Lower Cholesterol – Naturally.

I am jotting down a few notes about cholesterol today. I have been reading up about this lately, and have found some useful information.

Many people are diagnosed with high cholesterol. Some others, supposedly ‘at risk’, are being directed towards statin drugs by various sources. (Mainly drug companies, of course.)

Statins – Nasty

Well, I just saw a programme on ITV (UK TV channel) where several people with awful side effects from statins were interviewed. And I tell you – statins have to be the last choice. The side effects were awful.

The reason I got interested in this topic is that my own cholesterol (LDL – the ‘bad’ type) has been shown to be high. Now I want to do something about it.

Some ‘alternative ‘ practitioners would say to use red rice-yeast, and high doses of niacin; and then possibly a ‘safe’ statin.

A Safe Treatment For Cholesterol – 30% Drop Typical

After a bit of research, I have found there is a diet which generally achieves a 30% reduction in LDL – bad cholesterol. That is enough for me. This is the ‘Portfolio Diet’.

The reason it’s called ‘Portfolio’ is that there are several approaches which, if combined, produce the total 30% reduction for many people.

This is a pretty good page on it:

http://www.amandaursell.com/html/portfolio_diet.html

The portfolio diet is basically food, supplements and exercise.

So I am stocking up on soluble fibre products; cutting right down on most meat and dairy products and snacking on almonds. For protein I stick to oily fish around 3 times a week and if I have meat it’s low fat – chicken or turkey breast or venison.

My Basic Approach

My basic approach is:

• Cut right down on foods containing saturated fats – basically meat and dairy foods including cheese; and fried food
• Eat beans and pulses regularly and other foods high in soluble fibre.
• Take ‘plant sterols’. They are in food – but in too low dosage. I am taking those from Lamberts.
• Get aerobic exercise 3 times a week for 25 minutes minimum.

My additional suggestions:

• Don’t drink ‘Benecol’, and don’t eat the rubbishy Flora products containing plant sterols. (If not in the UK, then I am saying be suspicious of manufactured products containing plant sterols.) These contain either sugar or saturated fat – both of which you want to avoid. Take the plan sterols as a supplement – without the added dodgy bits.
• The page I recommended above says to eat a litre of soya milk a day. That is too much. I don’t like the fact that they contain weak hormones: so I would not do this. Just eat soya milk or tofu (made from soya milk) occasionally.
• Always have some almonds with you. Probably other nuts are as good: but the research has been done on almonds.
• Get a cholesterol testing kit from the chemist. Test yourself, then retest after 3 months. After this, test every 3 months or so so you can keep an eye on things.

Good luck if you try it too – and let me know how it goes.