If you need to change your diet to reduce your sugar and cholesterol levels, you may think there's little you can eat, particularly if you're accustomed to a meat-and-potatoes diet that includes pie and cake for dessert. But you actually have many filling, nutritious choices. Your dinner plate may look different than the one you're accustomed to, but that doesn't mean you won't find the new selections as tasty as the old.
Diet for Both Conditions
The trick is finding foods that satisfy both of your needs. Although adding sugar to your morning coffee won't harm your cholesterol, it will elevate your blood sugar. Meat and fat contain no carbohydrates and can't elevate your blood sugar, but saturated fats can raise low-density lipoprotein, or LDL cholesterol, more commonly known as "bad" cholesterol. Adding whole grains and other complex carbohydrates to your diet can help you improve both your blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
Protein Choices
Protein choices that support both goals include fatty fish such as salmon and sardines, says Leslie Beck, a Canadian nutritionist. Oily fish contain omega-3 fats, which protect against blood clots and heart attack, Beck says. She recommends eating fish twice a week, or taking 500 mg daily of a fish oil supplement. Nuts and legumes are also good choices on a diet designed to lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels, says Beck, who writes regularly for "The Globe and Mail." She suggests eating unsalted nuts five times a week and legumes such as kidney beans, lentils and chick peas at least four times a week.
Soluble Fiber and Complex Carbohydrates
Beck says eating soluble fiber daily will help lower your cholesterol levels, and the American Dietetic Association includes oats, flaxseed, barley and oat bran in a blood-sugar reduction diet. Other complex carbohydrates, including brown rice and whole grain bread, are compatible with both dietary goals. You want to avoid refined carbohydrates, which include some breakfast cereals, white bread, white rice and most store-bought baked goods. Refined carbs can cause spikes in your blood sugar level, and the oil in commercial pastries frequently come from trans-fats, which can both elevate LDL cholesterol and reduce high-density lipoprotein, or HDL cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol that protects you against heart disease, Beck says.
Fruit and Vegetables
Fruit and vegetables can be consumed on both low blood-sugar and low-cholesterol diets. Fruit that is particularly compatible with sugar-restricted diets include acidic fruits such as oranges, grapefruit, green apples and strawberries, Beck says. She also says that using lemon juice or vinegar in place of salad dressing helps lower blood sugar and, because both dressings are fat-free, they would be allowable on a diet aimed at reducing cholesterol.
Healthy Oils
The American Dietetic Association and Beck both recommend restricting unhealthy oils, such as saturated fats---the kinds found in meat, eggs, butter, and palm and coconut oils---and replacing them with healthier monounsatured fats, which can be found in almonds, olive oil and avocado, and polyunsatured fats, which are found in vegetable oils. Beck says that when not choosing vegetable protein, eating low-fat dairy products, skinless turkey and chicken breasts, and lean cuts of meat will help keep your cholesterol levels in check.
References
- "The Globe and Mail"; "Cholesterol high? Have Some Mayo"; Leslie Beck; June 23, 2010
- "The Globe and Mail"; "Vegan Diet has Surprising Stick-to-it-iveness"; Leslie Beck; Feb. 4, 2009
- "The Globe and Mail"; "Low Glycemic Load is the Best Diet Road"; Leslie Beck; Aug. 23, 2006
- Eat Right: American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada Offer Up-to-Date Guidance on Dietary Fat
- Eat Right: Diabetes Diet
