Have high cholesterol? You’re not alone. Here are five changes you can make to your diet to help cut your bad (LDL) cholesterol by a huge chunk.
- Reduce saturated fat to less than 7% of your total daily calories. For a 2000 calorie diet, that’s less than 15.5 grams of saturated fat per day.
- Control your calorie intake to help maintain a healthy weight.
- Decrease your daily cholesterol intake to less than 200 milligrams per day.
- Eat plenty of fiber. Between 20 and 30 grams per day. And make sure a good portion of that is soluble fiber — between 10 and 25 grams.
- Add two grams of sterols and/or stanols to your daily diet.
You may already be doing the first four things on the list. Number five — adding sterols and stanols — may be the new one. Fortified foods are your best source of sterols and stanols, but you can find them in natural foods, too.
- Corn oil is the number one source of sterols, with 0.13 grams in every tablespoon. Corn oil is also a good source of healthy polyunsaturated fat.
- Sunflower oil is high in monounsaturated fat and comes with 0.1 gram of sterols in every tablespoon.
- Olive oil is a good source of monounsaturated fats and provides 0.03 grams of natural sterols per tablespoon.
- Beans provide 0.07 grams of natural sterols in a half cup serving AND help you with #4 on the list — fiber.
- Peanut butter has 0.05 grams of natural sterols in a two tablespoon serving. And there are lots of other reasons to love peanut butter.
- Almonds are another source of monounsaturated fats that come with natural sterols. You’ll get 0.02 grams per one ounce serving.
- Apples, oranges, and avocados all provide small amounts of natural sterols, too.
You can look for fortified foods to get your sterols and stanols quickly and easily. Check the dairy aisle for products like Promise Activ Super Shots (2 grams of sterols per serving) and Lifetime low fat cheeses (0.65 grams of sterols per serving). Minute Maid has a Heart Wise orange juice that provides 1 gram of sterols in a serving. CocoaVia offers sterol-fortified chocolate drinks and chocolate covered nuts.