Top 9 Effective Diets For High Blood Cholesterol

17 March 2022

The therapeutic diet for high cholesterol in the blood is the main link in the treatment of this disease. Think about how you can avoid excess fat and cholesterol in your diet. We will find out how to choose the right healthy food for yourself for each day and menu for about a week if you have hyperlipidemia.

20 basic rules of nutrition for high cholesterol

Elevated cholesterol can cause coronary heart disease, thrombosis of the lower extremity veins, stroke, myocardial infarction. You can prevent the serious consequences of chronic hyperlipidemia by following the simple rules listed below.

Nutrition for hypercholesterolemia should be fractional. Try to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Therefore, there is no increased appetite and the risk of overeating after a long fast.
Eat vegetables and fruits anytime and in large quantities. Dietary fiber accelerates the excretion of excess cholesterol from the body.
With bad cholesterol, foods with vegetable fats should be mostly in the diet. Try using olive oil instead of butter when cooking.
Try to eat lean meats more than a few times a week. With high cholesterol, recipes and menus that use poultry, veal, rabbit and lamb are best.
Sports with proper nutrition support high cholesterol. Gentle walks of at least three kilometers a day are recommended for people with elevated low-density lipoprotein levels.
The diet for hypercholesterolemia should consist primarily of steamed, baked, cooked food. Frying should be avoided altogether.
If you have high cholesterol, avoid foods that are high in animal fats. No need to eat lard, pork, bacon, smoked meat. Replace these products with cooked poultry, fish, seafood.
Increased salt levels in food are contraindicated in high blood pressure and atherosclerotic disease. Try not to eat more than 5 grams of salt a day. It is best to abandon this product altogether.
It is necessary to drink at least two liters of water a day, especially with thick blood and increased bilirubin. An elevated level of these indicators usually indicates a violation of liver and gallbladder function, leading to hyperlipidemia. Increased blood viscosity encourages fixation of blood clots on lipid deposits in the vessels. It is necessary to eat sharp berries that can thin the blood, such as cherries and blackberries.
Sweet pastries and high cholesterol are a bad combination. Milk chocolate should also be avoided. As another dessert, sugar-free oatmeal cookies, dried fruit, nuts and honey are ideal. Sometimes you can enjoy eastern Turkey.
The daily calorie requirement varies for women and men - an average of 2200 kcal and 2600 kcal, respectively. Increased calorie intake is also essential for people who are engaged in heavy physical labor. These factors are important when formulating a diet.
Be sure to refrain from alcohol abuse. Red wine is allowed, but no more than two glasses per week.
Coffee is a controversial alliance in the fight against high cholesterol. It contains cafestol, which increases the production of ingenous cholesterol in the liver. But some experts, on the contrary, recommend drinking 1-2 cups of coffee a day, as this helps to strengthen the cardiovascular system. So you can drink coffee, but do not abuse it. Another option is a chic drink or green tea.
Cook porridge every day. Try not to boil the cereal, making it crumbly. Do not season the finished dish with lots of butter if you have high cholesterol. For oatmeal, for example, honey and dried fruit are suitable as a flavoring.
Hyperlipidemia excludes the use of fatty dairy products. Replace them with fat-free yogurt and kefir. As a substitute, use low-fat yogurt and kefir.
Products containing harmful trans fats, such as fast food, are strictly contraindicated. Avoid chips and other snacks.
When cooking poultry, remove the skin from the surface. Because it makes the dish more fatty and contains harmful components.
Semi-finished products and hypercholesterolemia are mutually exclusive concepts. In such products there are no useful vitamins and minerals. Such food does not provide much energy, but it clogs the body with ballast calories and fats.
Try not to overeat at night. Eat dinner no later than two hours before going to bed. To suppress your appetite before going to bed, it is better to drink a glass of kefir or eat a few dates, a handful of almonds.
Your doctor will tell you how to eat the best way. After weighing all the risks and comorbidities, an experienced specialist will help develop the most effective nutrition plan. High cholesterol self-treatment is not recommended.

Elevated cholesterol is a reversible process if you follow the suggestions above and undergo regular medical examination.

Common diets to lower cholesterol in women and men

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

To understand the different types of diets that control high cholesterol, a comparative description of the most popular ones 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 cheeses, 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.
Moderately red wine.
Flatbreaded bread made from wheat flour (pitas).
Vegetables and fruits.
Greek yogurt.
Cereals.

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

Day 1

For breakfast: three-piece lentil fritters flavored with yogurt.
For lunch, refresh yourself with Brussels sprout cream soup with shrimp; fruit platter and salad with olives and tofu.
You can have pita for dinner, stuffed with feta cubes and salad (cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, a few olives).

Day 2

A good start to the day is zrazy curd-buckwheat.
Lunch snack - light soup with lentils, risotto with vegetables.
A good evening mood will be served with baked salmon, flavored with olive oil, with Provence herbs.

Day 3

Morning meal - buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
At lunchtime, baked tuna with vegetables will restore strength; tomato puree soup.
For dinner: salad with chicken breast and avocado, flavored with olive oil, pita.

Day 4

Breakfast: yogurt with chopped hazelnuts and almonds, you can add a little honey.
Light lunch meal: soup with fish meatballs, baked potatoes with tomatoes.
Dinner: vegetable salad with one egg, lemon juice and olive oil.

Day 5

Breakfast: oatmeal on the water, with the addition of honey and raisins.
It gives energy for lunch - soup-puree of spinach leaves and asparagus with liquid cream; lightly cooked salmon with wild rice.
Dinner: bake a pie with small cherry and feta tomatoes, on a whole crust, optionally crushed tofu cubes.

Day 6

Breakfast: dried fruit soufflé, green tea.
For lunch - cabbage soup, chicken stew with vegetables, one pita.
For dinner - zucchini with feta in the oven, pita with avocado and olive oil.

Day 7

For breakfast: Pour baked pumpkin with yogurt and honey.
Lunch: cream soup of mushrooms and chanterelles; chicken, grated with garlic, with sweet pepper in the oven.
Dinner: wild rice stew with mussels and shrimp.

For snacks between main meals, you can use dates, prunes, raisins, almonds. Such a diet will not only help to put high cholesterol in order, but also reduce body weight.

Diet table number 10

The method of cooking is primarily boiling and baking. Because high cholesterol excludes the use of fried foods. It is recommended to eat at least five meals a day in small portions. Afternoon snack no later than two hours before going to bed. Consumable products:

Fresh crushed vegetable juices, jelly.
Whole wheat bread.
Fresh vegetable salads.
Eggs without yolk.
Fish: tuna, salmon, carp.
Fat-free cottage cheese, kefir and yogurt.
Caisi.

It is necessary to refuse the following products: butter, fatty meats, and especially delicacies of red, salted and smoked fish, fatty cheeses, pickled vegetables, mustard. A sample menu for a week may look like this if you have high cholesterol:

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

During the week, you can combine a variety of dishes from vegetables, white poultry and fish. For snacks, use nuts, fruits such as banana or apple. Diet table no. 10, not only for the prevention of vascular atherosclerosis, but also for hypothyroidism. With a regular diet for at least four months, high cholesterol can be significantly reduced.

Diet table number 10A

This diet has some restrictions:

Bread - a maximum of 145 g per day.
Vegetable broths - up to 180 ml.
The use of cheeses, pearl barley and millet is excluded.
Do not eat foods that are extremely hot or cold.

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

Breakfast: chopped oatmeal with 1% milk, green tea, small apple.
Snack: baked apples with cottage cheese.
Lunch: steamed chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes without oil, half a glass of fresh apple juice.
Afternoon snack: prunes or dates.
Dinner: carrot-apple cutlets baked in the oven, half a glass of fat-free kefir.
Before going to bed: drink half a glass of rosehip tincture or chicory.

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

№10C diet table

Table No. is a therapeutic diet. 10C to lower cholesterol. This way of eating is recommended for people with diagnosed coronary heart disease and high blood pressure, induced by Atherosclerosis. This menu is dominated by vegetable fat, dietary fiber, foods high in vitamins B, PP, C. The daily calorie content of the menu is about 2570 kcal. Fractional portions need to be eaten in six doses per day.

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

Bran.
sea cabbage.
Vegetables and fruits can be eaten in large portions.
Bake or boil eggs a little, a maximum of three pieces a week.
buckwheat, oatmeal, barley porridge.
Honey, a few tablespoons a day.
Spaghetti durum, try not to overcook.

Prohibited foods include a menu similar to food number 10. The approximate daily diet is as follows:

Breakfast: oil-free cooked buckwheat, light curd mass with seasonal fruit, tea.
Snack: baked apple or dried apricots.
Lunch: stewed carrots, steamed beet cutlets, rice soup with vegetables lightly fried in olive oil, seasonal fruit compote.
Afternoon snack: unsweetened berry or honey smoothie with a handful of hazelnuts.
Dinner: Seasonal vegetable salad with olive oil and seaweed, salmon (other oily fish) baked with a slice of lemon and thyme, boiled potatoes, weak green tea.
Before going to bed: a glass of 1% kefir.

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

low carb diet

Foods excluded from the low-carb menu include:

Sweet pastry, white bread.
Sugar and fructose, honey.
Alcohol and sugary drinks with gas.
Macaroni and potatoes.
Milk chocolate.
Sweet fruits like grapes.

In large quantities, animal proteins should be present in the daily diet, for example, fish, dairy products, lean meats. Here's what a low-carb menu for a week would look like:

Monday

Egg white omelette with chopped mushrooms and tomatoes;
Creamy Chicken and Brussels Sprouts Soup. Two wholegrain breads;
Piorra;
Stewed veal with bell pepper.

Tuesday

Thin pancakes on kefir with cottage cheese, raisins.
Salmon ear. Two slices of whole grain bread.
Green apple.
Braised chicken fillet with spinach.

Wednesday

Cheese cakes with low-fat sour cream.
Water buckwheat and baked chicken cutlet.
Orange.
cold chicken.

Thursday

Whipped curd.
cheese soup with chicken breast. Two wholegrain toast.
Half a grapefruit.
Unbleached rice. Steamed zucchini cutlets and carrot, fresh cucumber.

Friday

One soft-boiled egg sprinkled with grated cheese.
Fish stewed in a light cream sauce.
Kiwi or orange only.
Boiled, mashed beans. Chicken rolls. Tomatoes only.
Before going to bed - a glass of kefir.

Saturday

Cottage cheese and natural yogurt.
steamed lamb meatballs and one cucumber.
Mandarin or apple.
Bia mara. Arugula salad with olive oil.

Sunday

Steam omelette with chicken breast.
Baked turkey fillet with broccoli.
1% glass of kefir.
Stewed rabbit with vegetables (onion, zucchini, sweet pepper).

Following this diet, it is recommended to take up to two liters of fluid a day. In women, the period of breastfeeding and pregnancy may be a contraindication to a low-carbohydrate diet. Elevated cholesterol with timely detection can be successfully treated with nutritional correction. What type of diet you need to follow, only the attending physician can finally decide after a detailed analysis of your history.

paleo diet

The Paleo diet includes foods that our ancestors ate in the Stone Age before the development of agriculture. A large proportion of animal proteins form the basis of prehistoric nutrition. At the same time, carbohydrates and fats are used in the diet much less. The main product is meat, which contains animal protein. It is the one that speeds up metabolic processes and helps prevent the accumulation of excess fat.

The paleo diet is ideal for lowering cholesterol in the blood, since it reduces the consumption of animal fat. It is recommended to eat every five hours, about three meals a day. The main approved products are:

Fat-free meat and poultry.
Seafood, fish.
Oils: olive, flax seeds, sesame.
Heat-treated mushrooms, nuts and seeds.
Fresh berries, vegetables and fruit.

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 eat foods mostly raw or after minimal heat treatment. This type of nutrition will help protect blood vessels from the formation of cholesterol and plaque. Elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein can be restored to normal if the principles of the paleo diet are observed.

keto diet

The keto diet is based on a minimum consumption of carbohydrates. In this regard, train the body 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.

When on a ketogenic diet, avoid bread, sugar, pasta, fruit and sweets. With a lack of carbohydrates, the body begins to severely break down fat reserves.

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

Breakfast: In the morning, try to eat up to 15 g of carbohydrates. The source can be cheese or vegetables. It is recommended to eat an omelette in olive oil with tomatoes, adding toast with bran. Calorie content - 500-600 kcal.
At lunch, you need to limit carbohydrates. Nutritionists recommend eating soup with chicken meatballs (no potatoes, noodles). Note that eating high vegetable broth recommends high cholesterol. Secondly, you can eat brown rice with breast and a piece of cheese.
Dinner should contain an increased percentage of protein and fiber. Poultry or lamb, veal and green vegetables will do. It is better to bake meat, and make a salad of vegetables with a spoonful of olive oil.

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

Some argue that the diet does little to lower cholesterol and recommend taking statins. A very controversial statement. Many doctors and experts fundamentally disagree about this.

Ornish on a vegetarian diet

The diet was first created by Dean Ornish, Bill Clinton's personal physician. And it is based on strict control of consumed fats. 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. The menu is basically vegetarian. This food is characterized by an increased percentage of carbohydrates in the foods consumed.

Ornish nutrition needs to be combined with physical exercises, physical activity. The daily balance of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, respectively, is 10, 25, 75%. Recommended products for use:

Vegetables, mostly green.
Lentils, beans, peas.
Apples and pears.
Buckwheat porridge, made from corn, wheat, and rice.

Moderate eating eggs, dairy products, cheeses, cookies. Categorically red meat, puff and pastry products, butter, mayonnaise, olives, nuts, seeds need to be excluded.

A sample menu for the week can be set as follows.

One hundred days

Breakfast: chicory drink, one tablespoon of wheat bran added to low-fat yogurt.
Lunch: a few large baked potatoes with tomatoes, a salad of cucumbers, greens and Iceberg lettuce, green apple.
Snack: apricots or plums (3 pieces), other seasonal fruits, low-fat cottage cheese.
Dinner: two wholemeal toast, apple or pear, durum wheat spaghetti sprinkled with low-fat cheese, berry 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, salad with tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers, dressed with olive oil.
Afternoon snack: strawberries, wheat bread.
Dinner: two slices of bran bread, half an avocado, stewed buckwheat porridge with mushrooms and carrots, green tea.

Day Three

Breakfast: decaffeinated coffee, a cup of muesli with berries and low-fat milk.
Lunch: soup with pumpkin and spinach slices, couscous with vegetables, vinaigrette without pickles.
Afternoon snack: glass of kefir, low-fat cookies.
Dinner: baked eggplant halves with onions and carrots, a bowl of seasonal berries, mint tea.

Day four

Breakfast: pomegranate juice, pumpkin-zucchini pancakes.
Lunch: broccoli and cauliflower soup, stewed asparagus with rice and chicken fillet.
Snack: low-fat cottage cheese with yogurt, oatmeal cookies.
Dinner: white cabbage stewed with carrots and onions, any fruit of your choice, currant compote.

Day five

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

Day six

Breakfast: chicory drink, fat-free cottage cheese with honey.
Lunch: boiled turkey breast with zucchini and pumpkin puree, orange juice.
Afternoon snack: oatmeal pudding, multigrain bread.
Dinner: two rolls of cabbage stuffed with rice and vegetables, mineral water.

Day seven

Breakfast: a piece of cottage cheese casserole with raisins, chicory.
Lunch: 2 lentils and carrot cutlets, rice.
Snack: 3 baked cheesecakes, orange juice.
Dinner: stuffed apples with cottage cheese and dried apricots, chamomile tea.

High cholesterol with strict adherence to the canons of this diet can return to normal. Regularity and self-control are very important for achieving results.

Interim fasting

Fasting is used to lower blood cholesterol. Elevated cholesterol levels can be treated with a diet with elements of total hunger in the following way: with food shortages, the body begins to use low-density lipoprotein reserves to gain energy for life. Already after 12 hours of fasting, cholesterol, as an alternative energy source, begins to be released into the blood and broken down to form energy.

Cholesterol approximation scheme for one week:

The first day - just freshly squeezed apple-carrot juice, diluted with water 1: 02. On the second day, you can drink the juice without diluting it with water. For lunch, you can eat 50 g of grated carrots. In the third - drink grape-apple and carrot juices. Dine with one hundred grams of vegetable puree, and before going to bed - kefir.

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

Choosing the best diet for high cholesterol is not easy - it is necessary to study in detail all aspects 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 an effective prevention of the serious consequences of hypercholesterolemia.