9 Effective Diets for High Blood Cholesterol

Diet therapy for high cholesterol in the blood is the main link in the treatment of this disease. Consider how to avoid excess fat and cholesterol in your diet. If you're facing hyperlipidemia, we'll figure out how to choose the right healthy food for yourself every day and a general menu for the week.

20 Essential Nutrition Rules for High Cholesterol

Elevated cholesterol may lead to coronary heart disease, lower extremity venous thrombosis, stroke, and myocardial infarction. You can prevent the serious consequences of chronic hyperlipidemia by following the simple rules listed below.

1. Nutrition for hypercholesterolemia should be fractional. Try to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Therefore, there is no increased risk of appetite and overeating after prolonged fasting.
2. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits at all times. Dietary fiber can accelerate the excretion of excess cholesterol in the body.
3. For bad cholesterol, the diet should consist mainly of foods with vegetable fats. Try to use olive oil instead of butter when cooking.
4. Try to eat lean meat several times a week. Recipes and menus that use poultry, veal, rabbit, and lamb are best because of their high cholesterol content.
5. Exercise supports proper high cholesterol nutrition. For people with elevated LDL levels, it is recommended to walk at least 3 kilometers per day.
6. A hypercholesterolemic diet should consist primarily of steamed, grilled, and boiled foods. Deep frying should be avoided entirely.
7. If you have high cholesterol, avoid foods high in animal fats. No need to eat lard, pork, bacon, bacon. Replace these products with cooked poultry, fish, and seafood.
8. Increased salt content in food is contraindicated in hypertension and atherosclerotic diseases. Try to eat no more than 5 grams of salt a day. Better to give up this product entirely.
9. Drink at least two liters of water a day, especially if your blood is thick and bilirubin is elevated. Elevations of these markers usually indicate disruption of liver and gallbladder function, leading to hyperlipidemia. Increased blood viscosity causes blood clots to anchor to lipid deposits in blood vessels. Be sure to eat blood-thinning tart berries, such as cherries and currants.
10. Sweet pastries and high cholesterol are a terrible combination. Milk chocolate should also be avoided. As an alternative dessert, sugar-free oatmeal cookies, dried fruit, nuts and honey are suitable. Sometimes you can enjoy Oriental Turkish Delight.
11. Women's and men's daily calorie requirements vary—the average is 2, 200 and 2, 600 calories, respectively. Increased calorie intake is also necessary for those who do heavy physical labor. These factors are important when formulating a diet.
12. Be sure to avoid alcoholism. Red wine is allowed, but not more than two glasses per week.
13. Coffee is a controversial ally in the fight against high cholesterol. It contains cafestol, which increases the liver's production of endogenous cholesterol. But instead, some experts recommend drinking 1-2 cups of coffee a day, as this helps strengthen the cardiovascular system. So you can drink coffee, but don't abuse it. Another option is a chicory drink or green tea.
14. Cook porridge every day. Try not to cook the cereal so it becomes crumbly. If you have high cholesterol, don't season finished dishes with lots of butter. For oatmeal, for example, honey and dried fruit are suitable as flavoring agents.
15. Hyperlipidemia does not include the use of fatty dairy products. Replace them with nonfat yogurt and kefir. As an alternative, use low-fat yogurt and kefir.
16. Products containing harmful trans fats, such as fast food, are strictly prohibited. Avoid potato chips and other snacks.
17. When cooking poultry, remove the skin from the surface. Because it makes the dish more greasy and contains harmful ingredients.
18. Semi-finished products and hypercholesterolemia are mutually exclusive concepts. There are no useful vitamins and minerals in such products. Such food does not bring enough energy, but only fills the body with calories and fat.
19. Try not to overeat at night. Eat dinner no later than two hours before bedtime. In order to suppress appetite before bed, it is best to drink a glass of kefir or eat a few dates, a handful of almonds.
20. Your doctor will show you the best way to eat. After weighing all risks and comorbidities, an experienced specialist will help develop the most effective nutrition plan. Self-treatment for high cholesterol is not recommended.

Elevated cholesterol is a reversible process if you follow the advice above and get regular checkups.

Popular Diets for Lowering Cholesterol in Women and Men

A cholesterol-lowering diet may be based on a combination of different foods. In order to significantly reduce blood cholesterol levels, it is important to observe the recommended diet over a long period of time, at least six months.

To understand the different types of diets that regulate high cholesterol, a comparative description of the most popular of them can be helpful.

Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet reduces cholesterol levels and is recommended for people with atherosclerotic disease, high blood pressure and overweight. The foundation of this nutrition is rich cheese, meat, fish and spices. However, these products combine perfectly and have a positive effect on high cholesterol. List of foods in the diet:

• Spices and herbs.
• Soft cheeses, such as feta.
• olive oil.
• Fish, mussels, shrimp.
• bird, sheep.
• Moderate amount of red wine.
• Unleavened bread made from wheat flour (pita).
• vegetables and fruits.
• Greek yogurt.
• cereals.

Fatty meat, lard, sausages, and carbonated sweet drinks are explicitly excluded from the diet. Because of these products can cause high cholesterol in the blood. For example, the following high cholesterol menu (counting a week) looks like this:

Day 1

• Breakfast: Three slices of lentil fritters flavored with yogurt.
• For lunch, refresh yourself with Creamy Brussels Sprouts Shrimp Soup. Fruit platter and salad with olives and tofu.
• For dinner, eat pita, stuffed with feta wedges and salad (cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, a few olives).

Day 2

• A good start to the day is curd buckwheat.
• Lunch dim sum - lentil soup, vegetable risotto.
• Baked salmon seasoned with olive oil and Provencal herbs will bring a good mood to the evening.

Day 3

• Breakfast - Buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
• For lunch, grilled tuna with vegetables rejuvenates; tomato sauce soup.
• Dinner: Chicken breast and avocado salad, olive oil dressing, pita bread.

Day 4

• Breakfast: Yogurt with chopped hazelnuts and almonds, you can add a little honey.
• Light lunch: fish ball soup, roasted potatoes with tomatoes.
• Dinner: Green salad with an egg, lemon juice and olive oil.

Day 5

• Breakfast: Water oatmeal with honey and raisins.
• Fuel up for lunch - spinach leaf and asparagus soup puree and liquid cream; simmered salmon with wild rice.
• Dinner: Baked a pie with baby cherry tomatoes and feta cheese on a whole-wheat crust, with an option of crumbled tofu cubes.

Day 6

• Breakfast: dried fruit soufflé, green tea.
• Lunch - cabbage soup, chicken stew with vegetables, a pita.
• Dinner - Grilled zucchini with feta, pita with avocado and olive oil.

Day 7

• Breakfast: Toss roasted squash with yogurt and honey.
• Lunch: Cream of chanterelle soup with mushrooms; chicken, grated with garlic and topped with bell peppers in the oven.
• Dinner: Wild rice stew with mussels and shrimp.

For snacks between main meals, you can use dates, plums, raisins, almonds. Such a diet will not only help manage high cholesterol, but it will also help you lose weight.

Diet Chart No. 10

The cooking methods are mainly boiled and roasted. Excludes the use of fried foods due to high cholesterol. It is recommended to eat at least five smaller meals a day. Have a snack two hours before bed at night. Edible Products:

• Vegetables freshly squeezed juice, jelly.
• Whole wheat bread.
• Fresh vegetable salad.
• Eggs without yolks.
• Fish: tuna, salmon, carp.
• Fat-free cottage cheese, kefir and yogurt.
• Kashgar.

The following products must be rejected: butter, fatty meats, especially red, salted and smoked fish delicacies, fatty cheeses, pickles, mustard. If you have high cholesterol, a sample menu for a week might look like this:

• Breakfast: 1% milk buckwheat, boiled egg, evaporated milk green tea.
• Snack: A piece of cooked chicken or a fresh apple.
• Lunch: Vegetable soup with grated barley, mushrooms, and chopped zucchini, grilled salmon or carp with stewed vegetables (eg, bell peppers, onions, zucchini), 1 cup fresh apple juice.
• Snacks: Rosehip tea, nuts and dried fruits (such as plums and almonds).
• Dinner: Low-fat cottage cheese, cooked grated beets with apples, 1 cup low-fat milk.
• Evening: 1 cup nonfat kefir.

During the week, you can pair it with a variety of dishes, including vegetables, white poultry and fish. For snacks, use nuts, fruits, such as bananas or apples. Recommended Dietary Table 10 is used not only for the prevention of vascular atherosclerosis, but also for hypothyroidism. High cholesterol can be significantly reduced by eating regularly for at least four months.

Diet Chart No. 10A

This diet has many limitations:

• Bread - up to 145 grams per day.
• Vegetable Soup - up to 180ml.
• Excludes the use of cheese, barley and millet.
• Do not eat extremely hot or cold food.

Diet Chart No. 10 has a positive effect on high cholesterol and looks like this every day:

• Breakfast: 1% milk oatmeal, green tea, a small apple.
• Snack: Baked apples with cottage cheese.
• Lunch: Steamed chicken chop, oil-free mashed potatoes, 1/2 glass of fresh apple juice.
• Afternoon snack: plums or dates.
• Dinner: Oven-roasted carrot-apple slices, 1/2 cup nonfat kefir.
• Before bed: 1/2 cup rosehip tincture or chicory drink.

After age 50, more than 35% of people have high cholesterol. As a result, atherosclerotic disease progression and increased risk of myocardial infarction and stroke. Therefore, adhering to proper nutrition and light physical activity is especially important at this age.

Meal Table №10C

Table 10C is a therapeutic diet for cholesterol lowering. This diet is recommended for people diagnosed with coronary heart disease and high blood pressure, which are caused by atherosclerosis. This menu is mainly based on foods high in vegetable fat, dietary fiber, vitamin B, PP, and C, with a daily calorie of about 2570 kcal. It is necessary to eat small portions six times a day.

Recommended foods for high cholesterol include:

• bran.
• Sea cabbage.
• Vegetables and fruits can be eaten in large quantities.
• Lightly bake or boil eggs, up to three slices per week.
• Buckwheat, oat, barley porridge.
• Honey, two spoons a day.
• Pasta durum wheat, try not to overcook.

Fasting includes a menu of similar foods on 10. The approximate daily diet is as follows:

• Breakfast: Boiled buckwheat without oil, light curd with seasonal fruits, tea.
• Snack: Baked apples or dried apricots.
• Lunch: Stewed carrots, steamed beetroot steak, vegetable and rice soup fried in olive oil, seasonal fruit preserves.
• Afternoon snack: unsweetened berry smoothie or honey with a handful of hazelnuts.
• Dinner: Seasonal green salad with olive oil and seaweed, lemon slices and thyme grilled salmon (another oily fish), boiled potatoes, light green tea.
• Before bed: a glass of 1% kefir.

A healthy lifestyle is not limited to diet. Complicated treatment is required due to high cholesterol levels. Don't forget physical activity and long walks in the fresh air.

low carb diet

Foods excluded from low-carb menus include:

• Sweet pastries, white bread.
• Sugar and fructose, honey.
• Gaseous alcoholic and sugar-sweetened beverages.
• Macaroni and Potatoes.
• milk chocolate.
• Sweet fruits such as grapes.

Large amounts of animal protein should be present in the daily diet, such as fish, dairy products, lean meats. This is what a low-carb menu looks like for the week:

on Monday

• egg white omelet with chopped shiitake mushrooms and tomatoes;
• Creamy Chicken and Brussels Sprouts Soup. two whole wheat breads;
• pear;
• Braised veal with bell peppers.

Tuesday

• Kefir pancakes with cottage cheese and raisins.
• Salmon ears. Two slices of cereal bread.
• Green apple.
• Stewed Chicken Tenderloin with Spinach.

Wednesday

• Cheesecake with low-fat sour cream.
• Buckwheat water and grilled chicken chop.
• tangerinr.
• cold chicken.

Thursday

• Whipped curd.
• Cheese soup with chicken breast. Two whole wheat toasts.
• Half a grapefruit.
• brown rice. Steamed zucchini and sliced carrots, fresh cucumbers.

Friday

• A hard-boiled egg sprinkled with grated cheese.
• Fish stewed in a light cream sauce.
• Kiwi or an orange.
• Boiled beans, mashed. Chicken rolls. a tomato.
• Before going to bed - a glass of kefir.

Saturday

• Cottage cheese and natural yogurt.
• Steamed lamb meatballs and a cucumber.
• Mandarin or Apple.
• seafood. Arugula Salad with Olive Oil.

Sunday

• Steamed egg rolls with chicken breast.
• Broccoli Roasted Turkey Fillets.
• A glass of 1% kefir.
• Rabbit stew with vegetables (onions, zucchini, bell peppers).

When following this diet, it is recommended to consume up to two liters of fluids per day. In women, contraindications to a low-carb diet may be breastfeeding and during pregnancy. Prompt detection of elevated cholesterol can be successfully treated with nutritional correction. What kind of diet you need to follow can only be finally decided by the attending physician after a detailed analysis of your medical history.

paleo diet

The paleo diet includes foods that our Stone Age ancestors ate before agriculture developed. Plenty of animal protein is the foundation of Paleo nutrition. At the same time, carbohydrates and fats are used much less in the diet. The main product is meat, which contains animal protein. It is he that speeds up the metabolic process and helps prevent the accumulation of excess fat.

The paleo diet is suitable for lowering blood cholesterol because of the reduced consumption of animal fats. It is recommended to eat every five hours, about three meals a day. The main permitted products are:

• Fat-free meat and poultry.
• Seafood, fish.
• Oils: olive oil, flaxseed, sesame seeds.
• Unheated mushrooms, nuts and seeds.
• Fresh berries, vegetables and fruits.

Sugar and salt, beans and grains, dairy products, starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes) are excluded from the diet of this diet. It is recommended to eat primarily raw or minimally heat-treated foods. This type of nutrition will help protect blood vessels from cholesterol and plaque formation. Elevated LDL levels can return to normal if the principles of the paleo diet are followed.

keto diet

The ketogenic diet is based on a minimum intake of carbohydrates. In this regard, physical training produces more energy from fat and protein. This high cholesterol diet helps reduce LDL. At the same time, levels of "good" cholesterol also increased.

Avoid bread, sugar, pasta, fruit, and sweets when on a ketogenic diet. Due to the lack of carbohydrates, the body begins to break down fat reserves in large quantities.

This diet is similar to a low-carb diet. When choosing the best menu, the following rules must be used:

• Breakfast: In the morning, try to eat up to 15 grams of carbohydrates. The source can be cheese or vegetables. Suggest an olive oil omelet with tomatoes, topped with toast and bran. Calorie Content - 500-600 kcal.
• For lunch, you need to limit carbohydrates. Nutritionists recommend eating chicken meatball soup (without potatoes, noodles). Note that vegetable soup is recommended for high cholesterol. Second, you can have brown rice with brisket and a piece of cheese.
• Dinner should contain a higher percentage of protein and fiber. Poultry or lamb, veal, and green vegetables are fine. Best grilled meats, salads with vegetables with a spoonful of olive oil.

When following a ketogenic diet, the body works in "emergency" mode, being in a state of ketosis due to the production of ketone bodies (derivatives of fatty acids). Therefore, medical supervision is necessary during this nutritional process. Despite the associated risks, elevated cholesterol normalizes during the keto diet.

Some people think this diet does little to lower cholesterol and recommend taking statins. A very controversial statement. Many doctors and experts simply disagree with this.

Ornish's Vegetarian

This diet was originally created by Bill Clinton's personal physician, Dean Ornish. It is based on strict control of consuming fat. The allowable fat intake per day does not exceed 20 grams. This diet is required if a person has been diagnosed with hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis and obesity. Basically the menu is vegetarian. This food is characterized by an increased percentage of carbohydrates in the food eaten.

It is necessary to combine Ornish nutrition with physical activity, physical activity. The daily balance of fat, protein, and carbohydrates is 10%, 25%, and 75%, respectively. Recommended products:

• Vegetables, mostly green.
• Lentils, beans, peas.
• Apples and pears.
• Buckwheat porridge, made from corn, wheat and rice.

Eat eggs, dairy, cheese, crackers in moderation. It is absolutely necessary to exclude red meat, puff and pastry products, butter, mayonnaise, olives, nuts, seeds.

A sample menu for a week can be arranged as follows.

first day

• Breakfast: Chicory drink, one tablespoon of wheat bran with low-fat yogurt.
• Lunch: Several large potatoes roasted with tomatoes, a salad of cucumbers, vegetables and iceberg lettuce, a green apple.
• Snacks: apricots or plums (3 pieces), other seasonal fruits, low-fat cottage cheese.
• Dinner: Two whole-wheat toasts, an apple or pear, durum wheat pasta sprinkled with low-fat cheese, candied berries.

the next day

• Breakfast: freshly squeezed orange juice, low-fat milk porridge, a glass of kefir.
• Lunch: Beans with mushrooms and onions, salad with tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers, drizzled with olive oil.
• Afternoon snack: strawberry, wheat bread.
• Dinner: Two slices of bran bread, half an avocado, buckwheat porridge stewed with mushrooms and carrots, green tea.

day three

• Breakfast: Decaffeinated coffee, muesli with berries, and low-fat milk.
• Lunch: Squash-sliced spinach soup, vegetable couscous, vinaigrette without pickles.
• Afternoon snack: a cup of kefir, low-fat biscuits.
• Dinner: Roasted eggplant with onions and carrots, a bowl of seasonal berries, mint tea.

fourth day

• Breakfast: Pomegranate juice, pumpkin and zucchini pancakes.
• Lunch: Broccoli Cauliflower Soup, Asparagus Stew and Chicken Tenderloin.
• Snack: Low-fat cottage cheese with yogurt, oatmeal crackers.
• Dinner: Stewed cabbage with carrots and onions, any fruit, candied gooseberries.

fifth day

• Breakfast: apple juice, oatmeal.
• Lunch: Two fish steaks, mashed potatoes without milk and a pat of butter.
• Afternoon snack: a cup of low-fat kefir, a green apple.
• Dinner: Asparagus and green bean soup, light tea.

Day 6

• Breakfast: Chicory drink, skim cheese and honey.
• Lunch: Cooked 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.

the seventh day

• Breakfast: A cheese casserole with raisins and endive.
• Lunch: 2 lentils and sliced carrots, rice.
• Snack: 3 baked cheesecakes, orange juice.
• Dinner: apple-stuffed cheese and dried apricots, chamomile tea.

High cholesterol with strict adherence to this dietary regimen can return to normal. Regularity and self-control are very important to achieve results.

intermittent fasting

Fasting is used to lower cholesterol in the blood. Elevated cholesterol levels can be treated with a diet of total starvation in the following ways: Due to food shortages, the body begins to use LDL stores for vital energy. After a 12-hour fast, cholesterol as an alternative energy source begins to be released into the blood and breaks down to form energy.

Approximate scenario for starving cholesterol for a week:

Day 1 - Only freshly squeezed apple carrot juice, diluted 1: 2 with water. The next day, drink without diluting with water. For lunch, you can eat 50 grams of grated carrots. In the third - drink grape apple and carrot juice. Meal with a hundred grams of vegetable puree, before bedtime - kefir.

On days 4 and 5, add grated vegetables and fruit, and add light cottage cheese in the evening. On days six and seven, breakfast should include ground vegetables and fruit, and overcooked buckwheat or millet cereal for dinner and lunch. Such a strict diet should only be done in consultation with a doctor and under medical supervision. In order to regulate high cholesterol, it is necessary to repeat the course of therapeutic fasting on a regular basis.

Choosing the best diet for high cholesterol is not easy - it is necessary to study all the characteristics of a particular person's body in detail. It is important to consider comorbidities, gender, and age. Only a properly designed menu can effectively prevent the serious consequences of hypercholesterolemia.