I am not much of a
cook and it’s that time of year again when Mom and my sisters email me recipes for
Thanksgiving dinner and holiday parties. I want to serve food that is tasty and easy to
fix…and if possible, healthy so everyone can eat it.
Truth of the matter
is that we should be aware of what we are serving and eating all year round, not just
November during Nutritional Wellness Month. According to the American Heart Association,
over fifty million Americans have high cholesterol, which increases your risk of heart
attack, stroke and other vascular disease. If you die from a heart attack, you won’t
be here to enjoy the holidays with your family next year, and that could create some
serious holiday blues.
Here are some simple
solutions to keep your cholesterol in check.
- Have your cholesterol
checked by age 20 and then rechecked every five years. A blood test can give you a reading
of your total LDL and HDL cholesterol levels. Less than 200
mg/dl total cholesterol is good, 200 to 239 is borderline high, and 240 or more is
serious. Over 200 and you have twice the risk of a heart attack.
There is bad (LDL- lousy)
and good (HDL- healthy) cholesterol. The lousy stuff, LDL (low density lipoprotein)
carries cholesterol through the bloodstream and leaves greasy residue on arterial walls.
Plaque is formed when the residue combines with oxygen, and it is the plaque build up,
that leads to heart attacks.
HDL
(high-density-lipoprotein) the good stuff, picks up cholesterol as it moves through the
bloodstream and brings it back to the liver for reprocessing.
- Eat a healthy diet
with less saturated fat. A low cholesterol diet includes: substituting skim milk for whole
milk and using olive oil or canola oil instead of butter and lard. Instead of eating meat,
eat deep-sea fish, which are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids that may help protect against
heart disease.
- Eat lots of grains,
fruits and vegetables. Those high in fiber may help control cholesterol. Foods rich in
antioxidants – beta-carotene, vitamin C and Vitamin E -- may lower your risk of heart
disease and other ailments.
- Pick a day of the
week to enjoy fried and fatty foods, such as French fries, potato chips, grease burgers
and pizza, and try to avoid them the rest of the week. Saturated fatty acids that raise
blood cholesterol are found in meats, whole milk dairy products, including butter, cheese,
lard, and shortening.
- Exercise. Aerobic
exercises (aerobics, swimming, bicycling, running, - exercises that really make you sweat)
are important because they raise your level of HDL – healthy cholesterol and keep
your cardiovascular system in shape.
- Medicate.
Your doctor may recommend you take a prescription if diet and exercise strategies do not
improve your cholesterol levels after three months.
- For holiday
entertaining, focus on serving vegetable dishes like cooked yams, carrots, green beans,
and veggie trays that provide lots of rich color to the dining room table, are tasty to
eat and promote healthy, happy hearts. For
over 4,000 low cholesterol recipes, check out www.fatfree.com
For a
list of healthcare providers, tips on eating out and common misconceptions about
cholesterol check out these websites:
* The
National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute, call 800-575-WELL or visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov
* The American Heart
Association, call 800-AHA-USA1 or visit www.americanheart.org/cholesterol
Angela Oberer © 2008, Oberer is the author of the "Be Well Series". You can send your questions and
comments to her at:
Angela@WordsofWellness.com
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