Therapeutic diet for high blood cholesterol is the main link in the treatment of this disease. Think about how to protect yourself from excess fat and cholesterol in your diet. If you suffer from hyperlipidemia, we will understand how to choose the right healthy food for yourself every day and the approximate menu for a week.
20 basic rules of nutrition for high cholesterol
High cholesterol can cause ischemic 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.
- For hypercholesterolemia, there should be a nutritional fraction. Try to eat in small portions 5-6 times a day. Thus, there is no risk of increased appetite and overeating after a long fast.
- Eat vegetables and fruits at any time and in large quantities. Dietary fiber accelerates the elimination of excess cholesterol from the body.
- The diet with bad cholesterol should consist mainly of foods containing vegetable oils. When cooking, try to use olive oil instead of butter.
- Try to eat lean meat no more than twice a week. Recipes and menus using poultry, veal, rabbit and lamb with high cholesterol are the most suitable.
- Proper nutrition with high cholesterol is supported by exercise. For people with high levels of low-density lipoprotein, gentle walks of at least three kilometers a day are recommended.
- The diet for hypercholesterolemia should consist mainly of steamed, cooked, boiled foods. Frying should be avoided completely.
- If your cholesterol is high, stay away from foods that contain animal fats. No need to eat pork, pork, pork, smoked meat. Replace these products with boiled poultry, fish, seafood.
- Increased salt in the diet is contraindicated in hypertension and atherosclerotic diseases. Try to eat no more than 5 grams of salt a day. It is better to give up this product completely.
- You need to drink at least two liters of water a day, especially with thick blood and increased bilirubin. High levels of these indicators indicate dysfunction of the liver and gallbladder, which usually leads to hyperlipidemia. Increased blood viscosity causes blood clots to attach to lipid deposits in the arteries. You need to eat sour berries that can dilute the blood, such as cherries and corn.
- Sweet dough and high cholesterol are a bad combination. Milk chocolate should also be avoided. As an alternative dessert, unsweetened oatmeal cookies, dried fruits, nuts and honey are suitable. Sometimes you can taste oriental Turkish delicacies.
- Daily caloric needs for women and men vary - on average 2200 kcal and 2600 kcal, respectively. Increasing calorie intake is also necessary for people engaged in heavy physical labor. These factors are important when designing a diet.
- Be sure to refrain from alcohol abuse. Red wine is allowed, but not more than two glasses a week.
- Coffee is a controversial ally in the fight against high cholesterol. Contains cafestol, 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, because it helps strengthen the cardiovascular system. So you can drink coffee, but do not abuse. An alternative is a chicory drink or green tea.
- Cook the porridge every day. Try not to boil the grains in small pieces. If your cholesterol is high, do not season the finished dish with too much butter. For oatmeal, for example, honey and dried fruits are suitable for flavoring.
- Hyperlipidemia excludes the use of fatty dairy products. Replace them with nonfat yogurt and kefir. Use low-fat yogurt and kefir as substitutes.
- 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 oily and contains harmful components.
- Semi-finished products and hypercholesterolemia are mutually exclusive concepts. Such products do not contain useful vitamins and minerals. Such food does not bring enough energy, but binds the body with ballast calories and fats.
- Try not to eat too much at night. Eat dinner no later than two hours before bedtime. It is better to drink a glass of kefir or eat a handful of dates, a handful of almonds to suppress your appetite before going to bed.
- Your doctor will tell you how to eat best. After taking all the risks and comorbidities, an experienced specialist will help you develop the most effective nutrition plan. Self-medication for high cholesterol is not recommended.
If you follow the above recommendations and get regular medical checkups, high cholesterol is a reversible process.
Popular diets to lower cholesterol in women and men
A cholesterol-lowering diet can be based on a combination of different foods. It is important to follow the recommended diet for a long time, at least six months, to significantly reduce blood cholesterol levels.
A comparative description of the most popular of them will help to understand the different types of diets that regulate high cholesterol.
Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet, which lowers cholesterol levels, is recommended for people suffering from atherosclerotic disease, hypertension and overweight. The basis of such a diet is an abundance of cheese, meat, fish and spices. Nevertheless, these products combine perfectly and have a positive effect on high cholesterol. List of foods in the diet:
- Spices and herbs.
- Soft cheeses like feta.
- Olive oil.
- Fish, mussels, shrimp.
- Bird, lamb.
- Red wine is the norm.
- Unleavened flatbread (pita) made from wheat flour.
- Vegetables and fruits.
- Greek yogurt.
- Cereals.
Fatty meat, fat, sausages, carbonated sweet drinks are strictly excluded from the diet. Because these products can cause high cholesterol in the blood. As an example, the following menu is provided for high cholesterol calculated for a week:
Day 1
- For breakfast: three yogurt-flavored lentil pies.
- Refresh yourself with creamy Brussels sprouts with shrimp for dinner; fruit platter and salad with olives and tofu.
- For dinner you can eat pita stuffed with feta cubes and salad (cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, a few olives).
2 nd day
- A good start to the day is cottage cheese-buckwheat zrazy.
- Lunch snack - light soup with lentils, vegetable risotto.
- In the evening, a good mood will be provided by salmon cooked with Provencal herbs, flavored with olive oil.
3rd day
- Breakfast - buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
- Tuna cooked with vegetables at dinner will restore strength; tomato puree soup.
- For dinner: chicken breast and salad with avocado, pita, flavored with olive oil.
4th day
- Breakfast: yogurt with chopped nuts and almonds, you can add a little honey.
- Light lunch: soup with fish meatballs, baked potatoes with tomatoes.
- Dinner: vegetable salad with an egg, lemon juice and olive oil.
5th day
- Breakfast: oatmeal in water, with the addition of honey and raisins.
- Provides energy for dinner - liquid creamy spinach leaves and asparagus puree; lightly boiled salmon with wild rice.
- Dinner: Bake a pie with small cherry tomatoes and feta, in a bran crust, optionally cut into tofu cubes.
6th day
- Breakfast: dried fruit souffle, green tea.
- For dinner - cabbage soup, chicken stew with vegetables, a pita.
- For dinner - zucchini with feta in the oven, pita with avocado and olive oil.
7th day
- For breakfast: pour baked pumpkin with yogurt and honey.
- Lunch: champignon and chanterelles cream soup; chicken, fried with garlic, with sweet pepper in the oven.
- Dinner: wild rice casserole with mussels and shrimp.
Among the main dishes you can use dates, prunes, raisins, almonds for snacks. Such a diet will not only help regulate high cholesterol, but also help reduce body weight.
Diet schedule № 10
The method of cooking is mainly boiling and baking. High cholesterol excludes the use of fried foods. It is recommended to eat in small portions at least five times a day. Evening snack no later than two hours before bedtime. Consumable products:
- Freshly squeezed juices from vegetables, jelly.
- Whole wheat bread.
- Fresh vegetable salads.
- Eggs without yolks.
- Fish: tuna, salmon, carp.
- Low-fat cottage cheese, kefir and yogurt.
- Kashi.
The following products should be avoided: fat, fatty meat and especially red, salted and smoked fish delicacies, fatty cheeses, pickled vegetables, mustard. If you have high cholesterol, a weekly sample menu might look like this:
- Early breakfast: buckwheat cooked in 1% milk, soft-boiled egg, weak green tea with milk.
- Snack before dinner: a piece of boiled chicken or fresh apples.
- Dinner: vegetable broth with barley, mushrooms and finely chopped pumpkin, carp with cooked salmon or baked vegetables (for example, bell peppers, onions, pumpkin), 1 cup fresh apple juice.
- Snacks: hips tea, nuts and dried fruits (eg plums and almonds).
- Dinner: low-fat cottage cheese, boiled beets with apples, 1 cup low-fat milk.
- Night: 1 glass of nonfat kefir.
During the week, you can combine a variety of dishes from vegetables, white poultry and fish. For snacks, use nuts and fruits such as bananas or apples. Dietary table number 10 is recommended not only for the prevention of vascular atherosclerosis, but also for hypothyroidism. High cholesterol can be significantly reduced with a regular diet for at least four months.
Diet table number 10A
This diet has a number of limitations:
- Bread - a maximum of 145 g per day.
- Vegetable broth - up to 180 ml.
- The use of cheeses, pearl barley and millet is excluded.
- Do not eat too hot or cold food.
Diet No. 10, which has a positive effect on high cholesterol, looks like this every day:
- Breakfast: chopped oatmeal with 1% milk, green tea, small apples.
- Snack: baked apples with cottage cheese.
- Lunch: steamed chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes, half a glass of fresh apple juice.
- Afternoon snack: plums or dates.
- Dinner: oven-baked carrot-apple cutlets, half a glass of nonfat kefir.
- Before bedtime: half a glass of hip tincture or chicory drink.
After the age of 50, more than 35% of people have high cholesterol. As a result, the risk of developing atherosclerotic disease and myocardial infarction, stroke increases. Therefore, at this age, it is especially important to follow a proper diet with light physical activity.
Diet schedule №10C
Table № 10C is a therapeutic diet to lower cholesterol. This diet is recommended for people diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure caused by atherosclerosis. This menu is dominated by foods containing vegetable oil, dietary fiber, high amounts of vitamins B, PP, C. The daily caloric content of the menu is about 2570 kcal. Fractional portions should be eaten in six doses per day.
Recommended foods that have a beneficial effect on high cholesterol include:
- dandruff.
- Sea kale.
- Vegetables and fruits can be eaten in large portions.
- Boil or boil the eggs a little, a maximum of three a week.
- Buckwheat, oatmeal, barley porridge.
- Honey, a few tablespoons a day.
- Spaghetti situation, try not to overcook.
Prohibited foods include menus such as meal number 10. The approximate daily diet is as follows:
- Breakfast: lean boiled buckwheat, light cottage cheese with seasonal fruits, tea.
- Snack: baked apples or dried apricots.
- Lunch: boiled carrots, steamed beet cutlets, rice soup with vegetables lightly fried in olive oil, seasonal fruit compote.
- Lunch snack: sugar with unsweetened berry smoothie or a handful of nuts.
- Dinner: seasonal vegetable salad with olive oil and seaweed, salmon cooked with lemon slices and thyme (other oily fish), boiled potatoes, weak green tea.
- Before bedtime: a glass of 1% kefir.
A healthy lifestyle is not limited to diet. Because high cholesterol levels require complex treatment. Do not forget about exercise, as well as long walks in the fresh air.
low carbohydrate diet
Low carb diets include:
- Sweet dough, white bread.
- Sugar and fructose, honey.
- Carbonated alcohol and sugary drinks.
- Pasta and potatoes.
- Milk chocolate.
- Sweet fruits like grapes.
Large amounts of animal protein should be in the daily diet, for example, fish, dairy products, lean meat. A low-carb menu for a week can look like this:
Monday
- Egg white omelet with chopped mushrooms and tomatoes;
- Creamy Chicken and Brussels sprouts. Two whole grain breads;
- pear;
- Beef cooked with Bulgarian pepper.
Tuesday
- Thin pancakes with cottage cheese, raisins in kefir.
- Salmon ear. Two slices of whole grain bread.
- Green apple.
- Baked chicken fillet with spinach.
Wednesday
- Cheese cakes with low-fat sour cream.
- Buckwheat and chicken cutlet in water.
- Orange.
- Cold chicken.
Thursday
- Whipped cottage cheese.
- Cheese soup with chicken breast. Two whole grain toast.
- Half a grapefruit.
- Unpolished rice. Steamed pumpkin and carrot cutlets, fresh cucumber.
Friday
- A soft-boiled egg is sprinkled with grated cheese.
- Fish cooked in a light creamy sauce.
- Kiwi or an orange.
- Boiled beans, puree. Chicken rolls. A tomato.
- Before going to bed - a glass of kefir.
Saturday
- Curd and natural yogurt.
- Steamed lamb dumplings and a cucumber.
- Mandarin or apple.
- Sea products. Arugula salad with olive oil.
Sunday
- Steam omelette with chicken breast.
- Baked turkey fillet with broccoli.
- A glass of 1% kefir.
- Baked rabbit with vegetables (onion, pumpkin, sweet pepper).
It is recommended to drink up to two liters of fluid a day while following this diet. Contraindications to a low-carbohydrate diet in women may be breastfeeding and pregnancy. High cholesterol detected in time can be successfully treated with nutritional correction. Which diet you should follow can only be finally 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 agriculture developed. Large amounts of animal protein form the basis of prehistoric nutrition. At the same time, carbohydrates and fats are used less in the diet. The main product is meat, which contains animal protein. It accelerates metabolic processes and prevents the accumulation of excess fat.
The Paleo diet is suitable for lowering blood cholesterol because it reduces the consumption of animal fat. It is recommended to eat every five hours, about three times a day. The main permitted products are:
- Lean meat and poultry.
- Seafood, fish.
- Oils: olive, flaxseed, sesame.
- Mushrooms, nuts and seeds without heat treatment.
- Fresh berries, vegetables and fruits.
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 mainly raw or after minimal heat treatment. This type of nutrition will help protect blood vessels from cholesterol and plaque formation. If the principles of the Paleo diet are followed, high levels of low-density lipoproteins can be returned to normal.
Keto diet
The keto diet is based on a minimum intake of carbohydrates. In this regard, the body trains 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, fruits and sweets while on a ketogenic diet. With a lack of carbohydrates, the body begins to break down fat reserves intensively.
This diet is similar to a low carb diet. You should use the following rules when choosing the optimal menu:
- Breakfast: Try to consume up to 15 g of carbohydrates in the morning. The source can be cheese or vegetables. It is recommended to cook an omelet in olive oil with tomatoes, adding wholemeal toast. Calories - 500-600 kcal.
- You need to limit carbohydrates at lunch. Dietitians recommend eating soup with chicken meatballs (potatoes, noodles). Note that high-cholesterol vegetable juice offers a meal. Second, you can eat brown rice with breast and a piece of cheese.
- Dinner should contain an increasing percentage of protein and fiber. Will make poultry or lamb, veal and green vegetables. It is better to cook meat, prepare a salad of vegetables with a tablespoon 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 required during such feeding. Despite the associated risk, high cholesterol is normalized during a keto diet.
Some claim that the diet will do very little to lower cholesterol, and recommend taking statins. Very controversial statement. Many doctors and experts disagree.
Ornish vegetarian diet
The diet was first developed by Bill Clinton's personal physician, Dean Ornish. And it is based on strict control over the oils consumed. No more than 20 grams of fat per day is allowed. This diet is indicated when a person is diagnosed with hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis and obesity. The menu is mostly vegetarian. This food characterizes the increasing percentage of carbohydrates in the foods consumed.
Ornish nutrition should be combined with physical exercise, physical activity. The daily balance of fats, proteins and carbohydrates is 10, 25, 75%, respectively. Recommended products:
- Vegetables, mostly green.
- Lentils, beans, peas.
- Apples and pears.
- Buckwheat porridge made from corn, wheat and rice.
Eat moderate amounts of eggs, dairy products, cheeses, cookies. Red meat, tumors and pastries, butter, mayonnaise, olives, nuts, seeds should be strictly excluded.
The sample menu for the week can be organized as follows.
The first day
- Breakfast: chicory drink, a tablespoon of low-fat yogurt is added to wheat bran.
- Dinner: a few large potatoes baked with tomatoes, cucumber, greens and iceberg lettuce salad, green apples.
- Snack: apricots or plums (3 pieces), other seasonal fruits, low-fat cottage cheese.
- Dinner: two-grain toast, apple or pear, whole 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.
- Dinner: beans with mushrooms and onions, salad with tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers, garnished with olive oil.
- Afternoon snack: strawberries, wheat bread.
- Dinner: two slices of wholemeal bread, half an avocado, buckwheat porridge with mushrooms and carrots, green tea.
Wednesday
- Breakfast: decaffeinated coffee, a cup of muesli with berries and low-fat milk.
- Dinner: pumpkin slices and spinach soup, vegetable couscous, acid-free vinaigrette.
- Afternoon snack: a glass of kefir, low-fat cookies.
- Dinner: eggplant halves cooked with onions and carrots, a bowl of seasonal berries, mint tea.
Fourth day
- Breakfast: pomegranate juice, pumpkin-zucchini pancakes.
- Dinner: broccoli and cauliflower soup, baked asparagus with rice and chicken fillet.
- Snack: low-fat cottage cheese, yogurt, oatmeal cookies are added.
- Dinner: white cabbage cooked with carrots and onions, desired fruit, currant compote.
Friday
- Breakfast: apple juice, cereal porridge.
- Dinner: two fish cutlets, mashed potatoes with the addition of milk and a small piece of butter.
- Afternoon snack: a cup of low-fat kefir, green apples.
- Dinner: asparagus and green pea soup, weak tea.
Saturday
- Breakfast: chicory drink, low-fat cottage cheese with honey.
- Dinner: boiled turkey breast with zucchini and pumpkin puree, orange juice.
- Afternoon snack: oatmeal pudding, whole grain bread.
- Dinner: two cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and vegetables, mineral water.
Seven days
- Breakfast: a piece of casserole with raisins and chicory.
- Dinner: 2 lentils and carrot cutlet, rice.
- Snack: 3 baked cheesecakes, orange juice.
- Dinner: apples stuffed with cottage cheese and dried apricots, chamomile tea.
By strictly following the laws of this diet, high cholesterol can return to normal. Regularity and self-control are very important to achieve results.
Intermittent fasting
Fasting is used to lower blood cholesterol. High cholesterol levels can be treated with a diet that is full of elements of hunger: with malnutrition, the body begins to use low-density lipoprotein reserves to gain energy for life. After 12 hours of starvation, cholesterol, an alternative energy source, is released into the bloodstream and begins to break down to form energy.
An approximate scheme of cholesterol starvation for a week:
The first day - only freshly squeezed apple-root juice, diluted with water 1: 2. On the second day you can drink the juice without diluting it with water. For lunch you can eat 50 g of grated carrots. Third - drink grape-apple and carrot juices. One hundred grams of mashed vegetables before dinner and at bedtime - kefir.
On the fourth and fifth day, add fried vegetables and fruits, and at night add light cottage cheese. On the sixth and seventh days, breakfast should consist of grated vegetables and fruits, and in the evening and lunch should be eaten overcooked buckwheat or millet grains. Such a strict diet can be carried out only in consultation with a physician and under medical supervision. To regulate high cholesterol, it is necessary to repeat the course of therapeutic fasting from time to time.
Choosing the optimal diet for high cholesterol is not easy - you need to study in detail all the features of a particular person's body. It is very important to take into account the accompanying diseases, sex, age. Only a properly designed menu is an effective prevention of severe consequences of hypercholesterolemia.