Fiber Lowers Cholesterol

February 18th, 2012Cholesterol, Fibers, Fruits and Vegetables0 comments

Too many times when a person has a high cholesterol level, doctors forget about dietary changes and go straight to giving the person medications, which can be expensive and which can cause untoward side effects. Both patient and doctor will have neglected the importance of a person’s diet in controlling mild to moderate cholesterol problems.

When a person has their cholesterol checked, they actually have several numbers revealed, including their total cholesterol, their LDL or “bad” cholesterol, their HDL or “good” cholesterol and their triglyceride levels. You should aim for a total cholesterol level of less than 200 mg/dL, an LDL level of below 70 mg/dL, an HDL level of at least 40 mg/dL and a triglyceride level of below 150 mg/dL. Your doctor may want even tighter levels of these lipids if you are at risk for heart disease.

If your levels are modestly high, you might want to forego medications immediately and instead increase the amount of fiber in your diet. There are two kinds of fiber available: soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. Insoluble fiber is the kind of fiber you take when you want to improve your bowel movements and includes foods like green beans, dark leafy veggies, whole wheat, fruit skins, corn bran, seeds, nuts and wheat bran.

Soluble fiber, on the other hand, can bind to lipids and can reduce the levels of LDL cholesterol in your blood. Sources of soluble fiber include oats and oat bran, nuts, barley, dried peas, dried beans, flax seeds, psyllium husk, carrots, and oranges or apples.

Soluble fiber sources are what you want to eat in order to reduce the LDL cholesterol in your diet. In theory, this should, in turn, reduce your risk of heart disease without having to resort to medications. Increasing soluble fiber, along with a healthy amount of exercise, should give you an overall better chance of not having a heart attack or stroke. Your total fiber intake, if you are watching food labels, should be about 30 grams per day.

Soluble fiber works by attaching to cholesterol in the GastrointestinaI tract and allowing it to pass through the body without being absorbed by the body. You need at least 5-10 mg of soluble fiber each day in order to reduce the LDL cholesterol by 5 percent but it is recommended that those with high cholesterol attempt to get in about 10-25 mg of soluble fiber per day.

Will eating soluble fiber treat very high cholesterol numbers? Not really. Dietary guidelines can only reduce the LDL or bad cholesterol by around 5-10 percent and if you have a cholesterol level that is, for example, 250 mg/dL, you will only reduce your total cholesterol by 25 points, which is still too high. LDL numbers of 150 mg/dL will only drop 15 points. In such situations, medications will likely be required.