Low Cholesterol Diet

I can not stress enough the importance of cholesterol in our organism. Those who have never thought of it are either women (hehe, they tend to get cholesterol problems much rarely than men do and their cholesterol levels are quite low compared to ours) or still in their 20’s , without a care in the world.

But once you’ve reached a certain age, once you see your fist grey hair and you start feeling the effects of all those years you’ve spent eating only bad stuff that affected your body in almost irreversible ways, you are starting to realize that there are certain substances in your body that have an important role, and their levels are not to be ignored. Either you notice that by yourself, or the doctor notices it for you, as it has happened in my case. When I went for my annual check, he just said in a low concerned voice that I needed to take a few more tests. I was kind of worried at first, and when he said that he needed just to measure my cholesterol levels I felt relieved.

I don’t know why I thought at the time that high cholesterol was something expected and not worrisome. Because in fact it’s a sign that our body is failing his tasks, and we are the ones to blame. Eating meat and barbecues every Sunday and then eating some more fast food in our lunch brakes, as I am actually, or better said, was, is only adding to the natural cholesterol levels without allowing them to lower at any time. The body needs cholesterol, but the needed quantities are usually produced by our organism. By supplementing them and over supplementing them we will only do harm.

When I was recommended to take a low cholesterol diet, I first tried to eat pretty much…nothing. Only non-processed food, and greens and no proteins basically. This is because I tried to eat stuff with no cholesterol and no fats. I didn’t even read the brochure given by my doctor, and I jumped for an internet search on fat free diets. This was no that good, as I later learnt, when my girlfriend and her “diet wisdom” came to me and explained that all the diets that claim to do something (lose weight, lower cholesterol and so on) in X weeks where X can only be replaced by numbers from 1 to 2 in most cases are just scams most of the times.

The right way to approach a low cholesterol diet is to eat things that are low on bad cholesterol and high on good cholesterol. The bad cholesterol foods are any types of meat, especially if it’s roasted or fried even eggs, but not the egg whites, fat cheese, milk and most over cooked foods. Good cholesterol foods are not to be avoided. Even if the term is the same, they contain good fats that will actually lower cholesterol levels or at least improve the good/bad rapport in our blood. I was recommended to eat lots of fish, and nuts, seeds, linen oil, olive oil. Of course, replace other aliments with these foods. Instead of meat, fish…in salads, nuts or tuna instead of meat and eggs, replace alimentary oil with olive oil.

After a week of avoiding meat and fat aliments, I was already a few points down in my cholesterol test, so I’m guessing my cholesterol diet is working. In the long run, I estimate to regain normal levels, if I keep on eating like this. And the fun part is that I’m not feeling like I’m missing anything. Except the cookies. I still crave for those creamy cookies I am trying to avoid, but I have “people” working on getting done some cookie recipes without eggs and butter, with fruits and honey. We’ll have to see how they end up tasting.