There is lots of evidence that all adults should keep one eye on their cholesterol levels. In early life, the body can deal with a bit of abuse, yet as we get older our bodies get less able to deal with the junk we feed it. Furthermore, younger people are usually more lively than older individuals and exercise is a way of lowering cholesterol.
It is worth having your cholesterol levels tested at various stages of your life, because some people have genetic problems that result in too much cholesterol and it is worth knowing if you fall into this group as early as possible.
Before you start working on your cholesterol you should know what they are. So, get your numbers and ask your doctor for an opinion. He or she may say that they are all right, that they are on the high side or that you had better do something about them right now. Make certain that you make a note of these numbers which will be for your HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) levels.
Once you have these reference points and your GP’s opinion you can choose what action to take. In this article, we will talk about the three most effective methods of decreasing your LDL level of cholesterol.
1] The most effective thing you can do to lower your LDL cholesterol is to reduce the amount of saturated fat and trans fat that you eat. People get most of their bad cholesterol from these two fats by a long chalk. Saturated fat comes from animal fat but particularly from red meat and full fat dairy products like milk, cream and cheese. Trans fats are hydrogenated fats, which are vegetable fats which have been ‘liquidized’ with water.
Just cutting out these two kinds of fat might be enough to save you from taking medication for the rest of your life. However, every body requires fat, so besides cutting these harmful fats out, you will have to replace some of them with mono-unsaturated fats and poly-unsaturated fats. These names are listed on products in a lot of countries.
In essence, it means cooking with olive oil and spreading better margarine on your bread. In fact there are even margarines and salad dressings now that actually lower cholesterol in their own right.
2] The second means to keep your cholesterol levels under control is exercise. Exercise burns up your LDL cholesterol. You do not have to do a great deal to create a big difference. Hiking thirty minutes every morning and every evening can have quite a remarkable impact on your health particularly if you do not exercise at all at the moment.
3] The third most effective method of keeping your cholesterol levels correct is to maintain a good body weight. As you can see, by following a sensible diet and doing regular exercise, you will of necessity get your correct body weight. The whole system is actually telling you that if you have a problem with cholesterol, then you are not living correctly.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on numerous subjects, but is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diet. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?