TOP 9 effective diets for high blood cholesterol

17 March 2022

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

20 basic rules of nutrition 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 severe consequences of chronic hyperlipidemia by following the simple rules listed below.

Nutrition for hypercholesterolemia should be fractional. Try to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Thus, there is no increased appetite and the risk of overeating after a long fast.
Eat vegetables and fruits at any time and in large quantities. Dietary fiber accelerates 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 couple of times a week. With high cholesterol, recipes and menus using poultry, veal, rabbit and lamb are best suited.
Proper nutrition with high cholesterol is supported by sports. Gentle walks of at least three kilometers a day are recommended for people with elevated low-density lipoprotein levels.
The diet for hypercholesterolemia should consist mainly of steamed, baked, boiled food. Frying should be avoided altogether.
If you have high cholesterol, avoid foods high in animal fats. No need to eat lard, pork, bacon, smoked meats. Replace these products with boiled poultry, fish, seafood.
An increased level of salt in food is contraindicated in 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. Increased blood viscosity provokes the fixation of blood clots on lipid deposits in the vessels. It is necessary to eat sour berries that can thin the blood, such as cherries and gooseberries.
Sweet pastries and high cholesterol are a bad combination. Milk chocolate should also be avoided. As an alternative dessert, sugar-free oatmeal cookies, dried fruits, nuts 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 2200 kcal and 2600 kcal, respectively. Increased calorie intake is also necessary for people engaged in heavy physical labor. These factors are important when formulating a diet.
Be sure to refrain from alcohol abuse. Red wine is allowed, but no more than two glasses per week.
Coffee is a controversial ally in the fight against high cholesterol. It contains cafestol, which increases the production of endogenous cholesterol 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. Do not season the finished dish with a lot of butter if you have high cholesterol. For oatmeal, for example, honey and dried fruits are suitable as a flavoring.
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 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. Such food does not bring enough energy, but only clogs the body with ballast calories and fats.
Try not to overeat at night. Eat dinner no later than two hours before going to bed. To suppress your appetite before going to bed, 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 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.

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

Popular diets for lowering cholesterol in women and men

A cholesterol-lowering diet may be based on a combination of different foods. 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 of them 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 an abundance of cheeses, meat, fish and spices. Nevertheless, these products are perfectly combined and have a positive effect on high cholesterol. List of foods in the diet:

Spices and herbs.
Soft cheeses such as 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 drinks with gas are categorically excluded from the diet. Since these products can cause high cholesterol in the blood. As an example, the following menu for high cholesterol, calculated for a week, is presented:

Day 1

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

Day 2

A good start to the day is curd-buckwheat zrazy.
Lunch snack - light soup with lentils, risotto with vegetables.
A good mood in the evening will be provided by baked salmon, flavored with olive oil, with Provence herbs.

Day 3

Morning meal - buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
At lunch, tuna baked with vegetables will restore 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 meal: soup with fish meatballs, baked potatoes with tomatoes.
Dinner: vegetable salad with one 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-puree of spinach leaves and asparagus with liquid cream; lightly boiled salmon with wild rice.
Dinner: bake a pie with small cherry tomatoes and feta, on a wholemeal crust, optionally crumble tofu cubes.

Day 6

Breakfast: dried fruit soufflé, green tea.
For lunch - cabbage soup, chicken stew with vegetables, one 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 soup of champignons and chanterelles; chicken, grated with garlic, with sweet pepper in the oven.
Dinner: wild rice stew with mussels and shrimps.

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

Diet table number 10

The method of cooking 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 going to bed. Products that can be consumed:

Vegetable freshly squeezed juices, jelly.
Whole wheat 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 meat, 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, weak green tea with milk.
Pre-dinner snack: a piece of boiled chicken meat or a fresh apple.
Lunch: vegetable broth with barley groats, mushrooms and finely chopped zucchini, baked salmon or carp with stewed vegetables (for example, bell peppers, onions, zucchini), 1 glass of fresh apple juice.
Snack: rosehip tea, nuts and dried fruits (for example, prunes and almonds).
Dinner: low-fat cottage cheese, boiled grated beets with an apple, 1 glass of low-fat milk.
At night: 1 glass of fat-free kefir.

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

Diet table 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: chopped oatmeal with 1% milk, green tea, a small apple.
Snack: baked apples with cottage cheese.
Lunch: steamed chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes without oil, half a glass of fresh apple juice.
Afternoon snack: prunes or dates.
Dinner: carrot-apple cutlets baked in the oven, half a glass of fat-free kefir.
Before going to bed: half a glass of rosehip tincture or chicory drink.

After the age of 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 adhere to proper nutrition in combination with light physical activity.

Dietary table №10C

Table No. 10C is a therapeutic diet for lowering cholesterol. This way of eating is recommended for people with diagnosed coronary heart disease and high blood pressure, provoked by atherosclerosis. This menu is dominated by vegetable fat, 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:

Bran.
Sea cabbage.
Vegetables and fruits can be eaten in large portions.
Eggs bake or weld a little, a maximum of three pieces a week.
Buckwheat, oatmeal, barley porridge.
Honey, a couple of spoons a day.
Spaghetti durum, try not to overcook.

Forbidden foods include food-like menu number 10. The approximate daily diet is as follows:

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

A healthy lifestyle is not limited to diet alone. 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 sugary drinks with gas.
Macaroni and potatoes.
Milk chocolate.
Sweet fruits such as grapes.

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

Monday

Egg white omelette with chopped champignons and tomato;
Creamy Chicken and Brussels Sprouts Soup. Two whole grain breads;
Pear;
Stewed veal with bell pepper.

Tuesday

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

Wednesday

Cheesecakes with low-fat sour cream.
Buckwheat on the water and baked chicken cutlet.
Orange.
Cold chicken.

Thursday

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

Friday

One soft-boiled egg sprinkled with grated cheese.
Fish stewed in a light creamy sauce.
Kiwi or one orange.
Boiled beans, mashed. Chicken rolls. One tomato.
Before going to bed - a glass of kefir.

Saturday

Cottage cheese and natural yoghurt.
Steamed lamb meatballs and one cucumber.
Mandarin or apple.
Seafood. Arugula salad with olive oil.

Sunday

Steam omelet with chicken breast.
Turkey fillet baked with broccoli.
A glass of 1% kefir.
Rabbit stewed with vegetables (onion, zucchini, sweet pepper).

While following this diet, it is recommended to take up to two liters of fluid per day. In women, a contraindication to a low-carbohydrate diet may be the period of breastfeeding and pregnancy. Elevated cholesterol with timely detection can be successfully treated with nutritional correction. What kind of diet you need to 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 proteins is the basis of prehistoric nutrition. At the same time, carbohydrates and fats are used in the diet much less. 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 cholesterol in the blood, since the consumption of animal fat is reduced. It is recommended to eat every five hours, approximately three meals a day. The main permitted products are:

Meat and poultry without fat.
Seafood, fish.
Oils: olive, linseed, sesame.
Mushrooms, nuts and seeds without heat treatment.
Fresh berries, vegetables and fruits.

Sugar and salt, legumes and cereals, dairy products, vegetables with starch (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 levels of low-density lipoprotein can be returned to normal if the principles of the paleo diet are followed.

Keto diet

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

While on 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-carb diet. When choosing the optimal menu, you must 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 need to 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 breast and a piece of cheese.
Dinner should contain an increased percentage of protein and fiber. Poultry or lamb meat, veal and green vegetables will do. It is better to bake meat, and make a salad from vegetables with a spoonful 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 (fatty acid derivatives). Therefore, medical supervision during such nutrition is necessary. Despite the associated risk, elevated cholesterol normalizes during the course of the keto 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's Vegetarian Diet

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

Moderately eat eggs, dairy products, cheeses, cookies. Categorically it is necessary to exclude red meat, puff and pastry products, butter, mayonnaise, olives, nuts, seeds.

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

First day

Breakfast: chicory drink, one tablespoon of wheat bran added to low-fat yogurt.
Lunch: a few large potatoes baked 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 wholemeal toasts, an apple or 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.
Afternoon snack: strawberries, wheat bread.
Dinner: two slices of bran bread, half an avocado, buckwheat porridge stewed with mushrooms and carrots, green tea.

Day three

Breakfast: decaffeinated coffee, a cup of muesli with berries and low-fat milk.
Lunch: soup with pumpkin slices and spinach, couscous with vegetables, vinaigrette without pickles.
Afternoon snack: a glass of kefir, low-fat cookies.
Dinner: baked eggplant halves with onions and carrots, a bowl of seasonal berries, mint tea.

Day four

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

Day five

Breakfast: apple juice, porridge from a cereal mixture.
Lunch: two fish cutlets, mashed potatoes without adding milk and with a small piece of butter.
Afternoon snack: a cup of low-fat kefir, a green apple.
Dinner: asparagus and green pea soup, weak 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.

Day seven

Breakfast: a piece of cottage cheese casserole with raisins, chicory.
Lunch: 2 cutlets from 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. It is possible to treat elevated cholesterol levels with a diet with elements of complete starvation in the following way: with a shortage of food, the body begins to use low-density lipoprotein reserves in order to obtain energy for life. Already after 12 hours of fasting, cholesterol, as an alternative energy source, begins to be released into the blood and broken down to form energy.

Approximate scheme of starvation from cholesterol for a week:

The first day - only freshly squeezed apple-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 lunch with one hundred grams of vegetable puree, and before going to bed - kefir.

On the fourth and fifth days, add grated vegetables and fruits, and at night - light cottage cheese. On the sixth and seventh days, breakfast should consist of grated vegetables and fruits, and for dinner and lunch, eat overcooked buckwheat or millet cereals. Such a strict diet can be carried out only 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 severe consequences of hypercholesterolemia.