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Natural _expression_s, 100% Whole Grain Bakery at 825 E Broadway Drive, _applet_on is owned by Rosalie Misco who has submitted the following article on reducing cholesterol with whole grains. If you'd like to get more information, please visit her bakery or call (920) 954-9727.
Lowering Cholesterol - remove trans fats and most saturated fats from your diet. This will prevent you from adding cholesterol to your blood. However only about 20% of blood cholesterol is caused by the fat you eat. Your body makes cholesterol independantly and in addition to that which you eat if you have inherited the trait in which your liver makes excessive amounts of cholesterol, your cholesterol will still be above normal.
Keeping weight as close to normal as possible is important as is regular exercise. Even this may not be enough. Don't dispair, there is a way to lower your total cholesterol and raise your good cholesterol so your ratio is as low as 2.7. Below 4.5 is considered good. Lower is better. This has been my experience.
After you have done all the above and your cholesterol is still well above 200 as mine was, what you need is FIBER. Enough of all THREE kinds of fiber in your diet will sweep the excess cholesterol out of your blood stream like you used a large push broom. The amount of fiber most people get in a day is the equivalent of using an art paint brush. What you need is a large push broom to lower that cholsterol your body makes.
Fiber is found in plant _base_d foods only, not in meat and dairy.
1. Soluable - oatmeal, barley, rye, dry beans especially black beans and white kidney beans
2. Insoluable - found in the skins and seeds of fruits, vegetables and whole grains
3. Resistant Starch - found in whole grains, beans and Hi maize 260. Hi maize 260 is a corn starch extracted from Hi Maize corn. Hi maize has no taste so it can be added to other foods to raise the fiber content. Resistant starch is destroyed when foods are processed to make them instant. Oatmeal has a lot of all three types of fiber, but the resistant starch fiber can only be found in steel cut oats (best) or unprocessed rolled oats.
Most people get only about 13 grams of all three kinds of fiber per day. Your target should be 30-35 grams per day to lower cholesterol. This amount of fiber should result in three soft unformed bowl movements per day. This is an easy way to know if you are getting enough of all three kinds of fiber each day.
The trick is to learn which foods contain the most fiber. Those foods that contain a good amount of all three kinds of fiber should be added to your daily diet. Raw nuts should be a part of your meal plan each day as well as they contain oils good for the heart and may raise good cholesterol.
There is a learning curve to this plan, but it is not difficult and really quite tasty. What I do is help you to identify the best sources of fiber and teach you how to incorporate them into your meals each day.
The same plan will help you lower blood glucose if you are diabetic, as I am. You just need to choose to eliminate some carbohydrates from your diet and add more high fiber carbs.
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