doesn't raise blood cholesterol as much as eating a type of fat called saturated fat. Like cholesterol, saturated fat is found mainly in animal products, like cheese, butter, cream, whole milk, ice cream, lard and marbled meats. Some vegetable oils - palm oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil and cocoa butter - also are high in saturated fat.

These oils are used in commercially baked goods, coffee creamers and nondairy whipped toppings, so read the labels. Since eating cholesterol also can raise blood cholesterol levels, go easy on egg yolks, which contain 213 mg of cholesterol, and on organ meats, such as liver.

Unsaturated fats, both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated, have been shown to reduce blood cholesterol levels. Polyunsaturated fats come from plant and vegetable sources, such as cottonseed, soybean, corn and safflower. Sunflower and sesame seeds, walnuts and pecans also are high in polyunsaturates. Polyunsaturated fats are usually soft or liquid at room temperature.

Monounsaturated fats, like olive oil, have been found to lower high blood pressure also. Increasing your monounsaturated fats while decreasing your saturated fats should help lower your blood pressure naturally.