A therapeutic diet for high blood 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 the estimated menu for the week if you are facing hyperlipidemia.
20 Principles of Nutrition for High Cholesterol
Elevated cholesterol can be the cause of coronary heart disease, thrombosis of the lower extremities, stroke, myocardial infarction. You can prevent the serious consequences of chronic hyperlipidemia by following the simple rules listed below.
- Nutrition for hypercholesterolemia should be fragile. Try to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Thus, there is no increased appetite and the risk of overeating after a long fast.
- Eat vegetables and fruits at any time and in large quantities. Dietary fiber accelerates the excretion of excess cholesterol from the body.
- With bad cholesterol, your diet should mainly include foods high in vegetable fats. When cooking, try using olive oil instead of butter.
- Try to eat lean meat no more than a few times a week. With high cholesterol, recipes and menus that use poultry, veal, rabbit and lamb are best suited.
- Proper nutrition with high cholesterol is supported by sports. Calm walks of at least three kilometers a day are recommended for people with elevated low-density lipoprotein.
- Cholesterol-raising diets should consist mainly of steamed, baked, cooked foods. Fry should be avoided altogether.
- If you have high cholesterol, avoid foods high in animal fat. No need to eat lard, pork, bacon, smoked meat. Replace these products for boiled poultry, fish, seafood.
- Increased levels of salt in food are a contraindication to high blood pressure and atherosclerosis. Try to eat no more than 5 grams of salt a day. It is best to stop using this product altogether.
- It is necessary to drink at least two liters of water a day, especially with thick blood and increased bilirubin. Elevated levels of these indicators usually indicate hepatic and gallbladder dysfunction, leading to hyperlipidemia. Increased blood viscosity causes blood clots to attach to blood vessels in the blood vessels. It is necessary to eat sour berries that can dilute the blood, such as cherries and gooseberries.
- Sweet pastries and high cholesterol are a bad mix. Milk chocolate should also be avoided. As an alternative dessert, sugar-free oatmeal, dried fruit, nuts and honey are suitable. Sometimes you can treat yourself to oriental Turkish joy.
- The daily caloric needs of women and men are different - on average 2200 kcal and 2600 kcal, respectively. Increased calorie intake is also necessary for people who do a lot of physical work. These factors are important when formulating a diet.
- Be sure to avoid alcohol abuse. Red wine is allowed, but not more than two glasses a week.
- Coffee is a controversial ally in the fight against high cholesterol. It contains cafestol, which increases the production of endogenous cholesterol in the liver. On the contrary, some experts recommend drinking 1-2 cups of coffee a day, as it helps to strengthen the cardiovascular system. So you can drink coffee, but do not abuse it. Another option is a chicory drink or green tea.
- Cook porridge every day. Try not to boil the grain, leave it crumbly. Do not season the finished dish with a lot of butter if you have high cholesterol. For oatmeal, for example, honey and dried fruit are suitable as flavoring agents.
- Hyperlipidemia precludes the use of fatty dairy products. Replace them with low-fat yogurt and kefir. Instead, use low-fat yogurt and kefir.
- Products that contain 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 greasy and contains harmful substances.
- Half-baked goods and cholesterol-raising are terms that do not exclude either. Such products contain no useful vitamins and minerals. Such foods do not provide enough energy, but only clog the body with high-calorie calories and fat.
- Try not to overeat at night. Eat dinner no later than two hours before going to bed. 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 how to eat optimally. After weighing all the risks and complications, an experienced specialist will help you develop the most effective nutrition plan. Self-treatment with high cholesterol is not recommended.
Elevated cholesterol is a reversible process if the above recommendations are followed and regular medical check-ups.
Popular diet to lower cholesterol in women and men
Cholesterol-lowering diets can be based on a combination of different foods. To significantly reduce blood cholesterol levels, it is important to follow a recommended diet for a long time, at least six months.
To understand the different types of diets that control high cholesterol, a comparative description of their most popular ones will help.
Mediterranean food
The Mediterranean diet, which lowers cholesterol levels, is recommended for people with atherosclerosis, hypertension and overweight. The basis of such nutrition is an abundance of cheeses, meats, fish and spices. Nevertheless, these products are perfectly formulated and have a positive effect on high cholesterol. List of foods in the diet:
- Spices and herbs.
- Soft cheeses like feta cheese.
- Olive oil.
- Fish, mussels, shrimp.
- Bird, lamb.
- Red wine in moderation.
- Unleavened bread made from wheat (pitas).
- Vegetables and fruits.
- Greek yogurt.
- Grain.
Fatty meats, butterfats, sausages, sweetened beverages with gas are categorically excluded from the diet. Because these products can cause high blood cholesterol. As an example, the following menu for high cholesterol, calculated per week, is presented:
Day 1
- For breakfast: Three pieces of lentils flavored with yogurt.
- For lunch, refresh yourself with a creamy Brussels sprout soup with shrimp; fruit platter and salad with olives and tofu.
- You can have a pie for dinner, stuffed with feta cubes and salad (cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, some olives).
Day 2
- A good start to the day is cheese-buckwheat zrazy.
- Lunch snack - light soup with lentils, risotto with vegetables.
- A good atmosphere in the evening will be baked salmon, flavored with olive oil, with Provence herbs.
Day 3
- Breakfast - buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
- For lunch, tuna baked with vegetables will regain strength; tomato puree soup.
- For dinner: salad with chicken breast and avocado, flavored with olive oil, pita.
Day 4
- Breakfast: yoghurt with chopped hazelnuts and almonds, you can add a little honey.
- Light lunch: soup with fish balls, baked potatoes with tomatoes.
- Dinner: vegetable salad with one egg, lemon juice and olive oil.
Day 5
- Breakfast: oatmeal on the water, with the addition of honey and raisins.
- Gives energy at lunch - soup-puree of spinach leaves and asparagus with liquid cream; lightly cooked salmon with wild rice.
- Dinner: bake a cake with small cherry tomatoes and feta cheese, on a whole wheat crust, crushed tofu cubes if you like.
Day 6
- Breakfast: dried fruit souffle, green tea.
- For lunch - cabbage soup, chicken stew with vegetables, one pita.
- For dinner - zucchini with feta in the oven, pita with avocado and olive oil.
Day 7
- For breakfast: pour baked pumpkin with yogurt and honey.
- Lunch: creamy soup of mushrooms and chanterelles; chicken, grated with garlic, with sweet pepper in the oven.
- Dinner: wild rice pot dish with mussels and shrimp.
For snacks between main meals you can use dates, prunes, raisins, almonds. Such a diet will not only help prevent high cholesterol but also reduce body weight.
Diet tablet number 10
The method of cooking is mainly boiling and baking. Because high cholesterol precludes the use of fried foods. It is recommended to eat at least five meals a day in small portions. Evening snack no later than two hours before bedtime. Consumable products:
- Vegetable freshly squeezed juice, jelly.
- Whole wheat bread.
- Fresh vegetable salad.
- Eggs without yolk.
- Fish: tuna, salmon, carp.
- Fat-free cottage cheese, kefir and yoghurt.
- Kashi.
It is necessary to reject the following products: butter, fatty meats, and especially red, salted and smoked delicacies, fatty cheeses, pickled vegetables, mustard. A sample of a week's menu if you have high cholesterol might look like this:
- Early breakfast: buckwheat boiled in 1% milk, soft-boiled egg, weak green tea with milk.
- Snack for dinner: a piece of boiled chicken or fresh apple.
- Lunch: vegetable broth with barley, mushrooms and finely chopped zucchini, baked salmon or carp with boiled vegetables (eg peppers, onions, zucchini), 1 glass of fresh apple juice.
- Snacks: rose nutate, nuts and dried fruits (eg prunes and almonds).
- Dinner: low-fat cottage cheese, boiled grated beets with apples, 1 glass of skim milk.
- At night: 1 glass of fat-free kefir.
During the week you can combine different varieties of dishes from vegetables, white poultry and fish. Use nuts, fruits like bananas or apples for snacks. Dietary plan no. 10, not only to prevent atherosclerosis in blood vessels, but also for hypothyroidism. With a regular diet for at least four months, high cholesterol can drop significantly.
Diet tablet number 10A
This diet has a number of limitations:
- Bread - maximum 145 g per day.
- Vegetable broth - up to 180 ml.
- The use of cheese, pearl barley and millet is excluded.
- Do not eat very hot or cold food.
Diet tablet number 10, which has a positive effect on high cholesterol, looks like this for every day:
- Breakfast: oatmeal with 1% milk, green tea, small apple.
- Snack: baked apple with cottage cheese.
- Lunch: steamed chicken chops, mashed potatoes without oil, half a glass of fresh apple juice.
- Afternoon snack: prunes or dates.
- Dinner: carrot-apple chops baked in the oven, half a glass of fat-free kefir.
- Before going to bed: half a glass of rosehip tincture or a chicory drink.
After the age of 50, more than 35% of people have high cholesterol. As a result, the risk of worsening atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction, stroke, increases. Therefore, it is especially important at this age to follow proper nutrition as well as light exercise.
Diet table №10C
Table no. 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 characterized by vegetable fats, dietary fiber, foods high in vitamins B, PP, C. The daily caloric content of the menu is about 2570 kcal. It is necessary to eat broken doses in six doses a day.
Recommended foods that have a positive effect on high cholesterol are:
- Bran.
- Sea cabbage.
- Vegetables and fruits can be eaten in large portions.
- Bake or boil eggs slightly, up to a maximum of three pieces per week.
- Buckwheat, oatmeal, barley porridge.
- Honey, a few spoons a day.
- Spaghetti durum, try not to overcook.
Prohibited food contains menu number 10. The estimated daily diet is as follows:
- Breakfast: boiled buckwheat without oil, light curd with seasonal fruit, tea.
- Snack: baked apples or dried apricots.
- Lunch: boiled carrots, steamed beetroot chops, rice soup with vegetables lightly fried in olive oil, seasonal fruit compote.
- Afternoon snack: unsweetened berry smoothie or honey with a handful of hazelnuts.
- Dinner: Salad of seasonal vegetables with olive oil and seaweed, salmon (other fatty fish) baked with a slice of lemon and thyme, boiled potatoes, weak green tea.
- Before going to bed: a glass of 1% kefir.
A healthy lifestyle is not limited to diet alone. Because high cholesterol levels require complex treatment. Do not forget about physical exercise, as well as long walks in the fresh air.
low carb diet
Foods that are excluded from the low carb menu are:
- 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. This is what a low carb menu this week might look like:
Monday
- Egg white eggplant with chopped champagne and tomatoes;
- Creamy chicken soup and Brussels sprouts. Two wholemeal breads;
- Pera;
- Boiled veal with peppers.
Tuesday
- Thin pancakes on kefir with cottage cheese, raisins.
- Salmon ear. Two slices of wholemeal bread.
- Green apple.
- Fried chicken fillets with spinach.
Wednesday
- Cheesecakes with low-fat sour cream.
- Buckwheat on the water and baked chicken cutlet.
- Orange.
- Cool chicken.
Thursday
- Whipped skyr.
- Cheese soup with chicken breast. Two wholemeal toasts.
- Half grapefruit.
- Uncut rice. Steamed zucchini and carrot chops, fresh cucumber.
Friday
- One soft egg sprinkled with grated cheese.
- Fish boiled in a light cream sauce.
- Kiwi or one orange.
- Boiled beans, mashed. Chicken rolls. One tomato.
- Before going to bed - a glass of kefir.
Saturday
- Cottage cheese and natural yoghurt.
- Steamed lamb dumplings and one cucumber.
- Mandarin or apple.
- Seafood. Arugula salad with olive oil.
Sunday
- Steam egg cake with chicken breast.
- Turkey fillets baked with broccoli.
- A glass of 1% kefir.
- Rabbit fried with vegetables (onion, zucchini, sweet pepper).
While following this diet, it is recommended to take up to two liters of fluid per day. In women, contraindications to a low-carb diet may include breastfeeding and pregnancy. Elevated cholesterol with timely diagnosis can be successfully treated with nutritional correction. What kind of diet you need to follow, only the doctor on site can finally decide after a detailed analysis of your history.
paleo diet
The Paleo diet contains foods that our Stone Age ancestors ate before agriculture developed. High levels of animal protein are the basis of prehistoric nutrition. At the same time, carbohydrates and fats used in the diet are much less. The main product is meat that contains animal protein. It is the one that speeds up metabolic processes and prevents the accumulation of excess fat.
The Paleo diet is suitable for lowering blood cholesterol as the consumption of animal fats decreases. It is recommended to eat every five hours, about three meals a day. The main permitted products are:
- Meat and poultry without fat.
- Seafood, fish.
- Oils: olive oil, flaxseed, sesame.
- Mushrooms, nuts and seeds without heat treatment.
- Fresh berries, vegetables and fruits.
Sugar and salt, legumes and grains, dairy products, vegetables with starch (potatoes, sweet potatoes) are excluded from the diet with such a 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 return to normal if the paleo dietary principles are followed.
Keto diet
The keto diet is based on minimum carbohydrate intake. In this regard, the body trains itself to produce more energy from fats and proteins. This high cholesterol diet helps to reduce low density lipoproteins. At the same time, there is an increase in the amount of "good" cholesterol.
During a ketogenic diet, avoid bread, sugar, pasta, fruits and sweets. With a lack of carbohydrates, the body begins to break down fat reserves eagerly.
This diet is similar to a low carb diet. When choosing the best 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 omelet in olive oil with tomatoes, add toast with bran. Calorie content - 500-600 kcal.
- For lunch, you need to limit carbs. Nutritionists recommend eating soup with chicken meatballs (without potatoes, noodles). Note that high cholesterol indicates eating vegetarian power. In the latter, you can eat brown rice with breasts and pieces of cheese.
- Dinner should include an increased proportion of protein and fiber. Poultry or lamb, veal and green vegetables will suffice. It is better to bake meat and make a salad of vegetables with a spoonful of olive oil.
When following a ketogenic diet, the body works in an "emergency", as it is in a ketotic state due to the production of ketone bodies (fatty acid derivatives). Therefore, medical supervision is necessary during such a diet. .
Some people claim that diet does little to lower cholesterol and recommend taking statins. A very controversial statement. Many doctors and specialists fundamentally disagree with this.
Ornish Vegetarian Diet
The diet was first created by Dean Ornish, Bill Clinton's personal physician. And it is based on strict control of consumed fat. No more than 20 grams of fat per day is allowed. This diet is recommended if a person is diagnosed with hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis and obesity. Basically, the menu is vegetarian. This food is characterized by an increased proportion of carbohydrates in the food consumed.
It is necessary to combine Ornish nutrition with exercise, exercise. The daily balance of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, respectively, is 10, 25, 75%. Recommended products for use:
- Vegetables, mostly green.
- Lentils, beans, peas.
- Apples and pears.
- Buckwheat porridge, made from corn, flour and rice.
Eat modest eggs, dairy products, cheeses, cookies. It is absolutely necessary to exclude red meat, leaves and pastries, butter, mayonnaise, olives, nuts, seeds.
You can organize a sample of the week's menu as follows.
The first day
- Breakfast: chicory drink, one tablespoon of wheat bran added to low-fat yogurt.
- Lunch: some large potatoes baked with tomatoes, salad of cucumbers, vegetables and Iceberg salad, green apples.
- Snacks: apricots or plums (3 pieces), other seasonal fruits, low-fat cottage cheese.
- Dinner: two whole wheat toast, apple or pear, spaghetti from durum wheat sprinkled over low-fat cheese, berry complex.
Another day
- Breakfast: freshly squeezed orange juice, rice porridge with skim milk, a glass of kefir.
- Lunch: beans with mushrooms and onions, salad with tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers, dressed with olive oil.
- Afternoon snack: strawberries, wheat bread.
- Dinner: two slices of bran bread, half an avocado, buckwheat porridge boiled with mushrooms and carrots, green tea.
Day Tuesday
- Breakfast: decaffeinated coffee, a cup of muesli with berries and skim milk.
- Lunch: soup with pumpkin slices and spinach, couscous with vegetables, vinaigrette without pickles.
- Afternoon snack: a glass of kefir, low-fat cookies.
- Dinner: Baked eggplant halves with onions and carrots, a bowl of seasonal berries, mint tea.
Day four
- Breakfast: pomegranate juice, pumpkin-zucchini pancakes.
- Lunch: broccoli and cauliflower soup, asparagus cooked with rice and chicken fillets.
- Snack: low-fat cottage cheese with the addition of yoghurt, oatmeal cookies.
- Dinner: boiled cabbage with carrots and onions, any fruit of your choice, currant compote.
Day five
- Breakfast: apple juice, cereal porridge.
- Lunch: two fish chops, mashed potatoes without added milk and with a little butter.
- Afternoon snack: a cup of low-fat kefir, green apple.
- Dinner: asparagus and green pea soup, weak tea.
Day seven
- Breakfast: chicory, low-fat cottage cheese with honey.
- Lunch: boiled turkey breast with zucchini and pumpkin puree, orange juice.
- Afternoon snack: oatmeal pudding, wholemeal bread.
- Dinner: two cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and vegetables, mineral water.
Day seven
- Breakfast: a piece of cottage cheese with raisins, chicory.
- Lunch: 2 lentils and carrot chops, rice.
- Snack: 3 baked cheesecakes, orange juice.
- Dinner: apples stuffed with cottage cheese and dried apricots, chamomile tea.
High cholesterol with strict adherence to the canons of this diet can return to normal. Discipline and self-control are very important for success.
Intermittently fasted
Fasting is used to lower blood cholesterol. Elevated cholesterol levels can be treated with diet with the elements of complete hunger as follows: with a lack of food, the body begins to use low levels of lipoprotein reserves to get energy for life. Already after 12 hours of fasting, cholesterol, as another source of energy, begins to be released into the bloodstream and broken down to form energy.
Estimated weekly hunger for cholesterol due to cholesterol:
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 with water. For lunch you can eat 50 g of grated carrots. In the third - drink grape-apple and carrot juice. Eat with one hundred grams of vegetable puree and before going to bed - kefir.
On the fourth and fifth day, add grated vegetables and fruits and in the evening - a light cottage cheese. On the sixth and seventh days, breakfast should consist of grated vegetables and fruits, and for dinner and lunch, overcooked buckwheat or millet should be eaten. Such a strict diet can only be performed after consulting a doctor and under the supervision of a doctor. To control high cholesterol, it is necessary to repeat regular fasting.
It is not easy to choose the most optimal diet for high cholesterol - it is necessary to thoroughly study all the characteristics of a particular person's body. It is very important to take into account concomitant diseases, sex, age. Only a properly designed menu is an effective prevention against the serious consequences of raising cholesterol.