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Foods with monounsaturated fat, such as walnuts, also can battle high cholesterol.
Foods with soy protein, such as soybeans,
Eating foods high in soluble fiber, such as |
EVERY NOW AND THEN,
Healthy eating certainly matters when it comes to keeping cholesterol low. But so does knowing how to outsmart unlucky genes, which play a bigger role than you might think.
I have a good friend whose cholesterol was in the whopping 600s in her teens. She's a skinny vegetarian and had to start taking a statin medication, and her cholesterol was still in the 300s as a young adult. A total cholesterol level over 240 is considered high; under 200 is desirable.
My friend had inherited her unusually high cholesterol levels. Severely high levels, called familial hypercholesterolemia, affect only one in 500 people. She was one of the unlucky ones.
How can this happen?
YOU AREN'T WHAT YOU EAT
Most cholesterol in our bodies comes not from foods, but from the way our bodies react to saturated fat. In fact, our livers produce about 1,000 milligrams of cholesterol a day, according to the American Heart Association.
The average person takes in much less cholesterol from food, about 200 to 300 milligrams.
Our bodies make cholesterol because it is useful. Every cell in the body contains cholesterol, which keeps cell membranes flexible and is part of many hormones, such as estrogen, testosterone and vitamin D.
Cholesterol also helps us digest fatty foods, and this is how our diets affect blood cholesterol levels. The more saturated fat (found in butter, red meat, etc.) or trans fat (from partially hydrogenated oils and shortenings) we eat, the more cholesterol-rich bile our livers make to digest the fat.
Some people, like my friend, have inherited the tendency to make too much cholesterol all the time, even when they eat well. Unfortunately, too much cholesterol can gum up the arteries, causing heart attacks and strokes.
ESCAPING YOUR GENES
If you or someone you know has inherited the unlucky tendency toward high cholesterol, don't despair. Medication is essential for some people. It works better when they eat well, too.
A story may make this clearer. For example, let's say there are two people trapped in burning buildings next door to each other. One of the buildings is 10 stories high, while the other building is one story tall. Obviously, the person in the 10-story building may need more help getting out, such as a ladder or maybe a rescue by firemen.
The person in the one-story building has an easier time, because he started out closer to the door.
So it is with heart disease. Some folks inherit a tendency to have high cholesterol--that's like being 10 stories up in the burning building. Even though they need to see a doctor and take medications (the metaphorical firemen) to help them get the last few stories to safety, it's still smart to try to get as close to the door as they can by eating well and exercising.
FINDING SAFETY
Quitting smoking and limiting alcohol to a drink a day for women or two drinks a day for men are well-known ways to reduce chances of having a heart attack or stroke.
Being physically active can reduce your total cholesterol levels, even if you're overweight. Exercise can also raise a healthy type of cholesterol, HDL, which acts as a sort of drain cleaner for the arteries. At the same time, exercise reduces the artery-clogging bad LDL cholesterol.
You should also eat less saturated fat. Your liver makes cholesterol-rich bile to help digest saturated fat. If you eat less fat, your liver may make a bit less cholesterol.
Eat foods that are rich in soluble fiber--fiber can bind to bile and cholesterol in the intestines and ease it out of the body. That's why foods such as oatmeal, barley, peas, beans, lentils, apples, pears and sweet potatoes are good for the heart--they're loaded with soluble fiber. They're also tasty, inexpensive and full of antioxidants.
Soy foods, almonds, plant sterols and fiber supplements also help reduce cholesterol, research suggests.
A fiber-rich vegetarian diet lowered cholesterol about 30 percent, as much as the statin drugs, according to repeated studies of the Portfolio Eating Plan.
Of course, folks who start out with a very high cholesterol level may need medicine as well to get to a normal level.
Jennifer Motl welcomes reader questions via her Web site, brighteating.com, or mailed to Nutrition, The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401.
| Few drugs are prescribed more frequently in the U.S. than those intended to lower cholesterol. High cholesterol worries doctors and patients because it can raise the risk of heart disease.
For more information, see: nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/cholesterol.html americanheart.org webmd.com/cholesterol |
