Generality
When you find that you have too high a cholesterol level in your blood after a check-up, one of the first concerns is to adjust your diet to bring these values back to normal.
The high cholesterol diet is a diet aimed at normalizing cholesterolemia (cholesterol value in the blood).
What are cholesterol and hypercholesterolemia?
Cholesterol is a sterol (a type of lipid), with very important functions for the body. However:
- if in excess (total cholesterol)
- and / or if broken down badly, with excessive prevalence of LDL lipoproteins (bad cholesterol)
may increase cardiovascular risk (atherosclerosis).
Ultimately, hypercholesterolemia means an excess of total and / or LDL cholesterol.
What are the symptoms of high cholesterol?
Hypercholesterolemia is generally asymptomatic.
Only in severe congenital forms (which do not affect this article) can there be evident clinical signs, called xanthomas.
Other related symptoms relate to vascular diseases.
What are the causes of high cholesterol?
- Genetic and hereditary predisposition
- Other primary diseases (eg hormones)
- Bad diet (see below)
- Sedentary lifestyle.
Diet
How much does the diet affect cholesterolemia?
Blood cholesterol values are only 10-20% affected by diet.
In fact, our body has an effective hepatic cholesterol synthesis mechanism, which allows it to cope with metabolic needs without relying too much on dietary intake.
For this reason, very often a healthy and balanced diet is insufficient to bring cholesterol levels back to the desired values.
Dietary therapy against hypercholesterolemia can guarantee a reduction in total plasma cholesterol in the order of 10-15% (average value).
On the other hand, we must not forget that, in addition to the global amount of cholesterol, what increases the atherogenic effect is its excessive distribution in LDL lipoproteins at the expense of the HDL quota (increase in bad cholesterol at the expense of the good one)
Role of the Diet in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia
Despite the often limited efficacy, dietary intervention and motor therapy must always be adopted as the first measure to lower blood cholesterol levels.
Only if the diet and positive lifestyle changes are not successful, the doctor may eventually prescribe specific medicines to lower cholesterol .
Even for those who follow a drug therapy, a correct diet remains essential to minimize the dose of drugs needed and the consequent risk of side effects.
NB . In some very serious congenital forms (fortunately very rare) it starts with drug therapy at the time of diagnosis and the style of life takes on a complementary role.
Which cholesterol to lower?
When it comes to the cholesterol diet it is important to first understand what the real objectives of such a food strategy are.
In this regard, we recall that cholesterol is a very important fat for the body and precisely because of this important metabolic role it would be impossible to do without it.
To distribute to various tissues, cholesterol, like many other fats, circulates in the blood bound to different transporters with different characteristics, called lipoproteins.
The most important lipoproteins for cholesterol metabolism and atherosclerotic risk are:
- LDL ("low density lipoproteins", low density lipoproteins): also known as bad cholesterol, they are responsible for bringing cholesterol to peripheral tissues.
- HDL (from English "high density lipoproteins", high density lipoprotein): they are called good cholesterol and are deputed to the reverse transport of cholesterol to the liver.
The LDL lipoproteins have a strong atherogenic power, because they tend to deposit cholesterol on the inner walls of the arteries forming plaques in the long run, which more or less hinder the blood flow.
The negative effect of LDL is counterbalanced by HDL which, in the role of "real scavengers", cleanse the arteries preventing the formation of such deposits.
Ultimately, the cholesterol diet is not simply aimed at reducing total cholesterol but also at improving the ratio of good HDL cholesterol to bad LDL cholesterol.
Fundamental principles
As an indication, the basic principles of a diet to fight high cholesterol are:
- Low in saturated fat, hydrogenated and in trans conformation (which must provide no more than 7% of daily calories)
- Low cholesterol content (<200 mg / day)
- High nutrient content with positive effect on cholesterol:
- Beneficial fatty acids:
- Essential and semi-essential polyunsaturated
- omega 6
- omega 3 (they do not have a significant effect on cholesterol, but lower the cardiovascular risk)
- Monounsaturated omega 9 (oleic acid)
- Phytosterols and lecithins
- Antioxidants.
Medications and supplements
The most frequently used drugs against hypercholesterolemia are statins.
Among the supplements, however, there are many products with different effectiveness:
- Vegetable lecithins
- Essential fatty acids
- Phytosterols
- Antioxidants: vitamins, polyphenols and minerals
- Phytocomplexes, generally composed of more molecules than those mentioned (phytosterols, vitamins, etc.).
What to eat
Recommended food and cooking methods
Recommended foods
| Meat, Fish and Eggs | Lean meats (chicken, rabbit, pork loin, etc.). Lean or fat fish from cold seas or blue fish. At most 3 eggs per week. The consumption of egg whites is free. |
| Milk and Derivatives | Low-fat or semi-skimmed milk and yogurt. Cheeses and light ricottas. |
| Cereals and Derivatives, Tubers | Better whole, used in recipes containing the foods in this table. |
| legumes | All, better fresh or dried and recovered. |
| Fats and seasoning oils | For cooking, extra virgin olive oil; for frying (see below), you can also use peanut oil. For the raw seasoning it is recommended to use, at least in part, seed oils rich in omega 6 and omega 3 (of flax, kiwi, grapeseed, walnut, chia etc.). |
| Vegetables and Fruits Sources of Vitamin A | All. At least 50% of total raw consumption. |
| Vegetables and Fruits Sources of Vitamin C | All. At least 50% of total raw consumption. |
Recommended cooking methods
They are aimed at preserving the nutritional heritage of foods, in particular the potentially thermolabile molecules that can promote the metabolism of cholesterol (essential fatty acids, vitamins, etc.).
Recommended cooking methods include:
- None, especially for fruit and vegetables; it may be useful to consume some portions of raw fish (obviously previously reduced in temperature)
- Boiling or drowning
- Steam powered
- Vasocottura
- Vacuum
- In the pan, without overflowing with the flame
- In the oven, without overheating
- Occasionally, on the grill without producing combustion residues.
Foods and cooking methods not recommended
Not recommended foods
| Meat, Fish and Eggs | Fat meats (belly, ribs etc). Chicken with skin. Fatty fish poor in omega 3. Bivalve molluscs (mussels) and crustaceans (shrimps, crabs, etc.) can be eaten occasionally. More than 3 eggs a week. Yolks. |
| Milk and Derivatives | Fat milk and yogurt. Whole milk cheeses and ricotta, especially seasoned. |
| Cereals and Derivatives, Tubers | Refined, used in recipes containing the foods in this table. |
| legumes | - |
| Fats and seasoning oils | Butter, margarine, oils used many times, lard, tropical oils rich in saturated fats (like palmisto) |
| Vegetables and Fruits Sources of Vitamin A | Those worked, for example candied fruit, jams, syrup etc. |
| Vegetables and Fruits Sources of Vitamin C | Those worked, for example candied fruit, jams, syrup etc. |
Cooking methods not recommended
- Frying
- Stewing
- Brazing
- In the pan, with excessive flame
- In the oven, with excessive heat
- Grilled producing combustion residues.
Other Tips
Importance of Lifestyle
The general lifestyle can positively or negatively affect cholesterol levels in the blood.
Precisely from the modification of all the factors that make up the general lifestyle (diet, physical activity, use and abuse of harmful substances, etc.) an extremely effective weapon is born, which each of us can use to defend against hypercholesterolemia.
We have already talked a lot about the diet; let's see the others in more detail.
Stop smoking to increase good HDL cholesterol
Abolish smoking, given that the toxic compounds that develop during combustion are able, by themselves, to lower the levels of good cholesterol (HDL).
Practice physical motor activity to increase the good HDL cholesterol
Physical activity, regardless of diet, is able to increase the good cholesterol fraction without significantly affecting the levels of bad cholesterol.
It follows that the total cholesterol tends to increase overall; however, this situation should not scare you too much, given that - as we have seen - the true risk factor is the ratio between total cholesterol and good cholesterol (HDL).
The Total Cholesterol / HDL ratio must be less than five in men and four and a half in women (for example, if a person's total cholesterol is 250 mg / dl and HDL is 60 mg / dl, the index of risk is equal to 4.16, therefore it is an optimal condition, while, according to the old reference tables, the patient would place himself in a medium risk band).
In the next article we will examine in more detail the combination of diet and cholesterol.
Video
Proper Diet to Lower Cholesterol
Directly from the MypersonaltrainerTv studies, all the secrets to naturally lowering cholesterol, described in a video as long (47 minutes) as exhaustive. Not to be missed!
