Forget Cheerios: Try Harvard Medical School’s Top 11 Cholesterol Lowering Foods!
Posted on 20. Oct, 2009 by Kerry D Friesen, M.D. in Heart Health
Why Not Try These Truly Functional Foods
This recently released list of foods that lower cholesterol will come as no surprise to some people.
What is surprising is how little it really takes to make a significant difference.
For example, just 20 to 35 grams of oats per day, 2 ounces of nuts, 10 ounces of tofu or 2.5 cups of soy milk per day can lower LDL cholesterol by 5 percent.
Just 2 grams of phytosterol containing foods can lower LDL by 10 percent!
While the end result of adding these functional foods to your diet may be the same, the way they lower cholesterol can be remarkably different.
Fiber binds to cholesterol in the digestive tract while phytosterols compete for absorption of cholesterol. Fatty fish lowers triglycerides by activating an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase in the blood stream and nuts contain PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids) that directly lower LDL (bad) cholesterol.
Harvard Medical School’s Top Eleven Foods
- Oats
- Barley and other whole grains
- Beans
- Eggplant and Okra
- Nuts
- Vegetable oils
- Apples, grapes, strawberries, and citrus fruits
- Foods fortified with sterols and stanols
- Soy
- Fatty fish
- Fiber supplements
As an added benefit, most of these foods possess natural anti-inflammatory properties that when combined with lowered cholesterol, decrease the risk for heart disease and stroke.
So why wait? Make it your mission to include these 11 top-rated foods in your daily diet. Better yet, add the foods and include a high-quality supplement to boost the health promoting benefits!
