Top 9 Effective Diets for High Blood Cholesterol

Therapeutic diet for high cholesterol in the blood is the main link in the treatment of this disease. Consider how you can avoid excess fat and cholesterol in your diet. If you are experiencing hyperlipidemia we will figure that out every dayHow to choose the right healthy food for yourself and an approximate menu for a week.

20 basic rules of nutrition for high cholesterol

Elevated cholesterol can be the cause of coronary heart disease, thrombosis of veins of the lower extremities, stroke, 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. Thus, there is no increase in appetite and there is a risk of overeating after a long fast.
  2. Eat vegetables and fruits at any time and in excess. Dietary fiber accelerates the excretion of excess cholesterol from the body.
  3. With bad cholesterol, the diet should consist mainly of foods with vegetable fats. Try to use olive oil instead of butter when cooking.
  4. Try not to eat lean meats more than twice a week. With high cholesterol, dishes and menus that use poultry, veal, rabbit and lamb are best suited.
  5. Proper nutrition with high cholesterol is supported by sports. Light walks of at least three kilometers a day are recommended for people with high levels of low-density lipoproteins.
  6. Diet for hypercholesterolemia should consist mainly of boiled, cooked, steamed food. Frying should be avoided completely.
  7. If you have high cholesterol, avoid foods high in animal fats. No need to eat lard, pork, bacon, smoked meats. Replace these products with boiled poultry, fish, seafood.
  8. An increased level of salt in food is contraindicated in hypertension and atherosclerotic disease. Try not to eat more than 5 grams of salt daily. It is best to abandon this product completely.
  9. It is necessary to drink at least two liters of water per day, especially with thickened blood and increased bilirubin. Elevated levels of these indicators usually indicate a violation of the function of the liver and gallbladder, leading to hyperlipidemia. Increased blood viscosity provokes the fixation of blood clots on lipid deposits in the vessels. It is necessary to eat sour berries that can thin the blood, such as cherries and gooseberries.
  10. Sweet pastries and high cholesterol are a bad combination. Milk chocolate should also be avoided. As an alternative dessert, sugar-free oatmeal cookies, dried fruits, nuts and honey are suitable. Sometimes you treat yourself to an Eastern Turkish delightcan do.
  11. The daily caloric needs are different for women and men - an average of 2200 kcal and 2600 kcal. An increased caloric intake is also necessary for people engaged in heavy physical exertion. These factors are important when building a diet.
  12. Be sure to abstain from alcohol consumption. Red wine is allowed, but no more than two glasses per week.
  13. Coffee is a controversial ally in the fight against high cholesterol. It contains cafestol, which increases the production of endogenous cholesterol by the liver. But some experts, on the contrary, recommend drinking 1-2 cups of coffee a day, as it helpsHelps strengthen the cardiovascular system. So you can drink coffee, but do not abuse it. An alternative is chicory drink or green tea.
  14. Cook porridge daily. Try not to boil the cereal, leave it to crumble. If you have high cholesterol, don't add too much butter to the finished dish. For oatmeal, for example, honey and dried fruits can be used to tasteare suitable for.
  15. Hyperlipidemia exclude the use of fatty dairy products. Replace them with fat-free yogurts and kefir. As an alternative, use low-fat yogurt and kefir.
  16. Products containing harmful trans fats, such as fast food, are strictly contraindicated. Avoid chips and other snacks.
  17. When cooking poultry, remove the skin from the surface. Since it makes the dish more fatty and contains harmful components.
  18. Semi-finished products and hypercholesterolemia are mutually exclusive concepts. Such products do not contain useful vitamins and minerals. Such food does not bring enough energy, but only clogs the body with ballast calories and fat.
  19. Try not to overeat at night. Do not eat dinner two hours before bedtime. To suppress your appetite before bedtime it is better to drink a glass of kefir or eat a couple of dates, a handful of almonds.
  20. Your doctor will tell you how to eat the best way. After weighing all the risks and comorbidities, an experienced specialist will help develop the most effective nutrition plan. Self-treatment of high cholesterol is not recommended.

Elevated cholesterol is a reversible process if you follow the above recommendations and regularly undergo a medical examination.

Popular Diets to Lower Cholesterol in Women and Men

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

To understand the different types of diets that control high cholesterol, a comparative description of the most popular of them will help.

Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet, which lowers cholesterol levels, is recommended for people with atherosclerotic disease, high blood pressure and overweight. The basis of such nutrition is an abundance of cheese, meat, fish and spices. Nevertheless, these products are whole. Kinds are combined 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, lamb.
  • Red wine in moderation.
  • Unleavened flat bread made from wheat flour.
  • Vegetables and fruits.
  • Greek Yogurt.
  • Cereal.
foods for high cholesterol

Fatty meats, lard, sausages, drinks sweetened with gas are categorically excluded from the diet. Since these products can cause high cholesterol in the blood. As an example, calculated high cholesterol for a weekThe following menu is presented for:

day 1

  • For breakfast: Three pieces of curd flavored lentil dumplings.
  • For lunch, refresh yourself with Creamy Brussels Sprout Soup Shrimp; Fruit platter and salad with olives and tofu.
  • You can fill with pita, feta cubes and lettuce (a couple of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, olives) for dinner.

second day

  • A good start to the day is yogurt-buckwheat zrazy.
  • Lunch Snack - Light soup with lentils, risotto with vegetables.
  • A good mood in the evening will be provided by baked salmon flavored with olive oil with the addition of Provence herbs.

day 3

  • Morning meal - buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
  • At lunch, cooked tuna with vegetables will restore strength; Tomato Puree Soup.
  • For dinner: Salad with chicken breast and avocado, flavored with olive oil, pita.

day 4

  • Breakfast: You can mix some honey with chopped almonds and chopped curd.
  • Light lunch: soup with fish meatballs, baked potatoes with tomatoes.
  • Dinner: Vegetable salad with an egg, lemon juice and olive oil.

day 5

  • Breakfast: Oatmeal on the water, with honey and raisins.
  • gives energy for lunch - soup-puree of spinach leaves and asparagus with liquid cream; Light Boiled Salmon with Wild Rice.
  • Dinner: Bake a pie with small cherry tomatoes and feta, crumbled tofu cubes, alternately, on the crust of the whole meal.

day 6

  • Breakfast: Dried fruit soufflé, green tea.
  • For lunch - cabbage soup, chicken stew with vegetables, a pita.
  • For dinner - zucchini with feta in the oven, pitted with avocado and olive oil.

day 7

  • For breakfast: Toss ripe pumpkin with yogurt and honey.
  • Lunch: cream soup of champagne and chanterelles; Chicken, grated with garlic, with sweet pepper in the oven.
  • Dinner: Wild rice stew with mussels and prawns.

For snacks between main meals, you can use dates, plums, raisins, almonds. Such a diet will help not only to put in order high cholesterol, but also reduce body weight.

Diet table number 10

The recipe is mainly boiling and baking. Since high cholesterol excludes the use of fried foods. It is recommended to eat at least five times a day in small portions. Evening snack two hours before bedtimeNot before. Products that can be consumed:

  • Vegetable freshly squeezed juice, jelly.
  • whole wheat bread.
  • Fresh Vegetable Salad.
  • Eggs without yolk.
  • Fish: Tuna, Salmon, Carp.
  • Fat-free cottage cheese, kefir and yogurt.
  • Kashi

It is necessary to refuse the following products: butter, fatty meats and especially red, salted and smoked fish dishes, fatty cheeses, pickled vegetables, mustard. A sample menu for a week may look like this if you have high cholesterol. can:

  • Quick breakfast: buckwheat cooked in 1% milk, soft-boiled egg, weak green tea with milk.
  • Pre-dinner snack: a piece of boiled chicken meat or a fresh apple.
  • Lunch: vegetable broth with barley grains, mushrooms and finely chopped zucchini, cooked salmon or carp (for example, bell pepper, onion, zucchini), 1 glass of fresh apple juice.
  • Snack: Rosehip tea, nuts and dried fruits (eg, plums and almonds).
  • Dinner: low-fat cottage cheese, boiled grated beets with an apple, 1 glass of low-fat milk.
  • At night: 1 glass of fat-free kefir.

During the week, you can mix a variety of dishes from vegetables, white poultry meat and fish. Use nuts, fruits such as banana or apple for snacks. Not only for the prevention of occurrence of atherosclerosis of vessels, but also hypothyroidismDiet table number 10 is also recommended for. High cholesterol can be reduced to a great extent by regular diet for at least four months.

Diet Table No. 10A

This diet has a number of restrictions:

  • Bread - maximum 145 grams per day.
  • Vegetable broth - up to 180 ml.
  • The use of cheese, barley and millet is excluded.
  • Do not consume very hot or cold food.

Diet table number 10, which has a positive effect on high cholesterol, looks like this every day:

  • Breakfast: Sliced oatmeal with 1% milk, green tea, a small apple.
  • Snack: Baked apples with cottage cheese.
  • Lunch: boiled chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes without oil, half a glass of fresh apple juice.
  • Afternoon snack: Plums or dates.
  • Dinner: carrot-apple cutlets baked in the oven, half a glass of fat-free kefir.
  • Before going to bed: half a glass of rose hip tincture or chicory drink.

High cholesterol occurs in more than 35% of people after the age of 50. As a result, the risk of progression of atherosclerotic disease and the occurrence of myocardial infarction, stroke, increases. Therefore, at this age the observance of proper nutrition with light physical activityIt is especially important to do

Diet Table 10C

Table number 10C is a therapeutic diet for lowering cholesterol. This way of eating is recommended for people with coronary heart disease and hypertension, provoked by atherosclerosis. This menu contains vegetable fats, dietary fiber, vitamins B, PP, dominated by foods with a high content of C. The daily caloric content of the menu is about 2570 kcal. It is necessary to consume fractional portions in six doses per day.

Recommended foods that have a beneficial effect on high cholesterol include:

  • Bran.
  • Sea Cabbage.
  • Vegetables and fruits can be eaten in large portions.
  • Slightly bake or boil eggs, up to three pieces a week.
  • Buckwheat, oatmeal, barley porridge.
  • Honey, a couple of teaspoons a day.
  • Spaghetti durum, try not to overcook.

Prohibited foods include food such as menu No. 10. The approximate daily regimen is as follows:

  • Breakfast: boiled buckwheat without oil, light curd mass with seasonal fruits, tea.
  • Snack: baked apples or dried apricots.
  • Lunch: stewed carrots, boiled beetroot cutlets, rice soup with vegetables lightly fried in olive oil, compote of seasonal fruits.
  • Afternoon snack: Berry smoothie without sugar or a handful of hazelnuts with honey.
  • Dinner: Salad of seasonal vegetables with olive oil and seaweed, baked salmon with a slice of lemon and thyme (another oily fish), boiled potatoes, weak green tea.
  • Before going to bed: a glass of 1% kefir.

A healthy lifestyle is not limited to diet alone. Since high cholesterol levels require complex treatment. Do not forget to take long walks in the fresh air along with physical exercises.

low carb diet

Foods excluded from the low-carb menu include:

  • Sweet pastries, white bread.
  • Sugar and fructose, honey.
  • Alcohol and sugary drinks with gas.
  • Macaroni and Potatoes.
  • milk chocolate.
  • Sweet fruits like grapes.

In large quantities, animal proteins should be present in the daily diet, for example, fish, dairy products, lean meats. A low-carb menu for a week may look like this:

Monday

  • Egg white omelet with chopped champignons and tomatoes;
  • Creamy Chicken and Brussels Sprouts Soup. Two whole grain breads;
  • Pear;
  • Stewed Veal with Bell Peppers.

Tuesday

  • Thin pancakes on kefir with cottage cheese, raisins.
  • Salmon ears. Two slices of grain bread.
  • Green apple.
  • Braised Chicken Fillet with Spinach.

Wednesday

  • Cheesecakes with low-fat sour cream.
  • Buckwheat and baked chicken cutlets on the water.
  • Orange.
  • Cold Chicken.

Thursday

  • Whipped curd.
  • Cottage cheese soup with chicken breast. Two whole grain toasts.
  • Half a grape
  • Unpolished rice. Boiled zucchini and carrot cutlets, fresh cucumber.

Friday

  • A soft boiled egg sprinkled with grated cheese.
  • Steamed fish in a light creamy sauce.
  • Kiwi or an orange.
  • Steamed beans, mashed. Chicken rolls. One 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

  • Steam omelet with chicken breast.
  • Baked Turkey Fillet with Broccoli.
  • A glass of 1% kefir.
  • Rabbit stew with vegetables (onions, zucchini, sweet pepper).

When following this diet, it is recommended to take two liters of fluid per day. In women, a contraindication to a low-carbohydrate diet may be the period of lactation and pregnancy. Nutrition of elevated cholesterol with timely detectionWith correction can be successfully treated. What kind of diet you need to follow, only the attending physician can decide only after a detailed analysis of your history.

Paleo Diet

The Paleo diet consists of the foods that our Stone Age ancestors ate before the development of agriculture. A large amount of animal protein is the basis of prehistoric nutrition. The diet, while the use of carbohydrates and fats in the diet is very low. The product is meat, which contains animal protein. It is he who accelerates metabolic processes and helps to prevent the accumulation of excess fat.

Paleo Diet Foods for High Cholesterol

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

  • Meat and poultry without fat.
  • Seafood, fish.
  • Oils: olive, linseed, sesame.
  • Mushrooms, nuts and seeds without heat treatment.
  • Fresh berries, vegetables and fruits.

With such a diet, sugar and salt, legumes and cereals, dairy products, starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes) are excluded from the diet. It is recommended to consume foods mostly 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 be returned to normal if the principles of the Paleo diet are followed.

keto diet

The keto diet is based on minimal consumption of carbohydrates. In this regard, the body is trained to produce more energy from fat and protein. This high cholesterol diet helps reduce low-density lipoproteins. Also, the "good"Cholesterol levels increase.

Avoid bread, sugar, pasta, fruits and sweets during a ketogenic diet. With a lack of carbohydrates, the body begins to rapidly break down fat stores.

This diet is similar to a low-carb diet. When choosing the optimal menu, you should use the following rules:

  • Breakfast: Try to consume carbohydrates up to 15 grams in the morning. The source can be cottage cheese or vegetables. It is recommended to eat an omelet in olive oil with tomatoes, adding toast with bran. Calorie content - 500-600 kcal.
  • At lunch, you need to limit carbohydrates. Nutritionists recommend eating soup with chicken meatballs (without potatoes, noodles). Note that high cholesterol suggests eating vegetable broth. For this you can eat with brown rice breast and a piece of cheese.
  • Dinner should have an increased percentage of protein and fiber. Chicken or lamb, veal and green vegetables will do. It is better to bake meat, and make a salad of vegetables with the addition of a spoonful of olive oil.

When following a ketogenic diet, the body operates in an "emergency" mode, being in a state of ketosis due to the production of ketone bodies (fatty acid derivatives). Therefore, medical supervision is essential during such nutrition. Irrespective of the associated riskDuring the keto diet, the raised cholesterol becomes normal.

Some argue that the diet will do little to lower cholesterol and recommend taking statins. A very controversial statement. Many doctors and experts fundamentally disagree on this.

Ornish's Vegetarian Diet

The diet was first created by Bill Clinton's personal physician, Dean Ornish. And it is based on strict control of the fat consumed. No more than 20 grams of fat per day is allowed. This diet is indicated if a person has hyperlipidemia, Atherosclerosis and obesity are diagnosed. Basically the menu is vegetarian. This diet is characterized by an increased percentage of carbohydrates in the foods consumed.

It is necessary to combine Ornish nutrition with physical exercise, physical activity. The daily balance of fats, proteins and carbohydrates is 10, 25, 75%, respectively. Products recommended for use:

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

Consume eggs, dairy products, cheeses, cookies in moderation. It is necessary to categorically exclude red meat, puff and pastry products, butter, mayonnaise, olives, nuts, seeds.

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

first day

  • Breakfast: Chicory drink, low-fat yogurt mixed with a tablespoon of wheat bran.
  • Lunch: A few large potatoes baked with tomatoes, a salad of cucumbers, greens and iceberg lettuce, a green apple.
  • Snack: apricots or plums (3 pieces), other seasonal fruits, low-fat cottage cheese.
  • Dinner: two wholemeal toasts, an apple or pear, durum wheat spaghetti sprinkled with low-fat cottage cheese, berry compote.

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, drizzled with olive oil.
  • Afternoon snack: Strawberries, wheat bread.
  • Dinner: two slices of bran bread, half an avocado, buckwheat porridge with mushrooms and carrots, green tea.

day 3

  • Breakfast: Decaffeinated coffee, a cup of muesli with berries and low-fat milk.
  • Lunch: soup with pumpkin slices and spinach, couscous with vegetables, vinaigrette without pickles.
  • Afternoon snack: a glass of kefir, low-fat cookies.
  • Dinner: half cooked eggplant with onions and carrots, a bowl of seasonal berries, mint tea.

fourth day

  • Breakfast: pomegranate juice, pumpkin-zucchini pancakes.
  • Lunch: Broccoli and cauliflower soup, stewed with asparagus rice and chicken fillet.
  • Snack: low-fat cottage cheese with yogurt, oatmeal cookies.
  • Dinner: white cabbage with carrots and onions, any fruit of your choice, currant compote.

fifth day

  • Breakfast: apple juice, oatmeal from a mixture of cereals.
  • Lunch: Two fish cutlets with mashed potatoes without added milk and a small piece of butter.
  • Afternoon snack: a cup of low-fat kefir, a green apple.
  • Dinner: soup of asparagus and green peas, 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: Oatmeal pudding, multigrain bread.
  • Dinner: Two cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and vegetables, mineral water.

day seven

  • Breakfast: a slice of cottage cheese casserole with raisins, chicory.
  • Lunch: 2 lentils and carrot cutlets, rice.
  • Snack: 3 baked cheesecakes, orange juice.
  • Dinner: Apples, chamomile tea, stuffed with cottage cheese and dried apricots.

High cholesterol can be normalized with strict adherence to the principles of this diet. Regularity and self-control are very important to achieve results.

intermittent fasting

Fasting is used to lower blood cholesterol. It is possible to treat high cholesterol levels with elements of complete starvation as follows: With a lack of food, the body is less dense to obtain energy for life. begins to use up lipoprotein reserves. Already after 12 hours of fasting, cholesterol, as an alternative energy source, begins to be released into the blood and is broken down to form energy.

Approximate scheme of starvation from cholesterol for a week:

The first day - only freshly squeezed apple-carrot juice, diluted with water 1: 2. On the second day you can drink the juice without diluting it in water. At lunch you can eat 50 grams of grated carrots. ThirdIn - drink grape-apple and carrot juice. Dine with a hundred grams of vegetable puree, and before going to bed - kefir.

On the fourth and fifth days, add grated vegetables and fruits, and at night - light cottage cheese. On the sixth and seventh days, breakfast should consist of grated vegetables and fruits, and for dinner and lunch, overripeMust eat buckwheat or millet cereals. Such a strict diet can be done only after consulting a doctor and under medical supervision. To regulate high cholesterol, it is necessary to repeat the course of therapeutic fasting from time to time.

Choosing the optimal diet for high cholesterol is not easy - 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, gender, age. An effective prevention of serious consequences of hypercholesterolemia onlyThere is a properly designed menu.