Yummy low cholesterol treats or meals?

[Emeraldgreen]

Both my husband and I just had our cholesterol levels checked and we're both very high!
We're both fairly fit so that surprised us. We also don't eat that badly but we do love cheese and other dairy products. The doctor thinks it must run in our families. We both have heart disease in our families. We're both adopted but we have learned a bit about our families.
We're going to cut things out of our diet now like eggs, butter, switch to skim milk, stop eating cheese and red meat but I'm trying to put together new ideas for meals that would be low in cholesterol.
Does anybody know of low or no cholesterol products out there that taste good? I know the key will be to create recipes with natural ingredients and substitutes for butter and eggs but I'd also like to find some products that we can have on hand for quick snacks. Any ideas?

[Catty1]

Broil, Steam and Poach!

Also - get some TSP - texturized soy protein (or the Yves burger stuff in the store) and make chili with it! It's really good. Also - think Mexican food, as in corn and beans...this can be really low-fat and full of protein.

Roasted soy nuts - salted or non (I get the salted - they;re very filling).

Also - here's a really good tip for butter from Lucy at my health food store: Blend butter and safflower/olive oil in equal amounts each, and use as a spread. It's half veggie, and all natural. Plus, it's not as salty - I love it!
I mentioned margarine and Lucy scolded me - "It's two molecules away from plastic!" ...who knew?...

Found some ideas on Google:
* Bagels
* Bread sticks*
* Ready-to-eat cereals without added sugar*
* Frozen grapes or banana slices; or other fresh fruit
* Fruit leather or other dried fruit
* Low fat or fat free crackers* like melba toast, rice cakes, rye crisp, and soda crackers
* No-oil baked tortilla chips*
* Popcorn (air popped or "light")*
* Pretzels*
* Raw vegetables with nonfat or low fat dip

The soy "ice cream" is very enjoyable; if you do go out for a treat, get some with the fresh fruit or berries mixed into it. You may also want to try one of the flavoured soy 'milk' products. I use plain, but use Stevia to sweeten it for my morning protein shakes.

Breakfast and Snacks Meal Suggestions

Oats or Oatmeal
Whole wheat bread
Whole grain corn
Fruits like banana or apples
Fresh fruit juice

If you have high cholesterol level, you have to eat foods rich in fiber like oats and whole grains. Fiber can dissolve the bad cholesterol in the blood. The carbohydrates in oats, wheat, and corn can also help keep your cholesterol level within manageable levels.

Fruits contain vitamins and minerals that everyone needs, especially people with high cholesterol levels. Most fruits are rich in Vitamin C that can help protect the body against diseases like cancer and atherosclerosis. Banana, for example, is rich in potassium that can regulate one’s blood pressure.

Lunch and Dinner Meal Suggestions

Turkey, lean chicken, or fish
Vegetable salad
Fruits for dessert like mango, papaya, or orange
Carrot juice

White meat is a good source of Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid that is good for the heart. It helps improve blood fats and the amount of good cholesterol in the body. The essential fatty acids from fish such as tuna, salmon, and mackerel are necessary because the body doesn’t produce them at all. They can only be obtained from the food that you eat.

Vegetables are good sources of vitamins and minerals. A vegetarian diet is going to be helpful for people with high cholesterol levels. A lot of vegetables contain fiber, beta carotene, and Vitamin K that promote the health of the blood, heart, and almost all internal organs.
Take a good Omega 3 supplement as well.

Good luck - can hardly wait for the updates and seeing the numbers come down!

[Emeraldgreen]

Wow! You are a wealth of knowledge!
I'm going to re-read this in the morning before I head out to the grocery store. I'm off to bed right now.
Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately I have to stay away from Soy stuff because it hurts my stomach soooooooooo much. I'm in an unbelievable amount of pain if I eat anything that is primarily made up of soy. It makes me sad because I love the taste of veggie burgers and even veggie hot dogs!
Thanks again for posting all this great info!

[Karen]

Wow! You are a wealth of knowledge!
I'm going to re-read this in the morning before I head out to the grocery store. I'm off to bed right now.
Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately I have to stay away from Soy stuff because it hurts my stomach soooooooooo much. I'm in an unbelievable amount of pain if I eat anything that is primarily made up of soy. It makes me sad because I love the taste of veggie burgers and even veggie hot dogs!
Thanks again for posting all this great info!

So definitely stay away from soy, your body is reacting badly to it, and it will only get worse with time.

Oatmeal - oatmeal cookies if you don't like oatmeal for breakfast. If you make them with egg white, not the whole egg, I'm not sure how that will effect the taste but it will take away the cholesterol.

Veggies - nice steamed veggies, I miss eating the ones I am now allergic to. But it's summertime - a nice salad of ripe tomatoes, basil and a little salt and maybe olive oil and vinegar - no cholesterol needed!

Olive oil is the oil for you to use for salad dressings, etc, as it lowers the bad cholesterol without effecting the good kind.

Veggies and more veggies!

[Pam]

If your doctor hasn't started you on statins I would suggest trying Red Yeast Rice. It is a natural supplement and can be found at any supermarket or drug store. I began taking it, along with cutting out lots of dairy and eating oatmeal and cheerios for breakfast, and brought my numbers down. My own doctor calls it the closest thing to a statin.

[Rachel]

We try to eat these types of foods for the same reason. One of the hardest thing for me was to cut waaaay back on the cheese. I keep some low fat string cheese on hand for when I just NEED to have a bit. Frigo is a good brand as some of them taste like cardboard.

As for the margarine, we use Smart Balance which is supposed to be a healthy formula and no transfat.

One thing I would emphasize is BEANS. We have red beans (dark red kidney beans) and rice (prepared with canned tomatoes, sauteed celery and green pepper). We also make a bean soup prepared with Great Northern Beans. And a similar beans and rice dish prepared with Butter Beans.

[Laura's Babies]

Red Yeast Rice is a statin, just a natural one and you can have the same side efects on that as you can on a man made statin. Be sure you take CoQ-10 with any statin you take as statin drugs deplete the body of this and every cell in your body needs this!.

Good foods to help lower cholesterol
Oatmeal
Walnuts
Blueberries
1- glass red wine a day
Metamucil
Flax seed

Aviod processed foods or anything tampered with by man. Aviod ANYTHING with Partially Hydrogenated oils, also watch out for the food industry creatively naming things. Interesterified oil, monoglycinate, mono and diglycinate are all names for hydrogenated oil! (Read lables on everything!) If Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated is included anywhere in the ingredients list it has trans fat regardless of what other boasts the product makes. Fully Hydrogenated oils do not contain trans fats, but Partially Hydrogenated oils do. Also, it is equally as important to note the Saturated Fat content, and be careful not to substitute Trans Fats with Saturated (which contribute significantly to LDL (bad cholesterol).

Statin Alternatives
1) Buffered Aspirin - 81 mg (contains beneficial magnesium)
2) CoQ10 - 100 to 150 mg (Gelcaps - NOT powdered) with small amount of Vitamin E)
3) Folic Acid - 400-800 mcg
B6 - 80-100mg
B12 - 200-250mcg
All 3 of the B Vitamins above control Homocysteine (Hcy)
~ OR... take a B Complex or multi-vitamin that contains these B Vitamin amounts
4) Omega 3 (fish oil, cod liver oil or krill oil) [ There is no upper limit]
Cod liver oil has the added benefit of vitamins A & D.

Eating healthy and changing to a healthy lifestyle will save your life. Avoid taking man made drugs if there is another way to correct the problem.

Dr. Golomb has studied statin drugs side effects. Here is a great video she did on some of her resluts. It is a hour long but well worth the time it takes to watch it. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FG-IARKXS4Q

[Hellow]

Hmm, i think Chicken is low in cholesterol. We eat it often and we are very healthy! Just remember to cook it in the oven, cooking it in a frying pan with grease obviously raises cholesterol.

[Emeraldgreen]

Broil, Steam and Poach!

If you have high cholesterol level, you have to eat foods rich in fiber like oats and whole grains. Fiber can dissolve the bad cholesterol in the blood. The carbohydrates in oats, wheat, and corn can also help keep your cholesterol level within manageable levels.

Vegetables are good sources of vitamins and minerals. A vegetarian diet is going to be helpful for people with high cholesterol levels. A lot of vegetables contain fiber, beta carotene, and Vitamin K that promote the health of the blood, heart, and almost all internal organs.[/SIZE]
Take a good Omega 3 supplement as well.
Good luck - can hardly wait for the updates and seeing the numbers come down!

Thanks Candace! I will certainly post an update at the end of September when we are both due to go back in for re-tests.

I plan to add more fiber to our diet and eat more like vegetarians. We will eat some chicken, turkey and fish but just a few times per week. Lot's of steamed veggies though!

Karen Wrote:

So definitely stay away from soy, your body is reacting badly to it, and it will only get worse with time.

Oatmeal - oatmeal cookies if you don't like oatmeal for breakfast. If you make them with egg white, not the whole egg, I'm not sure how that will effect the taste but it will take away the cholesterol.

Veggies - nice steamed veggies, I miss eating the ones I am now allergic to. But it's summertime - a nice salad of ripe tomatoes, basil and a little salt and maybe olive oil and vinegar - no cholesterol needed!

Olive oil is the oil for you to use for salad dressings, etc, as it lowers the bad cholesterol without effecting the good kind.

I'm definitely on the look out for soy and staying away from it. I once read somewhere that the soy bean was used for thousands of years by asians but for non-edible purposes, like textiles etc.. and that only in recent history soy was introduced to western culture as a food. Anyone know if that's true?

Olive oil is so great. Mediterraneans seem to live very long life spans and this oil being a main part of the diet probably has something to do with it I would think. I plan to use this more than usual from now on!

Pam wrote:

If your doctor hasn't started you on statins I would suggest trying Red Yeast Rice. It is a natural supplement and can be found at any supermarket or drug store. I began taking it, along with cutting out lots of dairy and eating oatmeal and cheerios for breakfast, and brought my numbers down. My own doctor calls it the closest thing to a statin

I'm going to try and lower my numbers with just diet at first and if they just aren't budging, I'll definitely look into the Red Yeast Rice as a statin. Thanks for the suggestion.

Rachel wrote:

One of the hardest thing for me was to cut waaaay back on the cheese. I keep some low fat string cheese on hand for when I just NEED to have a bit. Frigo is a good brand as some of them taste like cardboard.

As for the margarine, we use Smart Balance which is supposed to be a healthy formula and no transfat.

One thing I would emphasize is BEANS. We have red beans (dark red kidney beans) and rice (prepared with canned tomatoes, sauteed celery and green pepper). We also make a bean soup prepared with Great Northern Beans. And a similar beans and rice dish prepared with Butter Beans.

Cheese will be the hardest thing to give up I think. It is so very yummy!!! I'll see about getting some of the Frigo string cheese if we have it here in Canada. I might also keep some low fat mozzarella made with skimmed milk in the fridge for cheese emergencies.

Thankfully I LOVE beans! My husband is not such a huge fan but I'll work on that.

Laura's Babies wrote:

Red Yeast Rice is a statin, just a natural one and you can have the same side efects on that as you can on a man made statin. Be sure you take CoQ-10 with any statin you take as statin drugs deplete the body of this and every cell in your body needs this!.

Aviod processed foods or anything tampered with by man. Aviod ANYTHING with Partially Hydrogenated oils, also watch out for the food industry creatively naming things. Interesterified oil, monoglycinate, mono and diglycinate are all names for hydrogenated oil! (Read lables on everything!) If Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated is included anywhere in the ingredients list it has trans fat regardless of what other boasts the product makes. Fully Hydrogenated oils do not contain trans fats, but Partially Hydrogenated oils do. Also, it is equally as important to note the Saturated Fat content, and be careful not to substitute Trans Fats with Saturated (which contribute significantly to LDL (bad cholesterol).

Eating healthy and changing to a healthy lifestyle will save your life. Avoid taking man made drugs if there is another way to correct the problem.

Dr. Golomb has studied statin drugs side effects. Here is a great video she did on some of her resluts. It is a hour long but well worth the time it takes to watch it. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FG-IARKXS4Q

Thanks for the info on statins. I had no idea and it's important stuff to know.
I do want to try and stay away from processed things and will try and stick to whole foods as much as I can. I'm going to pass on margerine and just skip butter altogether. I hope to bring down the cholesterol numbers with diet alone so we'll see how it goes. Thanks for the info and I will check out that video!

Reggie wrote:

Hmm, i think Chicken is low in cholesterol. We eat it often and we are very healthy! Just remember to cook it in the oven, cooking it in a frying pan with grease obviously raises cholesterol.

Baking is the way to go, I agree! And when we do eat meat, it will be chicken or turkey.

[Randi]

Well, I'm joining the club here. Just got my results from various tests the other day, and my Cholesterol had gone up...to 7,3. A few years ago, my doctor said it was a bit too high too, but then it was 6,8. I got it down within a few months though.

OK, I'll admit I have been indulging a bit lately, but I have to stop now! The hardest part is the cigarettes. I have only been smoking up to six a day, for the past two days, so I feel good about that.

I bought carrotts and other veggies and fruit - oh and avocado! That is supposed to actually lower your Cholesterol. A good thing I love avocado.

This morning, I had porridge for breakfast. For lunch, I have a few slices of organic ryebread, but I must find more new things to put on! Macherel seems to be on the list of things I can have - and I'm thinking hummus spread will probably be OK. Gotta cut down on cheese though.

I like basmati rice when I don't have potatoes or pasta with my meat, I guess that is OK. Corn, spinach and broccoli are also things I like to go with it - is that OK?

I am thinking dried abricots, fresh strawberries and almost any fruits are good.

Found a site here that seems to be very informative, so I'll have a closer look myself.
http://www.medicinenet.com/cholesterol/article.htm

Thanks for the info you provided, Catty1!

Oh, in case you don't know.... stay clear of shrimps, they're the worst if your Cholesterol level is up. And cats should not have too many either, according to my vet.

[pomtzu]

I don't know about in Denmark, but here in the U.S., I've been hearing about the benefits of red rice yeast in significantly lowering cholesterol. It has been used in Asian countries for a long time, altho I had never heard of it before a couple of weeks ago. Supposedly it's available in capsule form in health food stores, tho I really haven't had much time to read up on it. Omega 3 fish oil capsules is what I take right now, and that has brought my numbers down, even tho they weren't terribly high to start with.


Oops - I see there was a post on it by Pam almost a year ago. I didn't read the whole thread.

[Randi]

I hadn't heard about the red rice yeast, either, so I'll look into it and ask my doctor about it next friday. Omega3 is supposed to be good for many things - and for cats too.

Oh, my doctor also said: Don't eat too much red meat! So what about my lamb steak tonight? I hope she meant only beef! At least I can have a glass of red wine!

[Medusa]

The most difficult for me is to stay away from cheese. At least I like hard cheese which is better for you. Fortunately, I love veggies of all kinds except brussel sprouts. I've tried so many recipes for them and no matter how I dress them up, they're vile and bitter. I use mainly olive oil for cooking except when I fondue. It doesn't work well then. This thread is making me hungry!

[Catty1]

Someone I know is weaning himself off statins (with his doc's involvement and approval and blood work) by using flax seed, or flax seed oil. I think it's a certain kind of flax oil, ask at a health food shop.

As for protein - if you want to use shakes and are allergic to soy, there are other sources: rice and hemp protein! Perhaps they can be added to soups or other dishes to 'beef' them up a bit.

Good for you for being proactive! I hope you two can stave off meds indefinitely!

[Randi]

Cheese is one thing I could have difficulties quitting, but as you Medusa, I also mostly eat hard cheese.

It's funny so many people don't like brussel sprouts, I was the same years ago, but I like them now.

Think I'll make a big bowl of Gazpacho one of these days... that can't be bad!