TOP 9 effective diets for high 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. Let's find out how to choose the right healthy food for you every day and an approximate menu for a week if you have hyperlipidemia.

20 basic nutrition rules for high cholesterol

High cholesterol can be the cause of coronary heart disease, thrombosis of the veins of the lower extremities, stroke, myocardial infarction. You can avoid the serious 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 increase in appetite and the risk of overeating after a long fast.
Eat vegetables and fruits anytime and in large quantities. Dietary fiber accelerates the excretion of excess cholesterol from the body.
With bad cholesterol, the diet should mainly contain foods with vegetable fats. Try using 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 with poultry, veal, rabbit and lamb are more suitable.
Proper nutrition with high cholesterol is supported by sports. Gentle walks of at least three kilometers a day are recommended for people with high levels of low-density lipoproteins.
The diet for hypercholesterolemia should consist primarily of steamed, baked, and boiled foods. Frying should be completely avoided.
If you have high cholesterol, avoid foods high in animal fats. There is no need to eat lard, pork, bacon, smoked meats. Replace these products with cooked poultry, fish, seafood.
An increase in the level of salt in food is contraindicated in high blood pressure and atherosclerotic disease. Try to eat no more than 5 grams of salt a day. It is better to completely abandon this product.
It is necessary to drink at least two liters of water a day, especially with thick blood and increased bilirubin. An elevated level of these indicators often indicates a violation of the function of the liver and gallbladder, which leads to hyperlipidemia. The increase in blood viscosity causes the attachment of blood clots to lipid deposits in the vessels. It is necessary to eat sour fruits 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, nuts and honey are suitable. Sometimes you can indulge in oriental Turkish delights.
The daily caloric requirement for women and men varies - an average of 2, 200 kcal and 2, 600 kcal, respectively. Increasing calorie intake is also necessary for people engaged in heavy physical work. These factors are important in formulating a diet.
Be sure to refrain from alcohol abuse. Red wine is allowed, but no more than two glasses a 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 don't abuse it. An alternative is a chicory drink or green tea.
Cook the porridge every day. Try not to boil the cereal, making it crumbly. Don't season the finished dish with too much butter if you have high cholesterol. For oatmeal, for example, honey and dried fruit are suitable as flavorings.
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 French fries and other snacks.
When cooking the birds, remove the skin from the surface. Since it makes the dish more greasy 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 don't bring enough energy, but just clog the body with calories and ballast 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 some dates, a handful of almonds.
Your doctor will tell you how to best eat. After weighing all the risks and comorbidities, an experienced specialist will help you 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. 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, meats, fish and spices. However, these products are perfectly combined and have a positive effect on high cholesterol. Diet food list:

Spices and herbs.
Soft cheeses such as feta.
Olive oil.
Fish, mussels, shrimp.
Bird, lamb.
Red wine in moderation.
Unleavened flat bread 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 levels. As an example, the following menu is presented for high cholesterol, calculated for one week:

Day 1

For breakfast: three pieces of lentil dumplings flavored with yogurt.
For lunch, refresh yourself with the 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, some olives).

Day 2

A good start to the day is buckwheat zrazy.
Lunch snack - light soup with lentils, risotto with vegetables.
The good mood at night will be provided by the roasted salmon, flavored with olive oil, with herbs from Provence.

Day 3

Morning meal - buckwheat cooked in vegetable broth.
At lunch, roasted tuna 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 hazelnuts and chopped almonds, you can add a little honey.
Light lunch: soup with fish meatballs, roasted potatoes with tomato.
Dinner: vegetable salad with one egg, lemon juice and olive oil.

Day 5

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

6th

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

Day 7

For breakfast: pour the roasted pumpkin with yogurt and honey.
Lunch: creamy mushroom and chanterelle soup; chicken, grated with garlic, with peppers in the oven.
Dinner: wild rice stew with mussels and shrimp.

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

Diet table number 10

The cooking method is mainly boiling and baking. As 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:

Freshly squeezed vegetable juices, jam.
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 delicacies from red, salted and smoked fish, 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, boiled egg, weak green tea with milk.
Snack before dinner: a piece of cooked chicken meat or a fresh apple.
Lunch: vegetable broth with barley groats, mushrooms and chopped zucchini, baked salmon or carp with cooked vegetables (eg peppers, onions, zucchini), 1 glass of fresh apple juice.
Snack: rosehip tea, walnuts and dried fruit (eg plums and almonds).
Dinner: low-fat cottage cheese, grated beets cooked 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, fruits such as bananas or apples. Diet table #10 is recommended not only for preventing the occurrence of atherosclerosis of the vessels, but also for hypothyroidism. With a regular diet for at least four months, high cholesterol can be reduced significantly.

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 cheese, barley and millet is excluded.
Do not eat extremely hot or cold foods.

Diet chart 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 curd.
Lunch: Steamed chicken chops, oil-free mashed potatoes, half a glass of fresh apple juice.
Afternoon snack: plums or dates.
Dinner: oven-roasted carrot and apple cutlets, half a glass of fat-free kefir.
Before going to bed: 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 adhere to adequate nutrition in combination with light physical activity.

Diet table №10C

Table No. 10C is a therapeutic diet to lower cholesterol. This form of diet is recommended for people with diagnosed coronary disease and high blood pressure caused by atherosclerosis. This menu is dominated by vegetable fat, dietary fiber, foods high in vitamins B, PP, C. The daily calorie content of the menu is around 2570 kcal. It is necessary to eat portions divided into 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.
Roast or boil the eggs a little, no more than three pieces a week.
Buckwheat, oats, barley porridge.
Honey, two spoons a day.
Spaghetti durum, try not to overcook it.

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

Breakfast: buckwheat cooked without oil, light curd pasta with seasonal fruits, tea.
Snack: baked apple or dried apricots.
Lunch: stewed carrots, steamed beet cutlets, rice soup with vegetables lightly fried in olive oil, seasonal fruit compote.
Afternoon Snack: Sugar-free or honey-free berry smoothie with a handful of hazelnuts.
Dinner: Seasonal vegetable salad with olive oil and seaweed, roasted salmon (another fatty fish) with a slice of lemon and thyme, boiled potato, weak green tea.
Before going to bed: a glass of 1% kefir.

A healthy lifestyle is not just about diet. Since high cholesterol levels require complex treatment. Don't 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 pastry, white bread.
Sugar and fructose, honey.
Alcohol and carbonated sugary drinks.
Macaroni and potatoes.
Milk chocolate.
Sweet fruits such as grapes.

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

Monday

Egg white omelet with chopped mushrooms and tomato;
Creamy Chicken and Brussels Sprout Soup. Two wholemeal breads;
Pear;
Veal stewed with peppers.

Tuesday

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

Wednesday

Cheesecakes with low-fat sour cream.
Buckwheat in water and roasted chicken cutlet.
Orange.
Cold chicken.

Thursday

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

Friday

A boiled egg sprinkled with grated cheese.
Fish stewed in a light creamy sauce.
Kiwi or an orange.
Baked beans, 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

Steam omelet with chicken breast.
Roasted turkey fillet with broccoli.
A glass of 1% kefir.
Rabbit stewed with vegetables (onion, zucchini, peppers).

When following this diet, it is recommended to drink up to two liters of fluid a day. In women, a contraindication to a low-carbohydrate diet can 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 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 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 indicated to lower blood cholesterol, as 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:

Fat-free meat and poultry.
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, starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes) are excluded from the diet with this diet. It is recommended to consume food 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 paleo diet principles are observed.

Ketogenic Diet

The ketogenic diet is based on minimal carbohydrate consumption. In this sense, the body trains to produce more energy from fats and proteins. This high-cholesterol diet helps 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 intensely break down fat stores.

This diet is similar to a low carb diet. When choosing the ideal menu, you should use the following rules:

Breakfast: In the morning, aim to consume up to 15 g of carbohydrates. The source can be cheese or vegetables. It is recommended to eat an omelet in olive oil with tomato, adding toast with bran. Caloric content - 500-600 kcal.
At lunch, you need to limit carbs. Nutritionists recommend eating soup with chicken meatballs (no potatoes, pasta). Note that high cholesterol suggests eating vegetable broth. For the second, you can have brown rice with brisket 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 roast meat and make a vegetable salad with a spoon of olive oil.

When following a ketogenic diet, the body works in "emergency" mode, being in a state of ketosis due to the production of ketone bodies (derived from fatty acids). Therefore, medical supervision during such nutrition is necessary. Despite the associated risk, high 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 claim. Many doctors and experts fundamentally disagree on this.

The Ornish Vegetarian Diet

The diet was created by Dean Ornish, Bill Clinton's personal physician. And it is based on 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 features 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%. Recommended products for use:

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

Eat eggs, dairy, cheese, crackers moderately. Categorically it is necessary to exclude red meat, pastries and pastries, 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: some large potatoes roasted 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 toast, an apple or pear, durum wheat spaghetti sprinkled with low-fat cheese, berry compote.

Second day

Breakfast: freshly squeezed orange juice, rice porridge with skim milk, a glass of kefir.
Lunch: beans with mushrooms and onion, salad with tomato, carrot and cucumber, 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: decaf coffee, a cup of muesli with fruit and skim milk.
Lunch: soup with pumpkin slices and spinach, couscous with vegetables, vinaigrette without pickles.
Afternoon snack: a glass of kefir, low-fat crackers.
Dinner: Roasted eggplant halves with onions and carrots, a bowl of seasonal fruit, mint tea.

day four

Breakfast: pomegranate juice, pumpkin pancakes and zucchini.
Lunch: broccoli and cauliflower soup, asparagus stewed with rice and chicken fillet.
Snack: Low-fat cottage cheese with added yogurt, oatmeal cookies.
Dinner: white cabbage cooked 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 chops, mashed potatoes without added milk and a small piece of butter.
Afternoon snack: a cup of low-fat kefir, a green apple.
Dinner: asparagus and pea soup, weak tea.

day six

Breakfast: chicory drink, fat-free cottage cheese with honey.
Lunch: cooked turkey breast with zucchini and pumpkin puree, orange juice.
Afternoon 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 lentil and carrot cutlets, rice.
Snack: 3 baked cheesecakes, orange juice.
Dinner: apples stuffed with curd 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 achieving results.

intermittent fasting

Fasting is used to lower blood cholesterol. It is possible to treat high cholesterol levels with a diet with elements of complete starvation in the following way: with the scarcity of food, the body begins to use the reserves of low density lipoproteins to obtain energy for life. After 12 hours of fasting, cholesterol, as an alternative source of energy, begins to be released into the blood and broken down to form energy.

Approximate cholesterol starvation schedule for a week:

The first day - just freshly squeezed apple and carrot juice, diluted in water 1: 2. On the second day, you can drink the juice undiluted with water. For lunch, you can eat 50 g of grated carrots. In the third - drink grape and carrot juices. Dine with a hundred grams of vegetable puree, and before going to bed - kefir.

On the fourth and fifth days, add grated vegetables and fruits, and in the evening - light cottage cheese. On the sixth and seventh days, breakfast should consist of grated vegetables and fruits, and for dinner and lunch, overcooked buckwheat or corn cereal. 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.

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