TOP 9 effective diets for high blood cholesterol

17 March 2022

The therapeutic diet for high blood cholesterol is the main link in the treatment of this disease. Consider how you can avoid excess fat and cholesterol in your diet. We will find out how to choose the right healthy foods for you every day and an approximate menu for a week if you are facing hyperlipidemia.

20 Basic Nutrition Rules for High Cholesterol

Elevated cholesterol can be the cause of coronary heart disease, thrombosis of the veins of the lower extremities, stroke, myocardial infarction. You can prevent the serious consequences of chronic hyperlipidemia by following the simple rules listed below.

Nutrition for hypercholesterolemia must be divided. Try to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Therefore, there is no increased appetite and risk of overeating after prolonged fasting.
Eat vegetables and fruits at any time and in large quantities. Dietary fiber speeds up the excretion of excess cholesterol from the body.
With bad cholesterol, the diet should contain mainly foods with vegetable fats. Try to use olive oil instead of butter when cooking.
Try to eat lean meats no more than a few times a week. With high cholesterol, recipes and menus that use poultry, beef, rabbit, and lamb are best suited.
Proper nutrition with high cholesterol is supported by sport. Easy walks of at least two miles a day are recommended for people with elevated low-density lipoprotein levels.
The diet for hypercholesterolemia should consist mainly of boiled, baked and steamed foods. Frying should be avoided altogether.
If you have high cholesterol, avoid foods high in animal fats. It is not necessary to eat lard, pork, bacon, smoked meats. Replace these products with boiled poultry, fish, shellfish.
An elevated level of salt in food is contraindicated in case of high blood pressure and atherosclerotic disease. Try to eat no more than 5 grams of salt per day. It is best to completely abandon this product.
It is necessary to drink at least two liters of water per day, especially with thick blood and increased bilirubin. An elevated level of these indicators usually indicates a violation of the function of the liver and gallbladder, which leads to hyperlipidemia. The increased viscosity of the blood causes the fixation of blood clots in the lipid deposits in the vessels. It is necessary to eat sour berries that can thin the blood, such as cherries and currants.
Sweet cakes and high cholesterol are a bad combination. Milk chocolate should also be avoided. As an alternative dessert, sugar-free oatmeal cookies, dried fruit, dried fruit and honey are suitable. Sometimes you can treat yourself to oriental Turkish delight.
The daily calorie requirement for women and men varies: an average of 2, 200 kcal and 2, 600 kcal, respectively. Increased calorie intake is also necessary for people who do heavy physical work. These factors are important when formulating a diet.
Be sure to refrain from abusing alcohol. Red wine is allowed, but no more than two glasses per week.
Coffee is a controversial ally in the fight against high cholesterol. Contains cafestol, which increases endogenous cholesterol production by the liver. But some experts, on the contrary, recommend drinking 1-2 cups of coffee a day, as this helps to strengthen the cardiovascular system. So you can drink coffee, but do not abuse it. An alternative is a chicory drink or green tea.
Cook porridge every day. Try not to boil the cereal, leaving it crumbly. Don't season the finished dish with a lot of butter if you have high cholesterol. For oatmeal, for example, honey and dried fruit are suitable as flavourings.
Hyperlipidemia excludes the use of fatty dairy products. Replace them with fat-free yogurts and kefir. As a substitute, use low-fat yogurt and kefir.
Products containing harmful trans fats, such as fast food, are strictly contraindicated. Avoid potato chips and other snacks.
When cooking poultry, remove the skin from the surface. Since it makes the dish more fatty and contains harmful components.
Semi-finished products and hypercholesterolemia are mutually exclusive concepts. In such products there are no useful vitamins and minerals. These foods do not provide enough energy, but only clog the body with calories and fat ballast.
Try not to overeat at night. Eat dinner no later than two hours before bedtime. To suppress appetite before bedtime, it is better to drink a glass of kefir or eat a couple of dates, a handful of almonds.
Your doctor will tell you how to eat in the best way. After weighing all the risks and comorbidities, an experienced specialist will help develop the most effective nutrition plan. Self-treatment of high cholesterol is not recommended.

High cholesterol is a reversible process if you follow the above recommendations and regularly undergo a medical examination.

Popular diets to lower cholesterol in women and men.

A cholesterol-lowering diet can be based on a combination of different foods. In order to significantly reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood, it is important to observe the recommended diet for a long time - at least six months.

To understand the different types of diets that regulate high cholesterol, a comparative description of the most popular will help.

Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet, which lowers cholesterol levels, is recommended for people with atherosclerotic disease, hypertension and overweight. The basis of such nutrition is the abundance of cheeses, meats, fish and spices. However, these products are perfectly combined and have a positive effect on high cholesterol. List of foods in the diet:

Spices and herbs.
Soft cheeses like feta.
Olive oil.
Fish, mussels, shrimp.
Bird, lamb.
Red wine in moderation.
Unleavened flatbread made from wheat flour (pitas).
Vegetables and fruits.
Greek yogurt.
Cereals.

Fatty meats, lard, sausages, sweet carbonated drinks are categorically excluded from the diet. Since these products can cause high blood cholesterol. As an example, the following menu for high cholesterol is presented, calculated for one week:

Day 1

For breakfast: three flavored lentil fritters with yogurt.
For lunch, cool down with creamy Brussels sprout soup with shrimp; fruit plate and salad with olives and tofu.
You can have pita for dinner, stuffed with cubes of feta cheese and salad (cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, a couple of olives).

Day 2

A good start to the day is cottage cheese and buckwheat zrazy.
Snack for lunch: light soup with lentils, risotto with vegetables.
Baked salmon, flavored with olive oil, with Provencal herbs, will provide a good mood in the evening.

Day 3

Morning meal: buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
At lunch, baked tuna with vegetables will replenish your strength; tomato puree soup.
For dinner: salad with chicken breast and avocado, flavored with olive oil, pita.

Day 4

Breakfast: yogurt with chopped hazelnuts and almonds, you can add a little honey.
Light lunch: soup with fish meatballs, baked potatoes with tomatoes.
Dinner: vegetable salad with an egg, lemon juice and olive oil.

Day 5

Breakfast: oatmeal on the water, with the addition of honey and raisins.
Gives energy for lunch: soup of mashed spinach leaves and asparagus with liquid cream; lightly boiled salmon with wild rice.
Dinner: Bake a pie with small cherry tomatoes and feta cheese, on a whole-wheat crust, optionally crumble tofu cubes.

day 6

Breakfast: dried fruit soufflé, green tea.
For lunch: cabbage soup, chicken stew with vegetables, a pita.
For dinner: zucchini with feta in the oven, pita with avocado and olive oil.

day 7

For breakfast: pour baked pumpkin with yogurt and honey.
Lunch: cream of mushrooms and chanterelles; chicken, grated with garlic, with sweet pepper in the oven.
Dinner: wild rice with mussels and prawns.

For snacks between main meals, you can use dates, prunes, raisins, almonds. Such a diet will not only help to put high cholesterol in order, but also reduce body weight.

Diet chart number 10

The cooking method is mainly boiling and baking. Since high cholesterol excludes the use of fried foods. It is recommended to eat at least five meals a day in small portions. Evening snack no later than two hours before bedtime. Products that can be consumed:

Freshly squeezed vegetable juices, gelatin.
Wholemeal bread.
Fresh vegetable salads.
Eggs without yolk.
Fish: tuna, salmon, carp.
Fat-free cottage cheese, kefir and yogurt.
Kashi.

It is necessary to refuse the following products: butter, fatty meats, and especially red, salted and smoked fish delicacies, fatty cheeses, pickled vegetables, mustard. A sample menu for a week if you have high cholesterol might look like this:

Early breakfast: buckwheat cooked in 1% milk, soft-boiled egg, mild green tea with milk.
Snack before dinner - a piece of boiled chicken meat or a fresh apple.
Lunch: vegetable broth with barley grits, finely chopped mushrooms and zucchini, baked salmon or carp with stewed vegetables (for example, peppers, onions, zucchini), 1 glass of fresh apple juice.
Snack: rosehip tea, walnuts and dried fruits (for example, prunes and almonds).
Dinner: low-fat cottage cheese, boiled grated beets with apple, 1 glass of low-fat milk.
In the evening: 1 glass of fat-free kefir.

During the week, you can combine different variations of vegetable dishes, white meat poultry and fish. For snacks, use nuts, fruit, like a banana or apple. Dietary table No. 10 is recommended not only for the prevention of atherosclerosis of the vessels, but also for hypothyroidism. With a regular diet for at least four months, high cholesterol can be significantly lowered.

Diet chart number 10A

This diet has a number of restrictions:

Bread - maximum 145 g per day.
Vegetable broths - up to 180 ml.
The use of cheeses, pearl barley and millet is excluded.
Do not eat extremely hot or cold foods.

Diet table number 10, which has a positive effect on high cholesterol, looks like this for every day:

Breakfast: minced oatmeal with 1% milk, green tea, a small apple.
Afternoon snack: baked apples with cottage cheese.
Lunch: steamed chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes without oil, half a glass of fresh apple juice.
Snack: prunes or dates.
Dinner: baked apple-carrot cutlets, half a glass of fat-free kefir.
Before bedtime - half a glass of rosehip tincture or chicory drink.

After age 50, more than 35% of people have high cholesterol. As a result, the risk of progression of atherosclerotic disease and the occurrence of myocardial infarction, stroke increases. Therefore, at this age it is especially important to follow proper nutrition in combination with light physical activity.

Dietary table №10C

Box No. 10C is a therapeutic diet to lower cholesterol. This form of nutrition is recommended for people with diagnosed coronary heart disease and high blood pressure, caused by atherosclerosis. This menu is dominated by vegetable fats, dietary fiber, foods with a high content of vitamins B, PP, C. The daily calorie content of the menu is about 2570 kcal. It is necessary to eat fractional portions in six doses per day.

Recommended foods that have a beneficial effect on high cholesterol include:

Saved.
sea cabbage
Vegetables and fruits can be eaten in large portions.
Bake or boil the eggs a little, a maximum of three pieces per week.
Buckwheat, oatmeal, barley porridge.
Honey, a couple of tablespoons a day.
Spaghetti durum, try not to overcook.

Prohibited foods include number 10 from the food type menu. The approximate daily diet is as follows:

Breakfast: boiled buckwheat without oil, light curd dough with seasonal fruits, tea.
Snack: baked apple or dried apricots.
Lunch: stewed carrots, steamed beet cutlets, rice soup with lightly fried vegetables in olive oil, seasonal fruit compote.
Snack: berry smoothie without sugar or honey with a handful of hazelnuts.
Dinner: Salad of seasonal vegetables with olive oil and seaweed, baked salmon (another blue fish) with a slice of lemon and thyme, boiled potatoes, weak green tea.
Before bedtime - a glass of 1% kefir.

A healthy lifestyle is not just limited to diet. Since high cholesterol levels require complex treatment. Do not forget about physical exercises, as well as long walks in the fresh air.

low carb diet

Foods excluded from the low-carb menu include:

Sweet pastries, white bread.
Sugar and fructose, honey.
Alcohol and carbonated sugary drinks.
Macaroni and potatoes.
Milk chocolate.
Sweet fruits like grapes.

In large quantities, animal proteins must be present in the daily diet, for example, fish, dairy products, lean meats. This is what a low-carb menu for a week would look like:

Monday

Egg white omelette with chopped mushrooms and tomato;
Creamy Chicken and Brussels Sprout Soup. two whole-grain loaves;
Pear;
Stewed beef with pepper.

Tuesday

Thin pancakes on kefir with cottage cheese, raisins.
Salmon ear. Two slices of cereal bread.
Green apple.
Stewed chicken fillet with spinach.

Wednesday

Low-fat sour cream cheesecakes.
Buckwheat in the water and baked chicken cutlet.
Orange.
cold chicken

Thursday

Whipped curd.
Cheese soup with chicken breast. Two whole wheat toasts.
half grapefruit
Unpolished rice. Steamed zucchini and carrot cutlets, fresh cucumber.

Friday

A soft-boiled egg sprinkled with grated cheese.
Stewed fish in a light creamy sauce.
Kiwi or an orange.
Beans boiled, mashed. Chicken rolls. A tomato.
Before going to bed, a glass of kefir.

Saturday

Cottage cheese and natural yogurt.
Steamed lamb meatballs and a cucumber.
mandarin or apple
Seafood. Arugula salad with olive oil.

Sunday

Steamed tortilla with chicken breast.
Baked turkey fillet with broccoli.
A glass of 1% kefir.
Stewed rabbit with vegetables (onion, zucchini, sweet pepper).

While following this diet, it is recommended to drink up to two liters of fluid per day. In women, a contraindication to a low-carbohydrate diet may be the period of lactation and pregnancy. High cholesterol with early detection can be successfully treated with nutritional correction. What kind of diet you should follow, only the attending physician can finally decide after a detailed analysis of your history.

paleo diet

The Paleo diet includes foods that our Stone Age ancestors ate before the development of agriculture. A large amount of animal protein is the basis of prehistoric nutrition. At the same time, carbohydrates and fats are used much less in the diet. The main product is meat, which contains animal protein. It is he who accelerates metabolic processes and helps prevent the accumulation of excess fat.

The paleo diet is suitable for lowering blood cholesterol, since the consumption of animal fat is reduced. It is recommended to eat every five hours, approximately three meals a day. The main products allowed are:

Lean meat and poultry.
Seafood, fish.
Oils: olive, flaxseed, sesame.
Mushrooms, nuts and seeds without heat treatment.
Fresh fruits, vegetables and berries.

Sugar and salt, legumes and cereals, dairy products, starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes) are excluded from the diet with such a diet. It is recommended to consume foods mostly raw or after minimal heat treatment. This type of nutrition will help protect blood vessels from cholesterol and plaque formation. Elevated low-density lipoprotein levels can return to normal if the principles of the paleo diet are followed.

ketogenic diet

The keto diet is based on the minimum consumption of carbohydrates. In this sense, the body trains itself to produce more energy from fats and proteins. This high-cholesterol diet helps lower low-density lipoproteins. At the same time, there is an increase in the level of "good" cholesterol.

While following a ketogenic diet, avoid bread, sugar, pasta, fruit, and sweets. With a lack of carbohydrates, the body begins to intensively break down fat reserves.

This diet is similar to a low carbohydrate diet. Choosing the optimal menu, you should use the following rules:

Breakfast: In the morning, try to consume up to 15 g of carbohydrates. The source can be cheese or vegetables. It is recommended to eat an omelette in olive oil with tomatoes, adding toast with bran. Calorie content - 500-600 kcal.
At lunch, you should limit carbohydrates. Nutritionists recommend eating soup with chicken meatballs (without potatoes, noodles). Note that high cholesterol suggests eating vegetable broth. For the second, you can eat brown rice with chicken breast and a piece of cheese.
Dinner should contain a higher percentage of protein and fiber. Poultry or lamb, veal, and green vegetables will do. It is better to bake meat and make a vegetable salad with a tablespoon of olive oil.

When following a ketogenic diet, the body works in an "emergency" mode, being in a state of ketosis due to the production of ketone bodies (derived from fatty acids). Therefore, medical supervision is necessary during such feeding. Despite the associated risk, elevated cholesterol normalizes over the course of the ketogenic diet.

Some argue that the diet will do little to lower cholesterol and recommend taking statins. A very controversial statement. Many doctors and experts fundamentally disagree on this.

Ornish vegetarian diet

The diet was first created by Dean Ornish, Bill Clinton's personal physician. And it is based on a strict control of the fats consumed. No more than 20 grams of fat per day is allowed. This diet is indicated if a person is diagnosed with hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, and obesity. Basically the menu is vegetarian. This food is characterized by a higher percentage of carbohydrates in the food consumed.

It is necessary to combine Ornish nutrition with physical exercises, physical activity. The daily balance of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, respectively, is 10, 25, 75%. Products recommended for use:

Vegetables, mostly green.
Lentils, beans, peas.
Apples and pears.
Buckwheat porridge, made from corn, wheat and rice.

Eat eggs, dairy products, cheeses, crackers in moderation. It is necessary to categorically exclude red meat, puff pastry and pastry products, butter, mayonnaise, olives, nuts, seeds.

A sample menu for the week can be arranged as follows.

First day

Breakfast: chicory drink, a tablespoon of wheat bran added to low-fat yogurt.
Lunch: a few large baked potatoes with tomatoes, a salad of cucumbers, greens and iceberg lettuce, a green apple.
Snack: apricots or plums (3 pieces), other seasonal fruits, low-fat cottage cheese.
Dinner: two whole-grain toasts, an apple or a pear, durum wheat spaghetti sprinkled with low-fat cheese, berry compote.

Second day

Breakfast: freshly squeezed orange juice, rice porridge with low-fat milk, a glass of kefir.
Lunch: beans with mushrooms and onions, salad with tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers, dressed with olive oil.
Snack: strawberries, wheat bread.
Dinner: two slices of bran bread, half an avocado, stewed buckwheat porridge with mushrooms and carrots, green tea.

Day Three

Breakfast: decaffeinated coffee, a cup of muesli with red fruits and skimmed milk.
Lunch: soup with slices of pumpkin and spinach, couscous with vegetables, vinaigrette without pickles.
Snack: a glass of kefir, low-fat crackers.
Dinner: baked eggplant halves with onions and carrots, a plate of seasonal berries, mint tea.

Day four

Breakfast: pomegranate juice, pumpkin and zucchini pancakes.
Lunch: broccoli and cauliflower soup, stewed asparagus with rice and chicken fillet.
Snack: low-fat cottage cheese with the addition of yogurt, oatmeal cookies.
Dinner: braised white cabbage with carrots and onions, any fruit of your choice, currant compote.

day five

Breakfast: apple juice, porridge from a mixture of cereals.
Lunch: two fish fillets, mashed potatoes without adding milk and a bit of butter.
Snack: a cup of low-fat kefir, a green apple.
Dinner: asparagus and green pea soup, light tea.

day six

Breakfast: chicory drink, fat-free cottage cheese with honey.
Lunch: boiled turkey breast with zucchini and pumpkin puree, orange juice.
Snack: oatmeal pudding, multigrain bread.
Dinner: two cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and vegetables, mineral water.

Seventh day

Breakfast: a piece of cottage cheese casserole with raisins, radicchio.
Lunch: 2 cutlets of lentils and carrots, rice.
Snack: 3 baked cheesecakes, orange juice.
Dinner: apples stuffed with cottage cheese and dried apricots, chamomile tea.

High cholesterol with strict adherence to the canons of this diet can return to normal. Regularity and self-control are very important to achieve results.

intermittent fasting

Fasting is used to lower blood cholesterol. High cholesterol levels can be treated with a starvation diet as follows: With food shortages, the body begins to use low-density lipoprotein stores for energy for life. Already after 12 hours of fasting, cholesterol, as an alternative energy source, begins to be released into the blood and is broken down to form energy.

Approximate scheme of cholesterol starvation for a week:

On the first day - only freshly squeezed apple and carrot juice, diluted with water 1: 2. On the second day, you can drink the juice without diluting it with water. For lunch, you can eat 50 g of grated carrots. In the third, drink grape, apple and carrot juices. Have dinner with one hundred grams of vegetable puree, and before bedtime - kefir.

On the fourth and fifth day, add grated vegetables and fruits, and in the evening - light cottage cheese. On the sixth and seventh day, breakfast should consist of grated vegetables and fruits, and for dinner and lunch eat overcooked buckwheat or millet cereals. Such a strict diet can only be carried out after consulting a doctor and under medical supervision. To regulate high cholesterol, it is necessary to periodically repeat the course of therapeutic fasting.

It is not easy to choose the optimal diet for high cholesterol - it is necessary to study in detail all the features of the body of a particular person. It is very important to take into account concomitant diseases, gender, age. Only a properly designed menu is an effective prevention of the serious consequences of hypercholesterolemia.