Tips to Lower Bad Cholesterol

What are the tips to lower bad cholesterol?

1. Get in touch with a physician
2. Quit smoking with a professional’s help
3. Lose excess weight through diet and exercise
4. Avoid eating saturated fats
5. Consume more fruits and vegetables
6. Drink green tea for its health benefits
7. Supplement your healthy habits with barley grass

There are two types of cholesterol. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is also called the good type, while low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is considered the bad. This is because the former carries cholesterol to the liver and out of the body, while the latter can build up on the blood vessels and cause heart disease. If you want to reduce this risk, here are some tips to lower bad cholesterol. Keep on reading!

Get in Touch with a Physician

If your cholesterol levels are concerning you, it is recommended to get in touch with a physician. He or she will recommend a blood test to determine your lipid profile so you can have an idea about the real numbers of your total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides. This will usually involve fasting for 9 to 12 hours depending on the advice of your doctor. This way, you can also track your progress. Your doctor will advise you on the next steps you can take and what lifestyle habits you should maintain or change.

Quit Smoking with A Professional’s Help

If you plan to try smoking, there are a lot of reasons that can convince you not to do it. Aside from causing a lot of health problems to yourself—heart disease, stroke, cancer, and lung disease—secondhand smoke has also killed a lot of nonsmokers, with 41,000 deaths every year.

The risk for clogged arteries can be attributed to the fact that smoking tobacco affects your immune cells. This affects how your body handles cholesterol, where it sticks to the blood vessels instead of being transported to the liver. According to CDC, it also lowers the HDL that helps get rid of cholesterol in your body. All these negative effects will eventually lead to heart disease and stroke.

Lose Excess Weight Through Diet and Exercise

In a study, weight loss has proven effective in decreasing the production of cholesterol in the body. This was achieved using a combination of a calorie-deficit diet and regular exercise. If you are overweight, physical activity can be beneficial for you because of its capacity to lower LDL while increasing HDL in the body.

If you come from a sedentary lifestyle you can increase your activities gradually by starting from light aerobic exercises. Thrice a week, target an exercise you like—whether it’s walking, jumping jacks, or dancing—and do it for 15 minutes each session. To experience more benefits, you can increase the intensity depending on your stamina.

Avoid Eating Saturated Fats

If you’re aiming to lower the bad cholesterol in your body, you can reduce the consumption of food that will increase its levels. Pork, fatty beef, chicken skin, lamb, lard, and dairy contains saturated fats that can increase the amounts of LDL in your blood. The American Heart Association recommends a 6% calorie intake of saturated fat in your diet.

Instead of binging on saturated fats, consider sticking to monosaturated fats. These will decrease the levels of LDL in your blood while increasing the helpful HDL that will benefit your heart health. You can get these from olive oil, canola oil, avocados, almonds, walnuts, and other tree nuts.

Consume More Fruits and Vegetables

Some people who were picky with their food since young can bring this trait into adulthood. If you don’t eat fruits and vegetables, you may be missing out on the vitamins and antioxidants that can deliver a lot of health benefits for your body. In a study, the association between regular consumption of this food group and lower LDL levels was observed.

NHS recommends at least 5 portions of fruits and vegetables per day. You can easily do this by incorporating some bananas in your breakfast cereal, making a vegetable smoothie, adding leafy greens in your meat dishes, and get your ingredients fresh, canned, or frozen. If you’re trying to transition into this type of diet, start by consuming the ones you have no problem eating first.

Drink Green Tea for Its Health Benefits

After changing your dietary choices and incorporating a regular exercise routine in your lifestyle, you can further amp up the effects by drinking a healthy beverage such as green tea. Aside from helping you lose weight, studies also show that it can help improve your heart health in two ways.

The first is by reducing the amount of LDL in your blood, and the second is by utilizing its antioxidant effects to prevent the oxidation of bad cholesterol. If you want to experience the health benefits of green tea, you can try the Santé Fit N’ Trim,  which also offers the nutrients of pure barley grass.

Supplement Your Healthy Habits with Barley Grass

Barley grass is an ingredient found in many smoothies aside from your usual kale and spinach. It can be consumed as a juice or added to recipes to boost its nutritional value. Aside from its healthy effects on weight loss and blood sugar levels, this food also has benefits in promoting your heart health.

Research has shown that people who consumed the extract from this plant experienced decreased levels of LDL oxidation. Each participant was given a 15g supplement for 4 weeks. If you plan to include this in your diet to help you lower your bad cholesterol, you can choose from the capsule and powdered forms.

Key Takeaway

These tips to lower bad cholesterol will help you switch to a healthier lifestyle. The key points to remember is to avoid a sedentary lifestyle, don’t smoke, and change your diet. Stick to monosaturated fats and consume fruits, vegetables, green tea, and barley grass.

If you’re looking for a pure barley grass supplier in the Philippines, you can rely on Santé. With ingredients sourced from New Zealand’s organic farms, you can be assured of the quality and potency of our products. Aside from capsules and powdered forms, you can also browse a list of beverages and snacks infused with this healthy plant.