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Saturday, May 31, 2008

How walnut can lower your cholesterol level

Walnut tree often being viewed for its beauty. However, the true beauty of walnut trees is actually lies in its fruits; Walnut. there is no doubt that Walnut can add delicious flavor to your meal, but along with that, walnut have quiet a lot of health benefits.

Well, how can Walnut help us to lower our cholesterol level? There are couples ways Walnut can lower our cholesterol level.

  1. Omega-3. Walnuts are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which unfortunately that our body do not produce this type of fat. Walnut concentration of omega-3 is appoximately 90.8%. Omega-3 is effective in improving the ratio of HDL cholesterol (read: good cholesterol) and more to that Omega-3s can also reduce the LDL Cholesterol (read: Bad Cholesterol) capability to clogged the arteries.

  1. Monounsaturated Fat. Walnuts are a great source of monounsaturated fats too. Approximately 15% of fats in Walnuts is monounsaturated fat.

  2. Polyphenolic compounds. Walnuts are have polyphenolic compounds like ellagic and gallic acid, and they produce antioxidant activity that enough to cause free-radical damage to LDL cholesterol.

Now that we know how Walnut can lower our cholesterol level, a practical tip to include Walnut into our daily diet would be to have a handful of walnuts for at least 4 times a week.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Lower High Cholesterol Level with Green Tea

There are many reasons why people drink green tea. Some people for enjoyment, others for health. There are many health benefit from drinking green tea, as of for cholesterol, Green tea can lower high cholesterol level.

People who drink green tea on regular basis have much lower cholesterol levels than people who don't drink green tea at all.

How drinking green tea can lower cholesterol level?

· Green tea polyphenols can actually prevent the absorption of cholesterol and make cholesterol excreted from the body.

· Green tea has very effective antioxidants called epicatechins. This antioxidant is responsible in lowering bad cholesterol by almost half.

Now that we know the benefit of drinking green tea, therefore it is advisable that we add a nice warm cup of green tea in our daily diet in order to lower our cholesterol level.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Olive Oil and Cholesterol

Cholesterol is substance that cannot soluble in the water. It attachés itself to proteins and the two formed lipoproteins. Three types of Lipoproteins are formed:

1. Low Density Lipoproteins also known as LDL Cholesterol (read: Bad Cholesterol because they can stick in the arteries walls and make it clogged)

2. High Density Lipoproteins also known as HDL Cholesterol (read: Good Cholesterol because they free the artery from clogged)

3. Very Low Density Lipoproteins also known as VLDL Cholesterol

The levels of these cholesterols produced by the liver are affected by the types and how much of fat that we take in our diet every day.

It takes approximately 6 to 12 hours after we ate fatty meals, that the liver extracting the fat from the blood and transform them into LDL, VLDL and HDL cholesterol.

There are three types of fat that we eat: saturated, poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated.

1. Saturated fats

Primarily come from animal meats. They are considered as the greatest damage to our health as they make the liver to increase the production of Bad Cholesterol that can lead to clogged artery

2. Poly-unsaturated

Primarily come from grains, nuts vegetables and seeds. They can lower the bad Cholesterol which is good; unfortunately they also lower the Good Cholesterol which is not good.

3. Monounsaturated fats

They are can be found in varying amounts in all fats. They can lower the bad Cholesterol which is good; on the other hand it also increases the good Cholesterol which is better.

Therefore, the best oil to lower our cholesterol level that we should include in our diet, should has structure with a lot of monounsaturated oil with little or no saturated and polyunsaturated at all. And we can only find that structure in olive oil.

In olive oil we will find:

· Saturated fat averaging about 10 to 15%

· Polyunsaturated fats averaging about 8 to 9%

· Monounsaturated fat averaging about 75% to 80%.

The good news is that in olive oil, both the saturated fat and the polyunsaturated fat are the lowest among other oil, while the monounsaturated is the highest among any other oil.

More to that, Extra Virgin Olive Oil contains approximately 40 antioxidant phytochemicals. These Antioxidants have the important part in reducing the capacity of Bad Cholesterol to oxidated (clogged arteries formation).

Therefore, it is advisable in our diet to lower our cholesterol level that we include olive oil for at least two tablespoons every day.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

High Cholesterol Foods - What to Eat and What Not to Eat

There's only two ways our body can have cholesterol. The first one is through our own production of cholesterol, which is produced by the liver. The cholesterol level produced by the liver is not the same in every people.

The second one is from the foods that we eat. Just like the cholesterol that’s produced by the liver, the cholesterol level that we get from the food that we eat is different for each person.

Certain level of cholesterol is needed by our bodies to live, however our cholesterol production from the liver can meet that demand without any problem. This makes all the cholesterol that we get from the food will be the excessive cholesterol that can endanger our health. Therefore to keep a lower cholesterol level and live a healthy life it is important to know what to eat and what not to eat.

There are a lot of foods that contain cholesterol and there are a lot of food that don't have the cholesterol. Mostly the food from animals; like beef, chickens, meat, they are contain cholesterol, while food process from plants; like veggies or fruit, they do not have cholesterol.

Not all the food that contains cholesterol is bad for the health. Some food; like the egg yolk is contain a very high in cholesterol, however egg yolk is the HDL cholesterol (read: good cholesterol) therefore egg yolk is good for you heart.

However, fried food like fried chickens or French fries usually contain a high level of LDL cholesterol (read: bad cholesterol) which are bad for you heart.

Therefore, to lower our high cholesterol level, it is advisable that we should reduce or even avoid meat, fat and dairy product in our diet. And we should increase fruits, vegetables and grain in our diet. Another thing, it’s better not to eat deep fried food, as well as fried food as they contain a high cholesterol level.