Posts Tagged ‘Lower Cholesterol Naturally’

Oatmeal Lowers Cholesterol and Stabilizes Blood Sugar

The question is why oatmeal lowers cholesterol? Oatmeal is high in fiber that keeps your energy levels up and controls your appetite. Hours after breakfast you find you are not hungry. This type of fiber stabilizes blood sugar and prevents fatigue.

You can also add some non-fat milk to your morning oatmeal for an additional fat burning combination. It is scientifically proven that calcium and fiber are some of the best fat burning foods. The fact that oatmeal lowers cholesterol is a nice side affect.

What makes oatmeal so great is the fact that it is a complex carbohydrate. The value in this type of carbohydrate is that it gets digested ever so slowly. The added benefit is that it keep your energy up and your appetite low. Not to mention the fact that oatmeal lowers cholesterol, too.

How Oatmeal Lowers Cholesterol

Oatmeal lowers cholesterol, by preventing re-absorption. Oatmeal does and exceptional job to strengthen your immune system. It does this through its agent beta-glucen which supports bacterial defense mechanisms. You may be familiar with how lentils stabilize blood sugar levels, oatmeal does the same thing.

Oatmeal Lowers Cholesterol Captured the Attention of the FDA

Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats Cereal (Order Today)!

Oatmeal does such a wonderful job of lowering cholesterol that the FDA has studied the fact. It works so well that the FDA has given exclusive claim to the fact that oatmeal lowers cholesterol. Oatmeal is also recognized by the Mayo Clinic as a super food in the battle to lower cholesterol. Oatmeal is a soluble fiber known as beta-glucan that soaks up cholesterol and passes it through the body as a healthy benefit. It is even much more effective than the pectin found in apples.

A diet that includes oats along with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables will keep a person looking good and feeling great. Oatmeal lowering cholesterol also means shedding some of the excess body fat also. “Not a bad side effect”!

The soluble fibers in oatmeal absorb cholesterol in the intestines blocking it from entering the bloodstream. What the oats do is lower the (LDL) or low density lipoproteins and has no effect on the (HDL) or high density lipoprotein levels. You can find many case studies that verify the fact that oatmeal lowers cholesterol levels especially when combined with a healthy diet. The best is to get about 5 to 10 grams of soluble fiber every day.

People tend to think that oatmeal is a tasteless food and don’t care to eat it. But with a little help you can boost the flavor and cholesterol lowering ability by adding a few blueberries and low-fat milk to taste. The benefits are very powerful time and time again along with the results.

Personal experiences of having so many problems taking the prescription drugs lead me to some of the more natural ways of lowering my cholesterol. And to get the doctor off my back I started looking at ways to do the job in a natural way.

Learning That Oatmeal Lowers Cholesterol

I developed my plan of attack rather than trying more prescription drugs. My plan included eating some oatmeal 4 or more times a week. After a little reading I found out that the steel cut oats had the highest nutrient value. And found they could be bough in bulk at low prices. I would have my oatmeal with a little low-fat milk and sometimes I would add a little fresh fruit to sweeten it up some. I also began walking for 30 minutes every day.

After 6 months of this I had to take a blood test for life insurance and the results came back at a high normal allowing me to get the insurance at the normal rate. When just a few months back the cholesterol numbers were so high the doctor said they could not read them. Somewhere over 400 to just under 200 got me the preferred rate on whole life insurance. So do not discount the fact that oatmeal lowers cholesterol!

It is believed that atherosclerosis is partly caused by high cholesterol. Atherosclerosis is commonly known as hardening of the arteries, which a danger sign for increasing risk of catastrophic diseases like stroke or heart attack. So, keeping your cholesterol levels under control is of paramount importance. There are several effective ways to lower cholesterol naturally including easy diet changes, stress reduction and natural cholesterol lowering supplements.

A low fat diet has been promoted heavily the last few decades as the most effective diet to lower heart disease risk. Current research does not necessarily support this idea. There are many doctors using a variety of different diets successfully to lower cholesterol and risk of heart disease.

While the low fat diet is not supported by research to be the only diet that can protect against heart disease, Dr. Dean Ornish is well known for his approach, which involves combining a low fat, vegetarian diet with stress reduction and increasing physical exercise. Don't worry if you're not thrilled with the idea of becoming a vegetarian. Other doctors advocate a much different dietary strategy. For example, Dr. Barry Sears developed a healthy non-vegetarian diet called the Zone Diet that is often considered to be one of many variations of the so-called "low carb diet."

A balanced ratio of carbohydrates, fat and protein is emphasized by Dr. Sears in the Zone Diet. Sr. Sears' diet has been described as "eating the way our grandparents ate." Many people report success in losing weight with a low carb approach, without having to count calories or going hungry. Along with healthy weight loss, many different health conditions have seen improvement, including reducing high cholesterol.

Cholesterol lowering vitamins are another tactic that works well with diet changes. Concerning dietary supplements, it pays to go with quality rather than basing your decision on cost alone. There's a lot of variation in the quality of supplements on the market, and it's common to see exaggerated claims without providing research to back them up.

Nutrients proven to be most effective at reducing cholesterol include, guggulipid, policosanol, green tea extract, tumeric and beta sitosterol. Many clinical research trials have shown these nutrients to be among the most effective available at this time. Guggulipid and policosanol are the most important nutrients to look for in a supplement.

There are many products currently on the market claiming to use policosanol, but many in fact are using an incomplete form of policosanol called octacosanol. Octacosanol will NOT give the positive results outlined in the clinical trials. The cholesterol lowering results apply ONLY to the genuine policosanol extracted from sugar cane wax which is produced in Cuba.

As you can see, doing some simple research before you choose a cholesterol health supplement can make a difference. Check to confirm that the manufacturer uses genuine policosanol. Also, check to see if the product has been properly tested for biological contamination and that it is produced in a GMP (good manufacturing practice) facility as well as meeting the U.S. and/or the British Pharmacopoeia standards.

These proven natural ways to reduce cholesterol can help you avoid the side effects and possible dangers of prescription medications. Of course, you may want to consult your health care provider before changing any medications you may be taking and before beginning any new supplementation program.

Max Wardlow manages a website about quality herbal supplements. Visit today for more info about managing high cholesterol.