Foods to LOWER CHOLESTEROL Naturally
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TRANSCRIPT
Another grocery haul! Oh, you’ll love this one, let’s take a look
these are some of the healthiest Cholesterol Lowering Foods ever!
Some of these superfoods are actually better than prescription drugs in lowering bad cholesterol levels. Incredible!
Yes, eating these superfoods is the best way to lower cholesterol naturally and to improve your heart health!
Let’s see what they are!
Hello, this is Katherine, welcome to 00Kidney!
What I have behind me are some of the best, the healthiest superfoods you can add to your diet!
Because they actually lower cholesterol levels!
Yes, you will only need to add them to your diet to see the cholesterol levels getting lower on your blood analysis!
I’m not talking about replacing junk foods with veggies here, you will only need to eat a couple of these superfoods to get the result you want!
And this is a very important result, High cholesterol levels are really tough on your arteries and your health.
If your total cholesterol level is over 200 or if your bad cholesterol level is over 130, then you should find a way to lower the numbers.
High cholesterol levels can cause atherosclerosis, an hardening and narrowing of the arteries.
The health risks posed by this condition are as serious as… a heart attack.
Yes, high cholesterol levels can increase a person’s risk of heart disease, stroke and even kidney disease.
So, let’s not waste any more time and see what are the superfoods that can help you most in lowering cholesterol levels naturally!
Superfood Number 5 almonds
Almonds are one of the healthiest nuts that you can find, a favorite of dieters and health conscious people.
The benefits this superfood has on your health are so many that you cannot avoid including them in your diet after hearing them.
– Almonds are packed with polyphenols, antioxidants that can combat oxidative stress by neutralizing free radicals — unstable molecules that may cause cell damage and increase disease risk.
– Almonds can help weight loss, according to recent studies. in one study in overweight women, those eating almonds lost nearly three times as much weight and experienced a significantly greater decrease in waist size compared to the control group
– Almonds, more than any other nut, can fight inflammation. Inflammation can cause damage to organs and increase disease risk. Studies shown that almond fight inflammation both in healthy people and in those with serious conditions like diabetes and kidney disease.
– Almonds are great for the health of your guts, they’re full of fiber that can function as prebiotics or food for your healthy gut bacteria.
Now, while these are a lot of health benefits from a single superfood, let’s talk about the main reason why we like almonds.
Almond are one of the healthiest foods for your heart and can significantly lower your cholesterol levels.
How much can almonds lower cholesterol levels?
Well, there have been multiple studies on almonds and what the results are showing is really incredible.
Just adding 1 to 6 handfuls of almonds a day to their diet for 4 to 16 weeks, test subjects were able to reduce their LDL or bad cholesterol levels by 4% to 35%!
4% to 35% in just 4 to 16 weeks, incredible!
Yes these are just nuts, not prescription drugs, and these results are pretty amazing!
And this is just our first superfood, so you can imagine how good the results of combining it with some of the next foods can be!
So don’t forget to share this video with anyone you know who suffers from high cholesterol levels, they will thank you!
Back to almonds, now.
I know that a lot of people watching me right now are kidney disease patients, and for some of them foods rich in potassium are dangerous.
Almonds contain 660mg of potassium per cup or 95 grams.
While this quantity of potassium is healthy almost for everyone, patients in the last stage of kidney disease and patients with high potassium levels should only eat them in small amounts.
This is a great way to still get the benefits without having too much added potassium
But let’s see our next superfood!
Cholesterol lowering superfood number 4 – dark chocolate
Wait, another snack? Today’s grocery haul seems too good to be true!
And there’s not just chocolate bars, there’s even cocoa powder here, I can make hot chocolate with this!
And you know, now that I think about it, finding healthy foods that we actually like instead of those insipid, chalk tasting dietary meals you get in diets is one of the best thing you can do to stay healthy.
but…
How does chocolate affect cholesterol levels?
According to an analysis of 10 clinical trial in which participants added dark chocolate to their diet for 2 to 12 weeks, eating dark chocolate produced a statistically significant reduction in LDL or bad cholesterol levels and in total cholesterol levels.
Another study on patients with diabetes shown a significant increase in HDL, or good cholesterol when adding 45 grams of chocolate to the diets of the test subjects for 8 weeks.
Now, reducing cholesterol levels for LDL or bad cholesterol and improving cholesterol levels for HDL or good cholesterol is really important, because the balance between these two is even more important than the total cholesterol levels.
Dark chocolate can also reduce insulin resistance, which is another common risk factor for many diseases like heart disease and diabetes
Dark chocolate has also shown positive effects in improving blood flow and lowering blood pressure.
why is dark chocolate so healthy?
Chocolate comes from the cocoa bean of the cacao tree.
The cocoa bean contains high amounts of flavonoids, known for their heart protecting properties.
Like for many other healthy fruits and vegetables, the flavonoids are what is really helping our body.
which chocolate offers the most heart health protection?
To make chocolate, the flavonoids rich cocoa beans are dried, fermented, roasted and grinded into cocoa powder.
Then, ingredients like sugar, cocoa butter and additives are added to form the chocolate bar.
The more processing the cocoa beans go through, the more sugar is added, the more the flavonoid content decreases.
You see, there are a lot more flavonoids in this one than in this one
The flavonoids present in dark chocolate and cocoa powder are what is really improving your health.
So, the more the cocoa and the less the additives, the better.
70% cocoa dark chocolate is already good, but if you can find 85% or 90% it’s obviously healthier and less sugary.
So always search for the less processed and less sugary chocolate you can find.
Dark chocolate has a higher cocoa content, a lower phosphorus content and more flavonoids than milk chocolate. It also has less sugar and less of the unhealthy saturated fat.
Cocoa powder is another great option, since is the less processed of the three.
But avoid milk chocolate, there’s too much sugar in it and very few healthy flavonoids!
Quick tip for people with kidney disease.
Dark chocolate, just like almonds, is a calorie dense superfood rich in a lot of healthy vitamins and minerals, including potassium. So the same recommendation I’ve made about almonds applies here too, for kidney disease patients in the last stage: only eat dark chocolate in moderation.
But don’t worry, our next superfood is something you can eat how much you want.
Superfood Number 3 apples!
Here we go, one of the healthiest foods ever!
Apples are EXTREMELY rich in flavonoids, antioxidants and dietary fiber.
These phytonutrients have shown the most powerful properties in reducing the risk of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and even cancer!
What not everyone knows about apples is that many of the healthy polyphenols they contain, responsible for the antioxidant effect, are located in the peel!
So when you remove the peel you are actually discarding the healthiest part of the fruit!
One of these polyphenols is the flavonoid epicatechin, responsible for the blood pressure lowering effects apples have.
What this flavonoid actually does is acting as an antioxidant on LDL cholesterol and reducing the oxidation.
Yes, everyone knows that apples are healthy, but…
can apples really lower cholesterol levels?
Studies on apples found out that the amount of dietary fiber present in two medium sized apples was able to lower total cholesterol by 10% or more!
In another study on elderly women, test subjects who consumed apples everyday were found to have an average 23% less bad cholesterol and a 4% increase in good cholesterol in just six months!
Now, the researchers from the Florida state University who did this study were so proud of the results that started to call apples the “miracle fruit”.
Ok, you will never find the same quantity of studies proving the benefits of a single fruit than apples.
And there’s one last study I want to quote about them.
A large study comparing the effects of eating an apple a day to taking statins, a commonly prescribed drug to lower high cholesterol levels – concluded that apples would be almost as effective at reducing death from heart disease as the drugs.
Now, today’s video is full of impressive superfoods, but don’t let this study go unnoticed.
What it’s saying is that the results you get from eating just this single fruit, in terms of reducing cholesterol levels are already comparable to the results you would be getting from taking prescription drugs.
But here’s the big thing about statin. These cholesterol lowering medication is actually proven to cause severe side effects. It can cause brain damage, liver damage and it can throw off your hormones, reducing strength and energy levels and causing low testosterone in men.
Yes, Statin, the common prescription drug for high cholesterol can cause more problems than it solves.
On the other hand improving cholesterol balance with the superfoods I’m showing you today won’t have any of these dangerous side effects and the results will still be great in terms of numbers on the analysis.
So it’s really worth it to improve your diet and lower cholesterol in a natural way, in my opinion.
And wait to see the top two foods!
Number 2 extra virgin olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil is a staple in the Mediterranean diet.
But after knowing all the heart health benefits it has, extra virgin olive oil will become a staple in your diet too.
So, what are the benefits of extra virgin olive oil?
The main benefit of olive oil lies in its ability to improve HDL cholesterol levels,.
Just two tablespoons a day of extra virgin olive oil have shown to improve HDL cholesterol, researchers say.
and to reduce LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.
These effects are caused by the high amount of polyphenols it contains.
Ok, so what we have here is a superfood that doesn’t just lower bad cholesterol but improves the good cholesterol or HDL cholesterol
This may seem less important, since what people are usually looking for is a way to lower bad cholesterol levels.
Yet, the balance between LDL and HDL is really critical, for our heart health.
Why is HDL cholesterol so important?
High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is known as the “good” cholesterol because it helps removing other forms of cholesterol from your bloodstream.
HDL cholesterol is a friendly scavenger that cruises the bloodstream removing harmful bad cholesterol from where it doesn’t belong.
And this prevents bad cholesterol from doing damages to your body.
Higher levels of HDL cholesterol are associated with a lower risk of heart disease.
So, HDL cholesterol levels are really important, even if it’s something that people often don’t notice, since they focus more on lowering cholesterol levels.
Yes, having the correct, balanced cholesterol levels is paramount for your whole body health, kidneys included.
In addition to this, olive oil boosts HDL cholesterol anti-inflammatory and antioxidant function, maximizing the heart healthy benefits of this superfood.
What olive oil should you choose to get all these great benefits?
Extra virgin olive oil. Again, the less processed the better.
It has more polyphenols than more refined olive oils.
One study gave 200 healthy young men about 2 tablespoons of different olive oils per day for three weeks.
The researchers found out that participants HDL levels increased significantly more after they consumed the olive oil with the highest polyphenol content, the less processed oils.
So always select high-quality, certified extra virgin olive oils, which tend to be highest in polyphenols.
Ok, let’s see what our number 1, the healthiest superfood of today’s video, is
And it is… oats!
Oh, I really cannot keep oats outside of my videos! They are too healthy.
Oats are probably the healthiest grains on earth. They’re a gluten-free whole grain and a great source of important vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants
And they are rich in beta glucan, a type of dietary fiber with powerful blood cholesterol-lowering properties.
A daily dose of at least 3 grams of beta glucan may reduce LDL cholesterol levels by 5 to 10%.
Incredible!
To know more about oats, watch my next video here!
About the Author
Michaelw Hi, my name is Michael and in this blog I'm gonna share the story of how I got off kidney dialysis for good. Getting off dialysis isn't easy at all, and that's why I'm trying to help people as much as I can.
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