What foods do you use to lower your cholesterol?

I love oatmeal. Not the precooked, multi flavoured prepacked rubbish, but the proper old fashioned kind.

Cut out red meat all together. You’ll miss it less and less.

I hope your blood pressure and weight is good. I’m still not convinced that based on ‘cholesterol’ work-ups, heart disease can be avoided or even improve factors. I think it has to part of a full history with pre-disposition, weight, lifestyle all measured in.

Eat a lot of vegetables and fruits.

And hav patience because it won’t happen over night.

I have heard that Metamuscil daily will drop cholesterol (in addition to its other benefit). Stay away from fatty red meats, lunch meats. Eat more white meat and veg. Olive oil instead of butter or margerine or ‘ave an avo!

Cook with lots of fresh herbs instead of butter. Stir fries with spray oil and a bit of stock instead of too much oil.

It isn’t hard. Don’t think of it as depriving yourself, instead think of it as doing yourself a favor. Also running is a very good exercise if you are physically able. Start with a program of walk 4 minutes jog 1 minute, repeat for 30 minutes. Gradually increase the jogging time or stick with 1 minute. Don’t set unrealistic or goals that are too hard to achieve. Many people make themselves hate exercise because they make it too hard. Anything you do is good so if jogging 1 and walking 9 feels right, then JUST DO IT, heeheh. Good luck Jakie, I know you can do it.

Give us a bit more context as well – to tailor responses. The exercise is a must, build a regiment – or find something fun to do that includes exercise. But just make sure it’s often – break a sweat every day.

Drink a lot of green tea, or extracts, green coffee works as well.

In my case: I had high HDL cholesterol (42mg%) and triglycerides 300.2mg/dl on a Vegan diet. Why? Because if you do not consume fats, your body will create them, sometime over-shoot as well. So I had to increase fat intake (Avocados, olives etc) by a bit to lower own production.

So what kind of diet do you generally follow?

Sometimes bring down your cholesterol is as easy as giving up certain fatty foods. I was able to bring my cholesterol down by doing a few small changes. Exercising at least 30 minutes a day.
Giving up pound cake for breakfast and taking food from home to work for lunch, instead of picking up a pizza slice or burger and fries or steak sub. In two months my cholesterol was back to normal. My doctor couldn’t believe it. I tried the medication at first but it made my stomach ill and I was running to the bathroom 3 times a day. Figured this was a much easier and healthier way to go.
Look over the foods you eat and start by cutting out the fattiest things you eat frequently.

My dad said oatmeal and daily exercise did it for him.

I like steel cut oatmeal, rather than rolled oats. I add fresh fruit and vanilla yogurt to it. It has a nutty flavor.

I love dairy and calcium, plus lots of veggies. I also take a fish, flax and borage oil supplement daily. My good ch. is twice the guidelines, my bad ch. is half the guidelines.

I put an oatmeal based granola type cereal (few tablespoons) dry on top of my yogurt and fresh fruite breakfast and eat an apple a day – for the six weeks before my check-up! ~P

I stick to a strict diet of alcohol and red meat.

Flax seed oil caplets twice a day. Also Red yeast rice supplement will control cholesterol. Oily fish like salmon and ahi.

Walnuts. A handful of walnuts every day.

Here is Mayo Clinic’s Top Five foods that lower cholesterol list.

Congratulations for actively trying to change your habits to improve your health. There are far too many folk that ignore doctor’s recommendations, and end up having to severely pay for it later.

With that, you should definately use this as an opportunity to broaden your food pallete. For instance instead of thinking “What foods do you use to lower your cholesterol” it would be more helpful to know “What foods can you enjoy while lowering your cholesterol”.

In general you want to consume more fiber (preferably soluble), which includes whole grain items (there are some really good whole grain pastas, and breads at most grocery stores) as well as the infamous oatmeal.

Cholesterol is primarily found in animal based products, so it will benefit you to reduce the amount of fatty meat you typically consume. Or if you really need to have your grilled steak and chicken you can take steps to reduce the cholesterol you cosume by trimming the white fatty strips off of your steak or removing the skin from that drumstick.

Eating is meant to be a relaxed and enjoyable experience, so it will be important to make small acheiveable goals on your journey towards lowering your cholesterol. Switching from a morning routine of bacon and eggs to fiber one and pulpy oj overnight would be great; however, it isn’t realistic to make such a drastic change without eventually resenting your diet (or doctor).

You’re already on your way by reaching out and asking for help, so keep it up by making small realistic diet and excercise goals. And if you need help along the way, see if your doctor can write you a referral to see a registered dietitian.

And for all those oatmeal fans out there, do yourself a favor and prepare your old fashioned oats with apple cider instead of water. Throw in a sprinke of cinnamon and it’ll change your life.

Good luck.

red wine.

Thanks, everyone. There are many excellent suggestions. I’ll be eating more oatmeal and fish, which doesn’t sound bad at all. And I’ll be exercising again, which is also a good thing.

I think the main thing is that I didn’t eat that much whole grains. Here in Hawaii, we eat a lot of white rice. I’m going to start by mixing in some brown rice to go with it and switching to heavier whole grain breads.

It may sound crazy, but I eat very little red meat. That won’t be hard to reduce. My greatest source of fat is peanut butter. I eat a lot of it. I suppose I could switch to almond butter.

Again, thanks. An especial thanks goes out to @missafantastico for that excellent post and welcome to Fluther.

@anartist : Ha! You drink the wine for me, my friend. I’m a recovered alcoholic. Red wine is the worst thing I could possibly add to my diet. :)

I drink an organic raw honey and cinnamon capsule concoction 2x a day 30 minutes before breakfast and 30 minutes before dinner.
Cinnamon has a blood sugar regulating factor and helps with sugar metabolism.
I make lots of fruit salads and tons of blackberries, fresh and frozen when not in season.

A big bowl of blackberries drizzled with a bit of raw honey is sublime.

Limit all fatty foods and red meat and go for more fish, veggies, and fruits.

The exercise is really key, and a brisk (3mph) walk for 30–45 minutes a day will make all the difference in lowering body fat and, hence, cholesterol levels.

@hawaii_jake Yes, you need to stop the peanut butter. Switching to almond butter will help. Are you eating it because you crave it? If so, you may be low on copper.

I have a bowl of porridge every morning and my cholesterol is fine. There may not be a connection but my superstitious mind thinks there is. I also like cycling.

My breakfast of choice for over 30 yrs has been good to me:

Banana
Almonds (pecans and brazils rotate)
Yogurt or old fashioned oatmeal or an egg.

You can try eating vegetables, preferably raw. Especially green ones like lettuce, celery, cucumbers.
If you’re a fan of juice, check this out. I drink vegetable juice all the time during the day, (Oasis brand, not actually a fan of V8 but I reckon that can do the trick just as much) they’re like energy drinks, too.

I really advise reading stuff from the Weston A. Price Foundation, especially Myths and Truths About Cholesterol.