5 Things You Need to Know About Lowering Cholesterol Naturally

1. The Lowdown on Lowering Cholesterol

It's not always necessary to treat high cholesterol with prescription medication. There are multiple ways to treat high cholesterol naturally. In fact, most doctors only recommend prescription medication as a last resort.

2. The Helpful Effects of Exercise

Exercise is helpful for lowering cholesterol naturally. Make sure you do some type of aerobic activity for at least 30 minutes most days of the week. If, after 6 months or more, you get your cholesterol retested and don't see a big improvement, consider adding additional workouts each week. Exercise also helps aid weight loss, and maintaining a healthy weight helps to keep cholesterol in check for many individuals. Exercise helps to raise HDL cholesterol levels. HDL cholesterol is responsible for removing bad cholesterol away from the heart, so exercise works in 2 beneficial ways to lower cholesterol.

3. Ditch Bad Dietary Habits

Reducing your saturated fat and cholesterol content is the surest way to lower your cholesterol through diet. It's helpful to keep track of what you eat so you can quantitatively monitor your cholesterol and fat consumption and track your progress. Although many people claim that "diet and exercise" didn't lower their cholesterol, the truth is that many people don't make enough dietary changes to have an impact on their cholesterol.

4. Diet Recommendations

Limit trans fats in your diet by limiting your consumption of prepackaged items. Try to eat as many whole foods as possible by eating food in as close to its natural state as possible. Many packaged foods such as baked goods contain trans fats. Bake at home so you know exactly what is in the goodies you're eating. Reduce your red meat consumption to just once per week. Substitute skim milk or soy milk for whole milk, soy yogurt for traditional yogurt. Eat eggs just once a week or eat egg whites instead. Use apple sauce or tofu as an egg replacer when preparing baked goods.

5. Does Soy Lower Cholesterol?

Some early studies demonstrated soy as beneficial for lowering cholesterol, but follow-up studies didn't confirm those findings. Still, if you consume a lot of soy-based foods, you'll consume less meat. Tofu works great as a meat substitute in stir-fry recipes. In part, the beneficial effects of soy are due to the foods you'll typically forgo when substituting soy.