TOP 9 effective diets for high blood cholesterol

Therapeutic diet for high cholesterol in the blood is the main link in the treatment of this disease. Consider how you can avoid excess fat and cholesterol in your diet. If you are faced with hyperlipidemia, we will learn how to choose the right healthy food for yourself every day and an approximate menu for a week.

20 basic dietary guidelines for high cholesterol

High cholesterol can be the cause of coronary heart disease, thrombosis of the vessels of the lower extremities, stroke, myocardial infarction. You can prevent the serious consequences of chronic hyperlipidemia by following the simple rules listed below.

1. Nutrition for hypercholesterolemia should be fractional. Try to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Thus, there is no risk of increased appetite and overeating after a long fast.
2. Eat vegetables and fruits whenever you want and in large quantities. Dietary fiber accelerates the excretion of excess cholesterol from the body.
3. With bad cholesterol, the diet should contain mainly foods containing vegetable oil. Try to use olive oil instead of butter when cooking.
4. Try to eat lean meat no more than a few times a week. With high cholesterol, recipes and menus that include poultry, veal, rabbit and lamb are best suited.
5. Proper nutrition with high cholesterol is supported by sports. Light walks of at least three kilometers per day are recommended for people with high low-density lipoprotein levels.
6. The diet for hypercholesterolemia should consist mainly of steamed, baked, boiled food. Frying should be avoided altogether.
7. If you have high cholesterol, avoid foods high in animal fat. No need to eat lard, bacon, smoked meat. Replace these products with boiled poultry, fish, seafood.
8. The increased salt level in food is contraindicated in high blood pressure and atherosclerotic disease. Try not to eat more than 5 grams of salt per day. It is best to completely abandon this product.
9. Especially since the blood thickens and bilirubin increases, it is necessary to drink at least two liters of water a day. A high level of these indicators often indicates a violation of the function of the liver and gallbladder, which leads to hyperlipidemia. Increased blood viscosity triggers the fixation of blood clots on lipid deposits in the vessels. It is necessary to eat sour fruits that thin the blood, such as cherries and gooseberries.
10. Sweet pastries and high cholesterol are a bad combination. Milk chocolate should also be avoided. As an alternative dessert, sugar-free oatmeal cookies, dried fruits, nuts and honey are suitable. Sometimes you can pamper yourself with Eastern Turkish delight.
11. The daily calorie needs for women and men vary - on average 2200 kcal and 2600 kcal, respectively. Increased caloric intake is also necessary for people engaged in heavy physical labor. These factors are important when formulating a diet.
12. Make sure you avoid alcohol abuse. Red wine is allowed, but no more than two glasses per week.
13. Coffee is a controversial ally in the fight against high cholesterol. It contains cafetol, which increases the production of endogenous cholesterol by the liver. But some experts, on the contrary, recommend drinking 1-2 cups of coffee a day, as it 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 grains, leave them crumbly. If you have high cholesterol, do not season the finished dish with too much butter. For oatmeal, for example, honey and dried fruits are suitable as sweeteners.
15. Hyperlipidemia excludes the use of fatty dairy products. Replace them with nonfat yogurt and kefir. Use low-fat yogurt and kefir instead.
16. Products containing 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. Because it makes the food more oily and contains harmful components.
18. Semi-finished products and hypercholesterolemia are mutually exclusive concepts. There are no useful vitamins and minerals in such products. Such food does not bring enough energy, but only clogs the body with ballast calories and fats.
19. Try not to overeat at night. Have your dinner at least two hours before bedtime. Before going to bed, it is better to drink a glass of kefir or eat a few dates, a handful of almonds to suppress your appetite.
20. Your doctor will tell you how best to eat. After weighing all the risks and accompanying diseases, an experienced specialist will help develop the most effective nutrition plan. Self-treatment of high cholesterol is not recommended.

High cholesterol is a reversible process if you follow the above recommendations and undergo regular medical examinations.

Popular diets to lower cholesterol in women and men

A cholesterol-lowering diet can be based on a combination of different foods. To significantly reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood, it is important to follow the recommended diet for a long time, at least six months.

To understand the different types of diets that regulate high cholesterol, a comparative description of the most popular of them 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 nutrition is an abundance of cheese, meat, fish and spices. However, these products are perfectly combined and have a positive effect on high cholesterol. List of foods in the diet:

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

Fatty meats, lard, sausages, carbonated sweet drinks are categorically excluded from the diet. Because these products can cause high cholesterol in the blood. As an example, the following menu is offered for high cholesterol calculated for a week:

1 day

• For breakfast: three pieces of lentil pastry flavored with yogurt.
• For lunch, refresh yourself with creamy brussels sprouts soup with shrimp; fruit plate and olive and tofu salad.
• For dinner, you can have pita stuffed with white cubes and salad (cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, a few olives).

2 days

• A good start to the day is a curd-buckwheat craze.
• Lunch snacks - light soup with lentils, risotto with vegetables.
• In the evening, a good mood will be provided with baked salmon flavored with olive oil with Provencal herbs.

3 days

• Morning meal - buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
• Tuna with vegetables for lunch will restore strength; tomato puree soup.
• For dinner: Chicken breast with olive oil and avocado salad, pita.

4 days

• Breakfast: Yogurt with chopped hazelnuts and almonds, you can add some honey.
• Light lunch: fish ball soup, baked potato with tomatoes.
• Dinner: Vegetable salad with an egg, lemon juice and olive oil.

5 days

• Breakfast: oatmeal on water with the addition of honey and raisins.
• Energizes for lunch - soup-puree with liquid cream of spinach leaves and asparagus; Boiled salmon with wild rice.
• Dinner: Bake optionally crumbled tofu cubes in a small cherry tomato and feta cheese pie on a whole wheat crust.

6 days

• Breakfast: souffle with dried fruit, green tea.
• For lunch - cabbage soup, chicken stew with vegetables, a pita.
• For dinner - baked zucchini with feta cheese, avocado pita and olive oil.

7 days

• For breakfast: pour the cooked pumpkin with yogurt and honey.
• Lunch: cream of champignons and chanterelles soup; Grated chicken with garlic in the oven with sweet pepper.
• Dinner: wild rice casserole with mussels and shrimp.

You can use dates, prunes, raisins, almonds for snacks between main meals. Such a diet will not only help regulate high cholesterol, but also reduce body weight.

diet chart number 10

The cooking method is mainly boiling and baking. Since high cholesterol excludes the use of fried foods. It is recommended to eat at least five meals a day in small portions. Dinner no later than two hours before bedtime. Products that can be consumed:

• Vegetable freshly squeezed juices, jelly.
• Brown bread.
• Fresh vegetable salads.
• Without egg yolk.
• Fish: tuna, salmon, carp.
• Fat-free cottage cheese, kefir and yogurt.
• kashi.

It is necessary to refuse the following products: butter, fatty meat and especially red, salty and smoked fish delicacies, fatty cheeses, pickled vegetables, mustard. If your cholesterol is high, a sample weekly menu might look like this:

• Early breakfast: buckwheat cooked in 1% milk, soft-boiled egg, weak green tea with milk.
• Pre-dinner snack: a piece of boiled chicken or a fresh apple.
• Lunch: vegetable broth with barley groats, mushrooms and finely chopped zucchini, baked salmon or carp with boiled vegetables (for example, bell pepper, onion, zucchini), 1 glass of fresh apple juice.
• Snack: rosehip tea, nuts and dried fruit (eg prunes and almonds).
• Dinner: low-fat cottage cheese, boiled grated beets with apples, 1 glass of low-fat milk.
• Night: 1 glass of fat-free kefir.

During the week, you can combine different dishes of vegetables, poultry and fish. For snacks, use fruits such as nuts, bananas or apples. Diet table number 10 is recommended not only for the prevention of the formation of atherosclerosis of the vessels, but also for hypothyroidism. High cholesterol can be significantly reduced with a regular diet for at least four months.

Diet chart number 10A

This diet has a number of restrictions:

• Bread - a maximum of 145 g per day.
• Vegetable juices - up to 180 ml.
• Excludes the use of cheese, pearl barley and millet.
• Do not eat extremely hot or cold foods.

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

• Breakfast: Chopped oatmeal with 1% milk, green tea, a small apple.
• Snack: baked apples with cottage cheese.
• Lunch: steamed chicken cutlet, lean mashed potatoes, half a glass of fresh apple juice.
• Afternoon snack: prunes or dates.
• Dinner: Oven-baked carrot-apple cutlets, half a glass of fat-free kefir.
• Before going to bed: half a glass of rosehip tincture or chicory drink.

After age 50, more than 35% of people have high cholesterol. As a result, the risk of progression of atherosclerotic disease and the formation of myocardial infarction, stroke increases. Therefore, at this age, it is especially important to adhere to proper nutrition in combination with light physical activity.

Diet chart №10C

Table No. 10C is a therapeutic diet for lowering cholesterol. This way of eating is recommended for people with coronary heart disease and high blood pressure caused by atherosclerosis. This menu is dominated by foods with a high content of vegetable oil, dietary fiber, vitamins B, PP, C. The daily calorie content of the menu is about 2570 kcal. It is necessary to eat fractional portions of six doses per day.

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

• Bran.
• Sea kale.
• Vegetables and fruits can be eaten in large portions.
• Cook or boil eggs a little, no more than three pieces per week.
• Buckwheat, oatmeal, barley porridge.
• Honey, a couple spoonfuls a day.
• Spaghetti case, try not to overcook it.

Forbidden foods include meal-like menu number 10. The approximate daily diet is as follows:

• Breakfast: lean boiled buckwheat, light curd mass with seasonal berries, tea.
• Snack: baked apples or dried apricots.
• Lunch: Boiled carrots, steamed beetroot cutlet, vegetable rice soup lightly fried in olive oil, seasonal fruit compote.
• Afternoon snack: unsweetened fruit smoothie or honey with a handful of nuts.
• Dinner: Seasonal vegetables salad with olive oil and seaweed, baked salmon with lemon slice and thyme (another oily fish), boiled potatoes, weak green tea.
• Before going to bed: a glass of 1% kefir.

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

low carb diet

Foods excluded from the low-carb menu include:

• Sweet pastries, white bread.
• Sugar and fructose, honey.
• Carbonated alcohol and sugary drinks.
• Pasta and potatoes.
• Chocolate milk.
• Sweet fruits like grapes.

In large quantities, animal proteins should be present in the daily diet, for example, fish, dairy products, lean meats. A weekly low-carb menu might look like this:

Monday

• Egg white omelet with chopped champignons and tomatoes;
• Creamy Chicken and Brussels Sprouts Soup. Two whole grain breads;
• Pear;
• Stewed beef with bell pepper.

Tuesday

• Thin pancakes on kefir with cottage cheese, raisins.
• Salmon ear. Two slices of cereal bread.
• Green apple.
• Fried Chicken Fillet with Spinach.

Wednesday

• Low-fat sour cream cheesecakes.
• Buckwheat water and baked chicken cutlets.
• Orange.
• Cold chicken.

Thursday

• Whipped curd.
• Cheese soup with chicken breast. Two whole grain toast.
• Half a grapefruit.
• Unpolished rice. Steamed zucchini and carrot cutlet, fresh cucumber.

Friday

• A soft-boiled egg sprinkled with grated cheese.
• Boiled fish in a light creamy sauce.
• Kiwi or an orange.
• Boiled beans, crushed. 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.
• Sea products. Arugula salad with olive oil.

market

• Chicken breast steam omelet.
• Baked turkey fillet with broccoli.
• A glass of 1% kefir.
• Stewed rabbit with vegetables (onions, zucchini, sweet pepper).

It is recommended to drink up to two liters of fluid per day while following this diet. In women, a contraindication to a low-carb diet may be lactation and pregnancy. Timely detected high cholesterol can be successfully treated with nutritional correction. What kind of diet you should adhere to can only be decided by the attending physician after a detailed analysis of your history.

paleo diet

The Paleo diet includes foods that our Stone Age ancestors ate before the development of agriculture. A large amount of animal protein is the basis of prehistoric nutrition. At the same time, carbohydrates and fats are used much less in the diet. The main product is meat containing animal protein. It is he who accelerates metabolic processes and helps prevent excessive accumulation of fat.

The Paleo diet is suitable for lowering blood cholesterol, as animal fat consumption is reduced. It is recommended to eat about three meals a day, every five hours. The main allowed products are:

• Lean meat and poultry.
• Seafood, fish.
• Oils: olive, linseed, sesame.
• Mushrooms, nuts and seeds that are not heat treated.
• Fresh fruits, vegetables and berries.

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 foods mostly raw or after minimal heat treatment. Such nutrition will help protect blood vessels from the formation of cholesterol and plaque. High low-density lipoprotein levels can be returned to normal if the principles of the Paleo diet are followed.

keto diet

The keto diet is based on minimal carbohydrate consumption. In this context, the body tries 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, fruit and sweets while on a ketogenic diet. With a lack of carbohydrates, the body begins to intensively break down fat reserves.

This diet is similar to a low-carb diet. When choosing the most suitable menu, you should use the following rules:

• Breakfast: Try to consume 15 g of carbohydrates in the morning. The source can be cheese or vegetables. Tomato omelet with olive oil is recommended by adding whole wheat toast. Calorie content - 500-600 kcal.
• At lunch you need to limit carbohydrates. Nutritionists recommend eating soup with chicken meatballs (without potatoes, without noodles). Note that high cholesterol suggests eating vegetable juice. Second, you can eat breasted brown rice and a piece of cheese.
• Dinner should contain increased amounts of protein and fiber. Poultry or lamb, veal, and green vegetables will do. It is better to cook meat and make salads from vegetables with a spoonful of olive oil.

When following a ketogenic diet, the body works in an "emergency" mode, in a state of ketosis due to the production of ketone bodies (fatty acid derivatives). Therefore, medical supervision is necessary during such feeding. Despite the associated risk, high cholesterol normalizes during the keto diet.

Some claim the diet will do little to lower cholesterol and suggest taking statins. A very controversial statement. Many doctors and experts fundamentally disagree on this.

Ornish's Vegetarian Diet

The diet was originally created by Bill Clinton's personal physician, Dean Ornish. And it is based on strict control of consumed oils. 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. Basically the menu is vegetarian. This food characterizes the increased percentage of carbohydrates in the food consumed.

It is necessary to combine Ornish nutrition with physical exercises, physical activity. The daily balance of fat, protein and carbohydrates is 10, 25, 75%, respectively. Recommended products for use:

• Vegetables, mostly green.
• Lentils, beans, peas.
• Apple and pear.
• Buckwheat porridge made from corn, wheat and rice.

Eat moderately eggs, dairy products, cheese, cookies. Categorically, red meat, puff and pastry products, butter, mayonnaise, olives, nuts, seeds should be excluded.

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: several large potatoes cooked with tomatoes, cucumber salad, greens and Iceberg lettuce, green apple.
• Snack: apricots or plums (3 pcs. ), other seasonal fruits, low-fat cottage cheese.
• Dinner: two whole wheat toast, one apple or pear, durum wheat spaghetti sprinkled with low-fat cheese, fruit compote.

The second day

• Breakfast: freshly squeezed orange juice, rice porridge with low-fat milk, a glass of kefir.
• Lunch: beans with mushrooms and onions, tomato with olive oil, carrot and cucumber salad.
• Afternoon snack: strawberries, wheat bread.
• Dinner: two slices of wholemeal bread, half an avocado, boiled buckwheat porridge with mushrooms and carrots, green tea.

The third day

• Breakfast: decaf coffee, a cup of strawberry muesli and low-fat milk.
• Lunch: soup with zucchini 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 fruit, mint tea.

Fourth day

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

fifth day

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

Sixth day

• Breakfast: chicory drink, fat-free cottage cheese with honey.
• Lunch: boiled turkey breast with pumpkin and pumpkin puree, orange juice.
• Afternoon snack: oatmeal 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 and carrot cutlets, rice.
• Snack: 3 baked cheesecakes, orange juice.
• Dinner: apples stuffed with cottage cheese and dried apricots, chamomile tea.

With strict adherence to the canons of this diet, high cholesterol can return to normal. Regularity and self-control are essential to achieve results.

intermittent fasting

Fasting is used to lower blood cholesterol. It is possible to treat high cholesterol levels with a diet with elements of complete fasting, as follows: with food shortage, the body begins to use its reserves of low-density lipoprotein to obtain energy for life. Already after 12 hours of fasting, cholesterol, an alternative energy source, begins to be released into the blood and broken down to form energy.

The approximate scheme of fasting from cholesterol for a week:

The first day - only freshly squeezed apple-carrot juice diluted with water 1: 2. On the second day, you can drink the water without diluting it with water. For lunch, you can eat 50 g of grated carrots. Third - for grape-apple and carrot juices. Eat with one hundred grams of vegetable puree, and before bedtime - with kefir.

On the fourth and fifth days add grated vegetables and fruits, and at night - light cottage cheese. On the sixth and seventh days, breakfast should consist of grated vegetables and fruits, and for dinner and lunch you should eat overcooked buckwheat or millet cereals. Such a strict diet can only be done after consulting a doctor and under medical supervision. To regulate high cholesterol, it is necessary to periodically repeat the course of therapeutic fasting.

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