Eat This Daily To Lower Your Cholesterol
Our bodies have some strong opinions when it comes to what we indulge in. And some of these opinions can wreak havoc on our days. Examples include the hangover we suffer after one to many drinks, the belly aches we endure after eating too much, and the reaction we have if we eat something we're allergic to. There are numerous signs to let us know we may not have made the best choice for our health but unfortunately, not all of them are so obvious. Your cholesterol levels could be sneakily venturing towards the sky-high zone and you might not know it. This can become an issue if left untreated, and may even result in a heart attack or a stroke (via Healthline). Here are some of the foods that can help you feel more secure in the battle to lower your cholesterol.
Soluble fiber is a great weapon against cholesterol
There are a number of foods that can be introduced into your diet to help reduce your cholesterol and improve the fleet of fats floating through your bloodstream (per Harvard Health Publishing). Different foods will reduce cholesterol in different ways. Eating a bowl of oats for example, will give you 1 to 2 grams of soluble fiber. And studies have shown that ingesting between 10 to 25 grams soluble fiber a day can lower cholesterol (via Very Well Health).
Eating beans is also a great source of soluble fiber. They get bonus points as well because they take longer to digest after eating, which means they leave you fuller for a longer period of time. Another bonus is that it doesn't take long to see the positive effects eating beans has on your cholesterol. Vanessa Ha, a research coordinator at the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Center at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, conducted a study with her fellow researchers on cholesterol levels and found out how quickly eating legumes, such as beans, made a noticeable effect on cholesterol. "We found a 5 percent reduction in bad cholesterol with one serving of legumes a day over six weeks on average," she claims (via Live Science).
Nuts and avocados to the rescue
We're very happy to see this next food in the discussion as they are delicious, versatile, and easy to snack on. Nuts like walnuts, peanuts, and almonds are shown to help lower cholesterol and in addition, protect the heart in other ways (via Harvard Health Publishing). By eating only 20 grams of nuts per day, the risk for diabetes drops by 40 percent, and the risk of infectious diseases drops by 75 percent (via Medical News Today). We love hearing any news that makes us feel good about our snacking habits!
It feels like this next food on the list is having a it's moment. And it's not like these green wonders could possibly need more praise, but avocados have also proven to have a positive effect in reducing cholesterol. An investigation of 10 studies concluded that substituting avocados for other fats was connected to lower total cholesterol. Now that we know what foods can come to our aid when we're in need, we're feeling more prepared to keep our cholesterol levels out of the sky-high zone.