Diet To Lower Cholesterol

A diet to lower cholesterol is another way of saying "a healthy diet." While it is true that specific foods and herbs can help certain conditions, many problems such as cholesterol are related to general lifestyle.

This means eating a healthy diet can help avoid and correct conditions that have been building up for months or years due to inadequate diet.

So, a list of foods that help lower cholesterol is basically a diet to lower cholesterol levels naturally and permanently with wholesome, natural ingredients that your body needs for optimum health and performance.

A list of foods to avoid high cholesterol is basically avoiding the poor quality foods that overload the body with toxic, low nutrition ingredients.

Before we get into the specifics of a diet to lower cholesterol, let's define what cholesterol is.

Cholesterol is a fat soluble steroid and is the most abundant steroid in the body. It is critical for good health and essential for the formation of the following key compounds in the body:

• Vitamin D
• Progesterone
• Estrogen
• Testosterone
• Adrenaline

Cholesterol is also also an essential ingredient for building every cell membrane in your body and is also a key ingredient in brain tissue. Much of it is in the myelin sheaths that protect and isolate brain nerve cells and in the synapses that transmit nerve impulses.

Diet directly accounts for around 20% of the cholesterol levels in the body and the liver is directly responsible for 80% of the cholesterol levels in the body.

So, a diet to lower cholesterol will be only partially effective for controlling cholesterol. ***Improving liver function is absolutely essential to controlling cholesterol. When the whole digestive system is improved, this enhanced nutrition will help improve the function of the liver so that it can once again regulate cholesterol levels efficiently.

Gallstones Begin In The Liver

The liver also produces bile for digestion of fats and oils and if the cholesterol becomes too concentrated in the bile and sits too long in the gallbladder, gallstones are the result. This is where the medical profession likes to remove the gallbladder, which is only storage for bile.

Bile is produced in the liver but stored in the gallbladder to be released as needed. So, correcting liver function will eliminate gallstones because the process of forming gallstones actually begins in the liver.

Correcting liver function and adopting a diet to lower cholesterol can help ensure you don't develop gallstones.

Cholesterol Is Critical To Good Health

Cholesterol cannot dissolve in the blood, so the liver combines it with lipoproteins to make it soluble.

Cholesterol's role in the arteries is helping to repair damaged areas. Cholesterol along with calcium and fibrin in the bloodstream are sent to repair the damage before the arterial wall is damaged so bad that a blood leak develops and you bleed to death internally.

According to the medical theory of heart disease, this plaque buildup (cholesterol, calcium and fibrin) is the cause of the problem and they try to eliminate the cholesterol with drugs instead of dealing with the reasons the body is producing excess cholesterol.

Remember that the medical theory of cholesterol is only a theory - it has never been proven.***

Cholesterol isn't part of the problem, it's part of the solution. The damage in arteries is from inflammation, acid build up in muscle tissue surrounding the arteries, excessive build up of Omega-6 fatty acids in the blood, high homocystein levels and free radical damage.

So, cholesterol doesn't cause the damage to the arteries; it repairs it. However, when there is excessive damage, excessive cholesterol is provided by the body to help repair the damage.

Cholesterol Is An Indication of Other problems

The problem with excess cholesterol is that it thickens the blood and but actually indicates other problems, such as liver damage. However, it isn't the real culprit so reducing cholesterol doesn't solve the real problems. Drugs are really just an attempt to stop the symptoms of a deeper problem.

So, hopefully, you are beginning to see the problem from the natural standpoint of how the body functions and reacts to the cholesterol situation in a very natural way - by producing cholesterol to assist in healing.

Drugs, Side Effects & Cholesterol

Statin drugs try to stop cholesterol formation in the liver by inhibiting the biochemical process required to produce cholesterol. That means that statin drugs are not going to stop the cause of the problem, but are only addressing the symptoms by artificially suppressing a proper function of the liver.

Advertisements almost make Lipitor (common drug treatment for high cholesterol) look like a guarantee for a long, and healthy life. In industrialized countries, millions of people have been sold this fallacy.

Over 13 million Americans take cholesterol-lowering meds (statins) daily. The theory implies that taking these pills will reduce bad cholesterol, and reduce your chances of dying from heart failure.

Cholesterol-lowering meds reaped profits of almost $28 billion in 2006 alone for the drug companies, making them the best-selling drugs in history.

Side effects of these drugs include nausea, trouble swallowing, muscle aches, vertigo, neuromuscular degeneration, memory loss and nerve damage. There have been enough complaints about side effects to bring about a number of lawsuits.

There are natural ways to improve heart and liver health and reduce cholesterol without supporting the pharmaceutical giants.

Mds usually prescribe drugs and avoiding foods that contain cholesterol as the major components in a diet to lower cholesterol and totally ignore the reasons why the body produces extra cholesterol.

Foods to Avoid High Cholesterol

Since your body produces plaque (cholesterol, calcium and fibrin) in response to arterial damage, excessive plaque build-up and the resultant hardening and narrowing of the arteries is actually the result of excessive damage, scarring, and inflammation in artery walls. Why only the arteries and not the veins? Because arterial walls contain muscle tissue that is particularly susceptible to damage. Veins contain much less muscle tissue and so, are less likely to suffer this kind damage. So what causes this damage/inflammation to the arterial walls?

Eating high levels of meats and animal fat from grain fattened animals saturates the body with large amounts arachidonic acid. High levels of arachidonic acid in most meats are accumulated from the conversion of Omega-6 fatty acids present in the grains used to fatten them. That means that minimal levels of arachidonic acid are found in range-fed beef. If you can find it, range-fed beef is far healthier for you than the more common grain-fed variety.

High acid diets. Diets high in meat, sugar, grain, and starch raise acid levels in body tissue - thereby making it hard for the body to clear the lactic acid that builds up in muscle tissue from normal muscle activity. This is a particular problem for arteries since the arterial wall contains muscle tissue (again, veins do not) so that the arteries can be contracted to even out blood pressure when changing position (from lying down to suddenly standing up, for example). The problem is that when the acid doesn't clear, it irritates, inflames, and scars the muscle tissue in the arterial walls.

High levels of circulating immune complexes in the blood. Circulating immune complexes (CICs) are created when you eat complex proteins (usually from wheat, corn, and dairy) that are not digested completely. They end up in the bloodstream, where they are treated as allergens by the body and combined with antibodies, forming CICs.

When the number of CICs goes beyond the ability of the body to eliminate them all, they are deposited in the soft tissue, such as the arterial walls. This triggers attacks by the body's immune system, resulting in inflammation.

A Diet To Lower Cholesterol Naturally

An essential factor in a diet to lower cholesterol is improving liver function. People with high cholesterol levels will usually have a weak liver and taking statin drugs can further damage the liver.

Following is a list of foods that help to lower cholesterol by improving digestion and nutrient absorption.

Add more fresh fruits and vegetables (especially raw) to your diet. These foods are very easy for the body to process and will help keep cholesterol levels down by improving digestion and adding some fiber to the diet.

In a diet to lower cholesterol, it is very important to supplement with naturally processed fish oil and flax seed oil, which are high in Omega-3 fatty acids.

Improve Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratios by eliminating bottled, refined vegetable oils (trans fats) found in the supermarket. They are too high in omega-6 and are usually hydrogenated. Many times, inflammatory disorders actually arise from an imbalance in the diet of the omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.

Foods high in transfats are number one on the list of foods to avoid high cholesterol.

Use cold pressed oils for meals and salads. Eat foods high in natural omega 3 fatty acids such as raw walnuts, romaine lettuce and cold water fish, fresh ground flax meal which contains healthy oil as well as fiber.

A special note here: Unrefined, naturally processed coconut oil is the healthiest oil for cooking. It doesn't change its properties dramatically when heated as most other oils do - even cold pressed oils from the health food store change to more unhealthy oils when heated to cooking temperatures, although they are still much better than the hydrogenated supermarket oils.

Coconut oil gets bad mouthed many times without it being explained that hydrogenated coconut oil is the unhealthy version - the cold processed, natural coconut oil is an exception in that it is a saturated fat that is very healthy. This is evidenced by many primitive native tribes who have used it for centuries as a major part of their diet. It aids digestion and is very good for skin and hair.

The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 oils is roughly 1 to 1; however, over the last few decades, people from industrialized countries have replaced much of their dietary saturated fat (on the mistaken advice of the medical profession) with refined vegetable oil.

This refined oil contains high levels of omega-6 fatty acids. Ratios of 30 (omega 6) to 1 (omega 3) are now common. From a health viewpoint, this sets the stage for major arterial inflammation.

Proteolytic Enzymes Are Important

Taking Proteolytic Enzymes is one of the most important things you can do, next to cleansing and healing the liver. The regular use of Proteolytic Enzymes can help eliminate CICs from the body, reduce inflammation, dissolve plaque, and repair arterial scar tissue.

High cholesterol levels indicate other problems and are usually a warning signal for liver problems, dietary imbalance, high acid levels and chronic inflammation.

High cholesterol levels and high levels of saturated fat in the blood thicken the blood. If the arteries are wide open, this is not a problem. But if the arterial walls have been narrowed or hardened, the thickened blood significantly increases the chance of a heart attack or stroke. There are ways to thin the blood naturally such as taking Proteolytic Enzymes.

A diet to lower cholesterol should also have soluble fiber (such as oat bran and psyllium husks) to absorb excess cholesterol and carry it out with bowel movements so that the excess won't enter your bloodstream. Fiber will also help to improve elimination which assists the body to get rid of toxins and waste more efficiently.

The Liver Is Critical To Good Digestion

Next to the skin, the liver is the largest organ in the body. It is considered by many natural practitoners to be the most important organ in the body since it is involved in over 200 different body functions.

All of the substances that you process and absorb in your small intestine must go thru the liver for final processing. This includes all of the protein, fat, and starch broken down in your digestive tract and all of the nutrients and antioxidants. Every nutrient you consume flows from the intestinal tract into the liver for processing and extraction.

So, the liver plays a leading role in the digestive process and a malfunctioning liver can result in many problems - symptoms that the medical profession covers up with drugs because they don?t understand the role of nutrition in good health.

That's why good liver function is an absolutely essential part of a diet to lower cholesterol.

Many drugs that are absorbed through the intestinal tract are metabolized by the liver before being circulated thru the body. This is the primary reason that so many drugs list liver damage as a possible side effect.

Questions To Ask Your Doctor

The primary theory lays the blame on cholesterol and claims that as cholesterol levels rise in the blood, this causes plaque to form on the walls of the arteries. This theory begins to show serious flaws under close scrutiny.

If cholesterol is the main culprit in artery blockage, why don't veins ever get blocked with plaque? Think about that seriously for a moment and then ask your local MD and watch his/her reaction!

Remember, the cholesterol theory of heart disease is only a theory - a theory that is increasingly being discredited. If you want to see a doctor get flustered and angry, ask them the following questions.

- If high cholesterol foods are directly responsible for raising cholesterol levels, why do people on the high-cholesterol Atkins Diet experience such a significant drop in cholesterol levels?

- Eskimos who eat a traditional diet of almost pure saturated fat (whale and seal blubber) have almost a zero incidence of heart disease. Why?

- If the liver is responsible for regulating up to 80% of cholesterol levels, why would you take statin drugs for lowering cholesterol since the number one side effect of taking statin drugs is liver damage?

So, our recommendations for a diet to lower cholesterol are adjusting your diet as noted above, cleansing and healing the liver, taking proteolytic enzymes. and adding a natural source of omega-3 oils to your diet.

This will result in better health with zero side effects and can also have the added bonus of reducing high blood pressure, which is part of a cholesterol problem for many people.

Remember, a diet to lower cholesterol will not only improve cholesterol levels, but has the added bonus of better health and energy levels. A diet to lower cholesterol can extend your lifespan and quality of life.

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Important Factor In Diet To Lower Cholesterol - A Liver Cleanse