Vegetables to lower cholesterol?

[seedcorn]

Family tradition, hi cholesterol-dang genetics! On Meds, so some things off limit. Eating oats for b'fast and cookies (no going to wish I was dead because of no sweets) and buckwheat replacing some wheat flour.

Question is what vegetables should help lower cholesterol?

 

[digitS']

Harvard Medical School has some advice, Seedcorn.

Oats for soluble fiber.
Barley and other whole grains for soluble fiber.
Beans for soluble fiber.
Eggplant and okra for soluble fiber.

Nuts. Almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and other nuts have nutrients that protect the heart.

Vegetable oils. Using liquid vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower, safflower, and others in place of butter, lard, or shortening. Out with the bad.

Apples, grapes, strawberries, citrus fruits. These fruits are rich in pectin, a type of soluble fiber that lowers LDL.

Soy. Eating soybeans and foods made from them, like tofu and soy milk, was once touted as a powerful way to lower cholesterol. Analyses show that the effect is more modest consuming 25 grams of soy protein a day (10 ounces of tofu or 2 1/2 cups of soy milk) can lower LDL by 5% to 6%.

Fatty fish.
Fiber supplements.

And, there is more to this here (click).

I like advice that says "Eat it!" Not too great to have a lot of "Don't!"

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

Thanks Steve. Glad I love okra. Now to find more ways to eat eggplant. Love dried beans as well.

 

[digitS']

I didn't know anything about the pectin-rich fruits .

. . other than if I eat them, there are other things I won't be eating.



Steve

 

[catjac1975]

I am a healthy low fat eater and still have high cholesterol. The things had had left to cut out was cheese and eggs and rarely eat red meat. I now eat eggs only 1 time a week. I eat whole oat oatmeal nearly every morning with flax seed (uncooked) and rice milk. I eat a handful of pistachios daily and try to eat an avocado every day. My testing dropped 70 points with these changes. I only use olive oil and eat no fried foods. I cannot tolerate the medications.Raspberries and blueberries are excellent also.

 

[so lucky]

I don't want to rattle anyone's cage here, but there are a lot of researchers and dietitions who say high cholesterol doesn't cause heart disease or strokes; that the high cholesterol is actually protective, not harmful. I'm not sure I buy it, but I have become so suspicious of many other health "tenets" that restrict us to narrow parameters of healthy/not-healthy. Just like the "eating fat makes you fat" myth, many other so-called truths are being proven wrong.
I have read that taking pectin will help increase the good cholesterol. My DH takes it--the regular stuff people use for making jelly.

 

[seedcorn]

While I agree not is all known yet, plaque build up from excess cholesterol will kill me. Wish they had Meds to clean arteries. Draino for veins.....

I've had to switch Meds to keep my kidneys as some had too many nasty side affects.

Cat, great to hear changes made a difference on blood cholesterol. Gives me some hope in changing eating habits. Dang I hate cutting down on dairy.... Won't give it up

 

[hoodat]

Some researchers claim that a pure vegan diet with no animal products of any kind will not only lower cholesterol but actually reverse plaque in the arteries. Speaking for myself though I doubt I could go completely vegan.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not a medical expert for sure but I think there are three parts to it. One is just plain heredity. It's too late to do much about that part now.

I think the two parts you can control are diet and exercise, both of which affect weight. My cholesterol dropped about 25 to 30 points when I stopped eating a construction camp diet while sitting behind a desk most of the day. I get a lot more exercise since I retired and I eat a lot less fried food. I also dropped about 30 pounds in weight.

I still eat dairy and red meat, but I don't eat nearly as much fried foods. I tend to not cook with grease and cut back a lot on oil when I cook, even the "good" oil. A lot more of what I eat is steamed, boiled, or cooked some way to reduce the fat. My chicken is homegrown so it is too old to fry. I cook it in the crock pot in water, for example. More of the meat I eat is fish or chicken, not so much red meat, but I still have red meat three or four times a week. It is often baked or grilled so the fat drops off.

I'm also no longer getting special favors when I go through the cafeteria line. Because I was a boss, I got the choice cuts of meat, which means the fatter ones because those have the most flavor. They are no longer skimming the oil off the top of the pot for me as gravy. They'd get in trouble with their boss if they didn't give me special treatment. It's their custom.

My child bride had her cholesterol go up about a year or so back. Age may have something to do with it but it sure runs in her family. She is trying hard to control her cholesterol with diet and exercise with limited success. Her good versus bad cholesterol ratio has improved some but she has not seen a dramatic change in the total number. Shes always eaten a much more healthy diet than me so she didnt have as much room for dramatic changes like I did.

Her brother takes Lipitor. I don't know if that is close enough to Drano for you but his cholesterol dropped way below the "danger zone".

From what Ive seen its possible for some people to improve their cholesterol level with diet and exercise but for some other people its a lot less effective even when they try real hard. I think that may be why you get so many different stories about it. Different people get different results doing the same thing.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

just try to change out and balance you diet with veggies, meats with lower fat in them, and less processed junk foods. it seems to have been working for my dh to fix both his numbers while he was recovering from his stroke. doc was happy to see the change in his numbers but did mention there is no real cure to making those numbers look any better other than getting healthier parents, which is just a little late once your in the world.

if you're worried about the cholesterol in eggs, just use the whites or a few whites to 1 yolk. there will always be people fighting over if they are really good or bad for you. i choose to take my chances with eggs.