Your doctor may suggest a low-cholesterol, low-sugar diet if you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, are overweight or have personal or family history of heart disease. Regardless, a cholesterol-lowering diet, low in added sugars --- ingredients that add sweetness, but few nutrients to foods --- can improve your overall wellness. Numerous diets can help you attain these goals. For best results, select a dietary lifestyle that promotes a variety of healthy foods rather than a "quick-fix" or fad diet and seek approval from your doctor.
Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet is based on the dietary habits of populations that border the Mediterranean Sea. The diet emphasizes fruits and vegetables, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates and contains more fish and fewer saturated fat sources than typical Western diets. Although the Mediterranean Diet can contain high amounts of fat, it otherwise abides with the American Heart Association guidelines for positive heart health. To reap benefits of a Mediterranean dietary lifestyle, replace butter with olive oil, high-fat cheeses with nuts or olives, and red meat with fatty fish, such as salmon or tuna, regularly. Make a point of dining with loved ones and enjoying your food as well. This attribute of the Mediterranean diet may help relieve stress, which may contribute to your heart health and overall wellness. Since the diet is low in processed foods, your added sugar intake will likely reduce as well.
Low-Fat, Low-Glycemic Diet
A low-glycemic diet emphasizes foods, such as whole grains, that have a mild effect on your blood sugar levels and limits foods with a high-glycemic index, such as sugar. By managing your blood sugar levels, you may experience improved energy, appetite control and wellness. According to research published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" in May 2007, a low-glycemic, low-fat diet may help improve your overall cholesterol levels. Participants in the study consumed either a low-glycemic diet or a low-fat diet without regard to glycemic intake for 18 months. Those who ate the low-glycemic diet demonstrated greater improvements in HDL, or "good," cholesterol levels, while the low-fat dieters showed greater improvements in LDL, or "bad," cholesterol. To reap the benefits of both dietary techniques, replace enriched breads, pasta, cereals and snack foods with whole grain equivalents most often. Reduce your fat intake by replacing red meat with lean poultry, fish and legumes and cut back on butter, fried foods and high-fat dairy products.
Whole Foods, Vegetarian Diet
While there's no one vegetarian-specific lifestyle, diets low in animal-derived products tend to contain less saturated fat, total fat and cholesterol than meat-containing diets. Vegetarians also tend to have reduced risk for obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and certain forms of cancer, according to the American Heart Association. If a vegetarian lifestyle appeals to you, choose primarily whole, nutritious foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, tofu, nuts and legumes over processed foods, which may contain hefty amounts of sugar, sodium and refined flour. Vegetarian diets that include fish provide the additional cholesterol-lowering benefit of omega-3 fatty acids. If you do not consume fish, you can reap similar omega-3 fat benefits by consuming ground flaxseed, walnuts and/or canola oil on a regular basis. Avoid fried foods, such as deep-fried tofu and batter-fried fish, and high-fat dairy products, such as whole milk and high-fat cheeses, which may increase your cholesterol.
