8 Superfoods that can help reduce cholesterol

Heart diseases, including stroke and coronary heart diseases, remain the leading cause of deaths worldwide.

High cholesterol, especially LDL or bad cholesterol, puts you at great risk of heart diseases. Cholesterol can clog your arteries, which can lead to stroke and other cardiovascular complications. The troubling part is, high cholesterol often produce no symptoms. The only way to find out for sure if you have the disease is to undergo a blood test.

Thankfully, adding fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains to your diet can help lower cholesterol levels. Here’s a list of foods that you should add to your diet to maintain a healthy level of cholesterol.

1. Legumes

Legumes are a group of plant foods that include beans, peas, and lentils. These foods contain a lot of fiber, minerals, and protein. Examples include chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans, soybeans, and peanuts. Aside from helping maintain one’s cholesterol levels, they also aid in blood sugar regulation and digestion, letting you keep a healthy gut.

2. Fatty fish

Fatty fish can do wonders for your heart’s health. These include sardines, salmon, tuna, mackerel, and trout. They’re rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are good fats. Omega-3 can lower triglycerides, which are a type of fat found in the bloodstream. Furthermore, they slow down the growth of plaques in the arteries and reduce inflammation anywhere in the body.

3. Whole grains

Whole grains such as barley and oats are some of the best foods that lower cholesterol and heart disease risk. Compared with refined grains, whole grains provide more vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Plus, they’re rich in beta-glucans, a type of soluble fiber that helps lower bad cholesterol.

4. Dark chocolate

Made from seeds of cocoa tree, dark chocolate is packed with nutrients that are good for your health. It contains fiber, iron, magnesium, manganese, copper, potassium, zinc, and other vitamins and minerals. Aside from improving blood flow and lowering blood pressure, dark chocolate also raises HDL or good cholesterol. It also protects LDL from oxidation. Oxidized LDL can lead to tissue damage, such as in the linings of the arteries. This means reduced risk for heart diseases as well.

5. Garlic

Garlic is well-known as a natural remedy for a lot of health issues, including bacterial infections and high blood pressure. Aside from this, however, it can also lower a person’s total cholesterol level, especially bad cholesterol.

6. Vegetables

It’s recommended to eat four to five servings of vegetables per day, and there’s good reason for that. Many vegetables can help you fight bad cholesterol. An example is okra, which contains soluble fibers called pectin. You can also include eggplant, tomato, and plenty of green leafy vegetables in your diet to reduce your cholesterol level.

7. Fruits and berries

Fruits and berries are also beneficial in managing high cholesterol. Examples include the following: raspberries are rich in fiber, apples contain phenolic compounds that can lower total cholesterol, avocadoes are rich in unsaturated fats and fiber, blueberries help regulate blood flow and blood pressure, grapes have polyphenolic compounds that reduce inflammation and protects from tissue damage, cherries is a powerful antioxidant and bananas, which can push out cholesterol from the digestive system.

Making these fruits part of your daily diet can help you maintain not just healthy levels of cholesterol, but also your overall wellness.

8. Nuts

Nuts such as almonds and walnuts are rich in plenty of nutrients. They contain L-arginine, an amino acid that can help regulate blood pressure. What’s more, they contain phytosterols, which block carbohydrates from being absorbed in the intestines.

Nuts also contain calcium, magnesium, and potassium, which reduce blood pressure and risk for heart diseases.

Other Great Foods for Cholesterol

Aside from those in the list above, the following foods also help lower cholesterol: soy-based food, tea, extra virgin olive oil, sesame oil, chia seeds, spinach and quinoa.

The Bottom Line

While it’s easy to eat your way to high cholesterol levels, there are also plenty of foods that can help reduce your cholesterol levels. Making them part of your daily meals can help keep your heart healthy. Of course, exercising and getting regular check-ups can also help you maintain your overall health and keep you away from serious illnesses.

This article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advise, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advise of your doctor or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.