Diet for treating high cholesterol is the main link in the treatment of this disease. Consider how you can avoid excess fat and cholesterol in your diet. We will find out how to choose the right healthy food for you every day and an approximate menu for a week if you are facing hyperlipidemia.
20 basic nutrition rules for people with high cholesterol
High cholesterol can be the cause of coronary heart disease, lower extremity venous thrombosis, stroke, myocardial infarction. You can prevent the severe consequences of chronic lipodystrophy by following the simple rules listed below.
- Diet for people with hypercholesterolemia should be broken down. Try to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Therefore, there is no craving and the risk of overeating after a long period of fasting.
- Eat vegetables and fruits at any time and in large quantities. Fiber helps speed up the process of excreting excess cholesterol from the body.
- With bad cholesterol, the diet should consist mainly of foods with vegetable fats. Try to use olive oil instead of butter when cooking.
- Try to eat lean meat no more than a few times a week. With high cholesterol, recipes and menus using poultry, veal, rabbit and lamb are most suitable.
- Proper nutrition for people with high cholesterol is supported by exercise. Gentle walking of at least three kilometers a day is recommended for people with high levels of low-density lipoprotein.
- Diet for people with hypercholesterolemia should include mainly steamed, baked, and boiled foods. Deep-frying should be avoided altogether.
- If you have high cholesterol, avoid foods high in animal fat. No need to eat lard, pork, bacon, smoked meats. Replace these products with boiled poultry, fish, seafood.
- Increasing the amount of salt in food is contraindicated in high blood pressure and atherosclerotic disease. Try to eat no more than 5 grams of salt per day. It is best to abandon this product altogether.
- It is necessary to drink at least two liters of water per day, especially for thick blood and increased bilirubin. High levels of these indicators often indicate a violation of the function of the liver and gallbladder, which leads to hyperlipidemia. Increased blood viscosity causes immobilization of blood clots on lipid deposits in the vessels. Eat sour fruits that can thin the blood, such as cherries and gooseberries.
- Pastries and high cholesterol are a bad combination. Milk chocolate should also be avoided. As a dessert alternative, unsweetened oatmeal cookies, dried fruit, nuts and honey are suitable. Sometimes you can treat yourself to oriental Turkish food.
- The daily calorie requirement for women and men is different - the average is 2200 kcal and 2600 kcal, respectively. Increasing calorie intake is also necessary for people who do heavy manual labor. These factors are very important when formulating a diet.
- Make sure to limit alcohol abuse. Red wine is allowed but no more than two glasses per week.
- Coffee is a controversial ally in the fight against high cholesterol. It contains cafestol, which increases endogenous cholesterol production by the liver. But some experts, on the contrary, recommend drinking 1-2 cups of coffee a day, as this helps strengthen the cardiovascular system. So you can drink coffee, but don't overdo it. An alternative is chicory or green tea drinks.
- Cook porridge every day. Try not to boil so the cereal will crumble. Don't add a lot of butter to the finished dish if you have high cholesterol. For example, for oatmeal, honey and dried fruit are suitable as flavorings.
- Hyperlipidemia does not include the use of full-fat dairy products. Replace them with fat-free yogurt and kefir. As an alternative, use low-fat yogurt and kefir.
- Products containing harmful trans fats, such as fast food, are strictly contraindicated. Avoid chips and other snacks.
- When cooking poultry, remove the skin from the surface. Because it makes the dish fatter and contains harmful ingredients.
- Semi-finished products and elevated blood cholesterol are mutually exclusive concepts. In such products there are no useful vitamins and minerals. Such food does not give enough energy, but only clogs the body with tormenting calories and fat.
- Try not to overeat at night. Eat dinner no later than two hours before bedtime. To suppress your appetite before going to bed, it is better to drink a glass of kefir or eat a few dates, a handful of almonds.
- Your doctor will tell you what is the best way to eat. After weighing all the risks and comorbidities, an experienced therapist will help develop the most effective nutritional plan. Self-treatment of high cholesterol is not recommended.
High cholesterol is a reversible process if you follow the above recommendations and get regular medical check-ups.
Popular diets to lower cholesterol in women and men
A cholesterol-lowering diet can be based on a combination of many different foods. To significantly reduce blood cholesterol levels, it is important to stick to the recommended diet for a long time, at least six months.
To understand the different types of diets that regulate high cholesterol, this comparative description of the most popular types of diets will help you.
Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet, which lowers cholesterol levels, is recommended for people with atherosclerotic disease, hypertension and overweight. The basis of such nutrition is a lot of cheese, meat, fish and spices. However, these products are perfectly combined and have a positive effect on hyperlipidemia. List of foods in the diet:
- Spices and herbs.
- Soft cheese like feta.
- Olive oil.
- Fish, mussels, shrimp.
- Bird, sheep.
- Moderate red wine.
- Unleavened flat bread made from flour (pitas).
- Vegetables and fruits.
- Greek yogurt.
- Cereals.
Fatty meat, lard, sausages, sweetened carbonated drinks are excluded from the diet. Because these products can cause high cholesterol in the blood. For example, the following menu for high cholesterol, calculated for a week, is presented:
1 day
- For breakfast: three pieces of fried lentils with yogurt.
- For lunch, refresh yourself with creamy Brussels sprouts soup with shrimp; Fruit platter and salad with olives and tofu.
- You can eat pita for dinner, stuffed with feta cubes and salad (cherry tomatoes, cucumber, a few olives).
Day 2
- A good start to the day is zrazy buckwheat curd.
- Light lunch - light soup with lentils, risotto with vegetables.
- A good mood in the evening will be provided by grilled salmon, flavored with olive oil, with Provencal herbs.
Day 3
- Breakfast - buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
- At lunch, grilled tuna with vegetables will restore strength; tomato puree soup.
- For dinner: salad with chicken breast and avocado, flavored with olive oil, pita.
4th
- Breakfast: yogurt with chopped hazelnuts and almonds, maybe a little honey.
- Light lunch: fish ball soup, baked potato with tomato.
- Dinner: vegetable salad with an egg, lemon juice and olive oil.
Day 5
- Breakfast: steamed oats with honey and raisins.
- Energize lunch - soup - spinach leaves and asparagus puree with liquid cream; lightly boiled salmon with wild rice.
- Dinner: toast with small cherry tomatoes and feta, on a whole-wheat crust, optionally shredded tofu cubes.
6th
- Breakfast: dried fruit soup, green tea.
- For lunch - cabbage soup, stewed chicken with vegetables, a pita.
- For dinner - zucchini with feta in the oven, pita with butter and olive oil.
7th
- For breakfast: toss baked pumpkin with yogurt and honey.
- Lunch: cream soup of champignons and chanterelles; Shredded garlic chicken, sweet chili in the oven.
- Dinner: rustic rice with mussels and shrimp.
For snacks between main meals, you can use dates, prunes, raisins, almonds. Such a diet will not only help reduce high cholesterol, but also reduce body weight.
Diet table number 10
The main cooking methods are boiling and baking. Because high cholesterol does not rule out the use of fried foods. You should eat at least five meals a day in small portions. Have an evening snack no later than two hours before bedtime. Products that can be consumed:
- Jelly juice, jelly.
- Whole wheat bread.
- Fresh vegetable salads.
- Eggs have no yolk.
- Fish: tuna, salmon, carp.
- Cheese, kefir and fat-free yogurt.
- Kashi.
It is necessary to refuse the following products: butter, fatty meat, and especially delicacies from red fish, salted and smoked fish, fatty cheeses, pickled vegetables, mustard. A sample menu for a week if you have high cholesterol might look like this:
- Early breakfast: buckwheat cooked in 1% milk, soft boiled eggs, green tea with milk.
- Pre-dinner snack: a piece of boiled chicken or a fresh apple.
- Lunch: vegetable broth with rye, mushrooms and chopped zucchini, grilled salmon or carp with stewed vegetables (eg, bell peppers, onions, zucchini), 1 glass of fresh apple juice.
- Snack: rosehip tea, nuts and dried fruit (eg, prunes and almonds).
- Dinner: low-fat cottage cheese, boiled beets with an apple, 1 glass of low-fat milk.
- At night: 1 glass of fat-free kefir.
During the week, you can combine different dishes from vegetables, white poultry and fish. For a snack, use nuts or fruit, such as bananas or apples. Diet table number 10 is recommended not only to prevent the occurrence of atherosclerosis, but also to hypothyroidism. With a regular diet for at least four months, high cholesterol can be significantly reduced.
Diet table number 10A
This diet has some limitations:
- Bread - up to 145 g per day.
- Vegetable broth - up to 180 ml.
- The use of cheese, pearl barley and millet is excluded.
- Do not eat food that is too hot or too cold.
Diet chart number 10, which has a positive effect on high cholesterol, looks like this every day:
- Breakfast: chopped oatmeal with 1% milk, green tea, a small apple.
- Snack: baked apple with cheese.
- Lunch: steamed chicken cutlets, oil-free mashed potatoes, half a glass of fresh apple juice.
- Afternoon snack: prunes or dates.
- Dinner: carrot-apple slices baked in the oven, half a glass of fat-free kefir.
- Before going to bed: half a glass of rosehip tincture or chicory drink.
After age 50, more than 35% of people have high cholesterol. Therefore, the risk of progression of atherosclerosis and the occurrence of myocardial infarction and stroke is increased. Therefore, at this age, it is especially important to adhere to a reasonable diet combined with light exercise.
Dining table 10C
Table 10C is a therapeutic diet for lowering cholesterol. This diet is recommended for people with diagnosed coronary heart disease and high blood pressure, caused by atherosclerosis. This menu is mainly vegetable fat, fiber, foods containing many vitamins B, PP, C. Daily calorie content in the menu is about 2570 kcal. It is necessary to eat small portions with six doses per day.
Recommended foods to lower high cholesterol include:
- Bran.
- Sea cabbage.
- Vegetables and fruits can be eaten in large portions.
- Bake or boil eggs a little, up to three pieces a week.
- Buckwheat flour, oatmeal, barley porridge.
- Baby, a few spoons a day.
- Spaghetti durum, try not to overcook.
Prohibited foods include the same menu as food number 10. Approximate daily diets are as follows:
- Breakfast: boiled buckwheat without oil, light curd cubes with seasonal fruit, tea.
- Snack: baked apples or dried apricots.
- Lunch: stewed carrots, steamed beets with beets, rice soup with vegetables sauteed in olive oil, seasonal fruits.
- Afternoon snack: unsweetened berry smoothie or honey with some hazelnuts.
- Dinner: Seasonal vegetable salad with olive oil and seaweed, grilled salmon (another oily fish) with slices of lemon and thyme, boiled potatoes, diluted green tea.
- Before going to bed: a glass of 1% kefir.
A healthy lifestyle is not just limited to diet. Because high cholesterol levels require complex treatment. Do not forget about physical exercises, as well as long walks in the fresh air.
low carb diet
Foods that are excluded from the low-carb menu include:
- Pastries, white bread.
- Sugar and fructose, honey.
- Alcohol and carbonated sugary drinks.
- Macaroni and potatoes.
- Milk chocolate.
- Sweet fruit like grapes.
In large quantities, animal protein should be included in the daily diet, for example fish, dairy products, lean meat. Here's what a low-carb menu for a week might look like:
Monday
- Egg white omelette with chopped egg and tomato;
- Cream of Chicken and Brussels Sprout Soup. Two whole grain breads;
- Pear;
- Beef stew with bell peppers.
Tuesday
- Thin pancakes on kefir with cheese, raisins.
- Salmon ears. Two slices of whole grain bread.
- Green apple.
- Braised chicken fillet with water spinach.
Wednesday
- Cheesecake with low-fat sour cream.
- Drizzle over water and grill chicken cutlets.
- Orange.
- Chilled chicken.
Thursday
- Whipped curd.
- Cheese soup with chicken breast. Two whole-grain toast.
- Half a grapefruit.
- Unpolished rice. Steamed zucchini and carrots, fresh cucumber.
Friday
- A soft boiled egg sprinkled with grated cheese.
- Stewed fish with light cream sauce.
- Kiwi or an orange.
- Boiled beans, mashed. Chicken roll. A tomato.
- Before going to bed - a glass of kefir.
Saturday
- Cheese and natural yogurt.
- Steamed lamb meatballs and a cucumber.
- Mandarin or apple.
- Seafood. Arugula salad with olive oil.
Sunday
- Steamed omelette with chicken breast.
- Grilled turkey fillet with broccoli.
- A glass of 1% kefir.
- Rabbit stew with vegetables (onion, zucchini, sweet pepper).
While following this diet, you should drink up to two liters of fluids per day. In women, contraindications to a low-carbohydrate diet may be lactation and pregnancy. High cholesterol, if detected in time, can be successfully treated by adjusting nutrition. What diet you need to follow, ultimately only your attending physician can decide after a detailed analysis of your medical history.
Diet
The Paleo diet includes foods that our Stone Age ancestors ate before the development of agriculture. A large amount of animal protein was the basis of prehistoric nutrition. At the same time, carbohydrates and fats are used in the diet much less. The main product is meat, containing animal protein. It is he who accelerates metabolism and helps prevent the accumulation of excess fat.
The palo diet is suitable for lowering blood cholesterol, due to reduced consumption of animal fat. It is recommended to eat every 5 hours, about three meals a day. The main permitted products are:
- Fat-free meat and poultry.
- Seafood, fish.
- Oils: olive, flaxseed, sesame.
- Mushrooms, nuts and seeds are not heat-treated.
- Fresh strawberries, vegetables and fruits.
Sugar and salt, legumes and grains, dairy products, starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes) are excluded from the menu with such a diet. It is advisable to consume foods mainly raw or after minimal heat treatment. This type of nutrition will help protect blood vessels from cholesterol and plaque formation. Elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein can return to normal if the principles of the diet are followed.
Keto diet
The keto diet is based on minimal consumption of carbohydrates. In this regard, the body trains to make more energy from fat and protein. This high-cholesterol diet helps reduce low-density lipoproteins. At the same time, there is an increase in the level of "good" cholesterol.
While on a ketogenic diet, avoid bread, sugar, pasta, fruit, and sweets. When there is a lack of carbohydrates, the body begins to aggressively break down stored fat.
This diet is similar to a low-carb diet. When choosing the optimal menu, you must use the following rules:
- Breakfast: In the morning, try to consume up to 15 g of carbohydrates. The source can be cheese or vegetables. It is recommended to eat omelette in olive oil with tomatoes, add toast with bran. Calorie content - 500-600 kcal.
- At lunch, you need to limit carbohydrates. Nutritionists recommend eating soup with chicken balls (without potatoes, noodles). Note that high cholesterol suggests eating vegetable broth. Second, you can have brown rice with brisket and a piece of cheese.
- Dinner should increase the ratio of protein to fiber. Poultry or lamb, veal and greens will do. It is better to grill meat, and make salads from vegetables with a spoonful of olive oil.
When following the ketogenic diet, the body operates in "emergency" mode, in a state of ketosis due to the production of ketone bodies (derivatives of fatty acids). Therefore, medical supervision during such nutrition is necessary. Despite the risk involved, elevated cholesterol normalizes during the keto diet.
Some people claim that the diet will help lower cholesterol and recommend statins. A very controversial statement. Many doctors and experts fundamentally disagree on this.
Ornish's Vegetarian Diet
The diet was first created by Dean Ornish, Bill Clinton's personal physician. And it is based on strictly controlling the amount of fat consumed. No more than 20 grams of fat is allowed per day. This diet is indicated if a person is diagnosed with hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, and obesity. Basically the menu is vegetarian. This food is characterized by an increase in the proportion of carbohydrates in the food consumed.
It is necessary to combine Ornish nutrition with physical exercise and movement. The daily balance of fat, protein and carbohydrates is 10, 25, 75% respectively. Recommended products to use:
- Vegetables, mostly green.
- Lentils, chickpeas, peas.
- Apples and pears.
- Buckwheat porridge, made from corn, wheat and rice.
Eat in moderation eggs, dairy products, cheese, cookies. Necessarily exclude red meat, puff pastry and bakery products, butter, mayonnaise, olives, nuts, seeds.
Sample menu for the week can be arranged as follows.
The first day
- Breakfast: chicory juice, add a tablespoon of wheat bran to low-fat yogurt.
- Lunch: several large baked potatoes with tomatoes, cucumber salad, greens and Iceberg lettuce, a green apple.
- Snack: apricots or plums (3 pieces), other seasonal fruits, low-fat cottage cheese.
- Dinner: two whole-wheat toast, an apple or pear, durum spaghetti with low-fat cheese, berry juice.
The second day
- Breakfast: freshly squeezed orange juice, rice porridge with low-fat milk, a glass of kefir.
- Lunch: beans with mushrooms and onions, salad with tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers, mixed with olive oil.
- Afternoon snack: strawberries, bread.
- Dinner: two slices of bran bread, half an avocado, buckwheat porridge stewed with mushrooms and carrots, green tea.
The third day
- Breakfast: decaffeinated coffee, a cup of muesli with berries and low-fat milk.
- Lunch: soup with slices of pumpkin and spinach, soup with vegetables, vinegar dressing without pickles.
- Afternoon snack: a glass of kefir, low-fat biscuits.
- Dinner: half a roasted eggplant with onions and carrots, a bowl of seasonal berries, mint tea.
The forth day
- Breakfast: pomegranate juice, pumpkin-zucchini pancakes.
- Lunch: broccoli and cauliflower, stewed asparagus with rice and chicken fillet.
- Snack: low-fat cottage cheese with yogurt, oat crackers.
- Dinner: stewed white cabbage with carrots and onions, any fruit of your choice, grape juice.
Thursday
- Breakfast: apple juice, porridge from a mixture of cereals.
- Lunch: two slices of fish, mashed potatoes without added milk, and a small piece of butter.
- Afternoon snack: a cup of low-fat kefir, a green apple.
- Dinner: asparagus and chickpea soup, weak tea.
The sixth day
- Breakfast: chicory drink, fat-free cottage cheese with honey.
- Lunch: Boiled turkey breast with zucchini and pumpkin puree, orange juice.
- Afternoon snack: oat pudding, multigrain bread.
- Dinner: two cabbage rolls with rice and vegetables, mineral water.
Saturday
- Breakfast: a cheese stew with raisins, chicory.
- Lunch: 2 lentils and carrots, rice.
- Snack: 3 grilled cheesecakes, orange juice.
- Dinner: apples stuffed with cheese and dried apricots, chamomile tea.
High cholesterol if strictly following the rules of this diet can return to normal. Regularity and self-control are crucial to achieving results.
Intermittent fasting
Fasting is used to lower blood cholesterol. Hypercholesterolemia can be treated with a complete diet in the following way: when food is lacking, the body begins to use its reserves of low-density lipoprotein for energy for life. After 12 hours of fasting, cholesterol, as an alternative energy source, begins to be released into the bloodstream and broken down for energy.
Approximate diagram of cholesterol starvation for one week:
The first day - new apple-carrot juice only, diluted with water 1: 2. On the second day, you can drink the juice without diluting it with water. For lunch, you can eat 50 g of grated carrots. In the third part - drink grape-apple and carrot juice. Have a meal with a hundred grams of vegetable puree and before going to bed - kefir.
On the fourth and fifth day, add vegetables and grated fruit, and at night - light cheese. On Fridays and Saturdays, breakfast should consist of ground vegetables and fruit, and for dinner and lunch, eat cooked buckwheat or millet cereal. Such a strict diet can be carried out only after consulting a doctor and under medical supervision. To correct high cholesterol, it is necessary to periodically repeat the therapeutic fasting process.
It is not easy to choose the optimal diet for a person with high cholesterol - it is necessary to study in detail all the features of the body of a particular person. It is very important to take into account concomitant diseases, sex, age. Only a properly designed menu can effectively prevent the severe consequences of high blood cholesterol.