TOP 9 effective diets for high blood cholesterol

Therapeutic diet for high blood cholesterol is the main link in the treatment of this disease. Think about how you can avoid excess fat and cholesterol in your diet. We will understand how to choose the right healthy food for yourself for each day and an approximate menu for a week if you are experiencing hyperlipidemia.

20 Basic Diet Rules for High Cholesterol

Elevated cholesterol can be the cause of coronary heart disease, thrombosis of the 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. The diet for hypercholesterolemia should be fractional. Try to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Thus, there is no increased appetite and risk of overeating after long hours of fasting.
2. Eat vegetables and fruits at all times and in large quantities. Dietary fiber accelerates the elimination 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 to eat lean meats no more than twice a week. With high cholesterol, recipes and menus that use poultry, beef, rabbit and lamb are best suited.
5. Proper nutrition with high cholesterol is supported by sports. Gentle walks of at least three kilometers a day are recommended for people with high levels of low-density lipoprotein.
6. The diet for hypercholesterolemia should consist mainly of steamed, cooked, boiled foods. Frying should be avoided completely.
7. If you have high cholesterol, avoid foods high in animal fats. You do not 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 high blood pressure and atherosclerotic disease. Try to eat no more than 5 grams of salt a day. It is best to give up this product altogether.
9. It is necessary to drink at least two liters of water a day, especially with viscous blood and increased bilirubin. An elevated level of these markers usually indicates a violation of liver and gallbladder function, which leads to hyperlipidemia. Increased blood viscosity causes blood clots to attach to lipid deposits in blood vessels. It is essential to eat berries that can dilute the blood, such as cherries and gooseberries.
10. Sweet pastries and high cholesterol are a bad combination. Milk chocolate should also be avoided. Oatmeal cookies without sugar, dried fruits, nuts and honey are suitable as an alternative dessert. Sometimes you can enjoy oriental Turkish delight.
11. The daily calorie requirement for women and men varies - averaging 2200 kcal and 2600 kcal, respectively. Increased calorie intake is also essential for people who engage in strenuous physical work. These factors are important in shaping a diet.
12. Make sure you abstain from alcohol abuse. Red wine is allowed, but not more than two glasses a week.
13. Coffee is a controversial ally in the fight against high cholesterol. Contains cafestol, which increases the production of endogenous cholesterol by the liver. Some experts, on the other hand, recommend drinking 1-2 cups of coffee a day, as this helps strengthen the cardiovascular system. So you can drink coffee, but do not abuse it. An alternative is a chicory drink or green tea.
14. Cook porridge every day. Try not to boil the cereals, leaving them crumbly. Do not season the finished dish with too much butter if you have high cholesterol. For oatmeal, for example, honey and dried fruits are suitable as a flavoring.
15. Hyperlipidemia precludes the use of fatty dairy products. Replace them with fat-free yogurt and kefir. As a substitute, use low-fat yogurt and kefir.
16. Products that contain 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. As 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 foods do not bring enough energy, but only clog the body with calories and fats.
19. Try not to eat too much at night. Eat dinner no later than two hours before bedtime. To quench your appetite before going to bed, it is best to drink a glass of kefir or eat two dates, a handful of almonds.
20. Your doctor will tell you how to eat the best way. After weighing all the risks and side effects, an experienced specialist will help you develop the most effective diet plan. High cholesterol self-medication is not recommended.

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

Popular diets for lowering cholesterol in women and men

A cholesterol lowering diet can be based on a combination of different foods. To significantly lower your blood cholesterol level, it is important to follow your recommended diet for 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 ones will help.

Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet, which lowers cholesterol levels, is recommended for people with atherosclerotic disease, hypertension and overweight. The basis of such a diet is the abundance of cheese, meat, fish and spices. Nevertheless, these products combine perfectly and have a positive effect on high cholesterol. List of foods in the diet:

• Spices and herbs.
• Soft cheeses like feta.
• Olive oil.
• Fish, mussels, shrimp.
• Bird, lamb.
• Red wine in moderation.
• Unleavened breads made from wheat flour (pies).
• Vegetables and fruits.
• Greek yogurt.
• Cereals.

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

Day 1

• For breakfast: three pieces of fried lentils with yogurt flavor.
• For lunch, refresh yourself with a creamy Brussels vegetable 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 zrazy buckwheat.
• Lunch snack - light soup with lentils, risotto with vegetables.
• Baked salmon, flavored with olive oil, with Provencal herbs, will offer you a good mood in the evening.

Day 3

• Breakfast - buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
• At lunch, tuna cooked with vegetables will restore strength. tomato pulp soup.
• For dinner: salad with chicken breast and avocado, flavored with olive oil, pie.

Day 4

• Breakfast: yogurt with chopped hazelnuts and almonds, you can add a little honey.
• Light lunch: soup with fish meatballs, baked potatoes with tomato.
• Dinner: vegetable salad with an egg, lemon juice and olive oil.

Day 5

• Breakfast: oatmeal in water, with the addition of honey and raisins.
• Gives energy for lunch - soup-puree of spinach leaves and asparagus with liquid cream. salmon lightly boiled with wild rice.
• Dinner: Bake a pie with small cherry tomatoes and feta cheese in a wholemeal crust, optionally crushing tofu cubes.

Day 6

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

Day 7

• For breakfast: add baked pumpkin with yogurt and honey.
• Lunch: cream soup with mushrooms and kale. chicken, grated with garlic, with sweet pepper 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 regulate high cholesterol, but also reduce body weight.

Dining table number 10

The way of cooking is mainly boiling and baking. Since 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. Products that can be consumed:

• Freshly squeezed vegetable juices, jellies.
• Wholegrain bread.
• Fresh vegetable salads.
• Eggs without yolk.
• Fish: tuna, salmon, carp.
• Non-fat cottage cheese, kefir and yogurt.
• Kashi.

It is necessary to discard the following products: butter, fatty meat and especially red, salted and smoked fish delicacies, fatty cheeses, pickles, mustard. A sample menu for a week if you have high cholesterol may look like this:

• Early breakfast: buckwheat cooked in 1% milk, boiled egg, weak green tea with milk.
• Snack before dinner: a piece of boiled chicken or a fresh apple.
• Lunch: vegetable broth with barley groats, mushrooms and chopped zucchini, cooked salmon or carp with boiled vegetables (for example, peppers, onions, zucchini), 1 glass of fresh apple juice.
• Snack: tea with rose, nuts and dried fruits (for example, plums and almonds).
• Dinner: low-fat cottage cheese, boiled grated beets with an apple, 1 glass of low-fat milk.
• In the evening: 1 glass of fat-free kefir.

During the week, you can combine different variations of vegetable dishes, white poultry and fish. For snacks, use nuts, fruits such as a banana or an apple. Diet table No. 10 is recommended not only for the prevention of atherosclerosis of blood vessels, but also for hypothyroidism. With a regular diet for at least four months, high cholesterol can be significantly reduced.

Dining table number 10A

This diet has some limitations:

• Bread - maximum 145 g per day.
• Vegetable broths - up to 180 ml.
• The use of cheese, pearl and millet is excluded.
• Do not eat extremely hot or cold foods.

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

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

After the age of 50, over 35% of people have high cholesterol. As a result, the risk of developing atherosclerotic disease and the occurrence of myocardial infarction, stroke increases. Therefore, at this age it is especially important to follow a proper diet combined with light physical activity.

Diet table №10C

Table 10C is a therapeutic diet for lowering cholesterol. This diet is recommended for people diagnosed with coronary heart disease and high blood pressure, which is caused by atherosclerosis. This menu is dominated by vegetable fats, dietary fiber, foods high in vitamins B, PP, C. The daily calorie content of the menu is about 2570 kcal. It is necessary to eat fractional portions in six doses a day.

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

• Bran.
• Sea cabbage.
• Vegetables and fruits can be eaten in large portions.
• Boil or boil the eggs a little, at most three pieces a week.
• Buckwheat, oatmeal, barley porridge.
• My love, two spoons a day.
• Spaghetti hard, try not to overdo it.

Forbidden foods include menu 10 that looks like food. The approximate daily diet is as follows:

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

A healthy lifestyle is not limited to diet. Because high cholesterol levels require complex treatment. Do not forget the physical exercises, as well as the long walks in the fresh air.

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.
• Spaghetti 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 for a week might look like:

Monday

• Egg white omelette with chopped mushrooms and tomato.
• Creamy soup with chicken and Brussels sprouts. Two wholemeal breads.
• Pear;
• Boiled beef with pepper.

Tuesday

• Thin kefir pancakes with cottage cheese, raisins.
• Salmon ear. Two slices of bread from cereals.
• Green apple.
• Braised chicken fillet with spinach.

Wednesday

• Cheesecakes with low fat cream.
• Buckwheat in water and grilled cutlet.
• Orange.
• Cold chicken.

Thursday

• Whipped cream whipped cream.
• Cheese soup with chicken breast. Two wholemeal toasts.
• Half a grapefruit.
• Raw rice. Steamed zucchini and carrot cutlets, fresh cucumber.

Friday

• A soft egg sprinkled with grated cheese.
• Fish boiled in a light creamy 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.
• Tangerine or apple.
• Seafood. Rocket salad with olive oil.

Sunday

• Steam omelette with chicken breast.
• Turkey fillet cooked with broccoli.
• A glass of 1% kefir.
• Rabbit stew with vegetables (onion, zucchini, pepper).

During this diet, it is recommended to take up to two liters of fluid a day. In women, the contraindication to a low carb diet may be the period of breastfeeding and pregnancy. Elevated cholesterol with early detection can be successfully treated with dietary correction. What kind of diet should you follow, only the treating physician can finally decide after a detailed analysis of your history.

paleo diet

The Paleo diet includes foods eaten by our Stone Age ancestors before the development of agriculture. A large amount of animal protein is the basis of the prehistoric diet. 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 the one that speeds up the metabolic processes and helps prevent the accumulation of excess fat.

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

• Lean meat and poultry.
• Seafood, fish.
• Oils: olive, flaxseed, sesame.
• Mushrooms, nuts and seeds without heat treatment.
• Fresh berries, vegetables and fruits.

Sugar and salt, legumes and cereals, dairy products, starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes) are excluded from the diet with such a diet. It is recommended to consume food mainly raw or after minimal heat treatment. This type of diet will help protect blood vessels from building up cholesterol and plaque. Elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein can return to normal if the principles of the paleo diet are followed.

Keto diet

The keto diet is based on a minimum carbohydrate intake. In this regard, the body is trained to produce more energy from fats and proteins. This high cholesterol diet helps reduce low density lipoproteins. At the same time, there is an increase in the level of "good" cholesterol.

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

This diet is similar to a low carb diet. When selecting the optimal menu, you must use the following rules:

• Breakfast: In the morning try to consume up to 15 grams of carbohydrates. The source can be cheese or vegetables. It is recommended to consume omelette in olive oil with tomatoes, adding toast with bran. Calorie content - 500-600 kcal.
• At lunch, you need to cut down on carbs. Nutritionists recommend eating soup with chicken meatballs (without potatoes, noodles). Note that high cholesterol suggests eating vegetable broth. For the second, you can eat brown rice with breast and a piece of cheese.
• Dinner should contain an increased amount of protein and fiber. Poultry or lamb, beef and green vegetables will do. It is better to cook meat, and make a vegetable salad with a spoonful of olive oil.

When following a ketogenic diet, the body operates in a state of "emergency", being in a state of ketosis due to the production of ketones (fatty acid derivatives). Therefore, medical supervision during such a diet is necessary. Despite the relative risk, elevated cholesterol is normalized during the keto diet.

Some argue that dieting will lower cholesterol slightly and recommend taking statins. A very controversial statement. Many doctors and specialists basically disagree with this.

The Ornish Vegetarian Diet

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

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

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

Eat moderate eggs, dairy products, cheeses, cookies. It is absolutely necessary to exclude red meat, puff pastry products, butter, mayonnaise, olives, nuts, seeds.

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

First day

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

Third day

• 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: roasted half aubergines with onions and carrots, a bowl of seasonal berries, mint tea.

Wednesday

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

Thursday

• Breakfast: apple juice, cereal porridge.
• Lunch: two fish cutlets, mashed potatoes without added milk and a small piece of butter.
• Afternoon snack: a cup of low-fat kefir, a green apple.
• Dinner: soup with asparagus and peas, weak tea.

Day six

• Breakfast: chicory drink, non-fat cottage cheese with honey.
• Lunch: boiled turkey breast with zucchini and pumpkin puree, orange juice.
• Afternoon snack: oat pudding, multigrain bread.
• Dinner: two cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and vegetables, mineral water.

Seventh day

• Breakfast: a piece of cottage cheese casserole with raisins, chicory.
• Lunch: 2 lentil cutlets and carrot, 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 rules of this diet can return to normal. Regularity and self-control are very important for achieving results.

Intermittent fasting

Fasting is used to lower blood cholesterol. Elevated cholesterol levels can be treated with a complete starvation diet as follows: With a lack of food, the body begins to use low-density lipoprotein stores to gain energy for life. After 12 hours of fasting, cholesterol, as an alternative energy source, begins to be released into the bloodstream and broken down to form energy.

Approximate cholesterol starvation program for one week:

On 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 grams of grated carrots. In the third - drink grape-apple and carrot juices. Have dinner 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 - light cottage cheese. On the sixth and seventh day, breakfast should consist of grated vegetables and fruits, and for dinner and lunch, eat overcooked buckwheat or millet cereals. Such a strict diet can be carried out only after consulting a doctor and under medical supervision. To regulate high cholesterol, it is necessary to periodically repeat the course of therapeutic fasting.

It is not easy to choose the best diet for high cholesterol - it is necessary to study in detail all the features of a particular person's body. It is very important to take into account concomitant diseases, gender, age. Only a well-designed menu is an effective prevention of the serious consequences of hypercholesterolemia.