Lower Cholesterol Naturally

Cholesterol: Lower cholesterol naturally with foods, diet, herbs and supplements


Trans Fats Increase LDL Cholesterol Levels
Research conducted by scientists at the Beltsville (Maryland) Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC) contributed to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans including recommendations that people in the United States limit their intake of fats and oils that are high in trans fatty acids. Joseph Judd (now retired), and nutritionist Beverly A. Clevidence, and colleagues fed 58 male and female volunteers, aged 26 to 64, four controlled diets, characterized as moderately high trans fat, high trans fat, high saturated fat, and high “heart healthy” oleic acid...Read full article



Heart Health and Healthy Eating Habits
The health consequences of eating one large meal a day compared with eating three meals a day has not been established. Now two recently published journal articles are among the first to report the effects of meal skipping on key health outcomes, based on a study involving a group of normal-weight, middle-aged adults...Read full article


Foods That Lower Cholesterol, Triglycerides and Prevent Cancer - Muscadine Grapes
Muscadine grapes are a natural food source for lowering both total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, blood pressure, triglycerides and also protects against coronary heart disease, gastrointestinal diseases, and colon cancer. Research conducted by ARS horticulturist James B. Magee and Mississippi State nutritionist Betty J. Ector predicts that the muscadine will not only be an alternative crop for growers in the Southeast, but a new health food as well...Read full article


Lowering Triglycerides: DHA Lowers Triglycerides
High blood levels of fats known as triglycerides may increase risk of heart disease. So may an unhealthy ratio of the good HDL cholesterol to the bad LDL cholesterol. Volunteers on a DHA-enriched regimen also showed an increase in HDL cholesterol, the kind known to protect against heart disease. Triglycerides in blood decreased by about 26 percent in volunteers on the DHA regimen. Their HDL cholesterol-the good kind-rose an average of 9 percent...Read full article


High Blood Pressure - Reduce Carbohydrates
Compared with a diet containing more carbohydrates, a diet with greater protein lowers blood pressure, LDL “bad” cholesterol, and triglycerides. “Our results emphasize the impact that diet can have on blood pressure and cholesterol levels, two of the major heart disease risk factors,” said Lawrence Appel, M.D., M.P.H., of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and lead investigator of the OmniHeart study...Read full article


Cholesterol Lowered with a Diet High in Soy Protein
Study shows the cholesterol lowering effects of soy protein in men’s diets. Soy protein can be an important ally in lowering cholesterol, according to new findings from a study conducted at the Children's Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas. This research, published in the October issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, may also explain why previous studies have produced conflicting evidence concerning the merits of soy protein...Read full article


Orange Peels Lower Cholesterol and Triglycerides
Research shows that orange peels, traditionally discarded as non-value waste, lower cholesterol and triglycerides naturally. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have recently learned that a compound found in orange oil decreases blood serum levels of the protein responsible for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) that's a major cholesterol carrier...Read full article


Cholesterol Lowering Benefits of Plant Sterols
A recent study shows that plant extracts containing sterols are one of many natural remedies for high cholesterol. People who already eat a low-fat diet to reduce cholesterol might lower it more by consuming a soybean extract with high levels of substances called plant sterols, according to preliminary new research, Agricultural Research Service Administrator Floyd P. Horn said today. Volunteers in the research study ate the soybean sterols as an ingredient in low and reduced-fat salad dressings...Read full article


Natural Cholesterol Remedies – Fruit and Veggies
A natural remedy to raise HDL cholesterol levels may be a higher consumption of fruit and vegetables, which are high in vitamin C. The higher your HDL cholesterol, the less bad cholesterol you'll have in your blood. Many doctors are now beginning to pay more attention to HDL cholesterol. HDL cholesterol takes up excess cholesterol from cells and returns it to the liver, making the cells more receptive to the LDL cholestorol particles. This prevents the LDL cholesterol particles from staying in the arteries and joining with bad company - the oxidizers. When that happens, an artery-clogging plaque may form...Read full article


LDL Cholesterol – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Consuming high levels of trans fatty acids is associated with higher blood levels of small, unhealthy particles of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), according to a recent study funded in part by the Agricultural Research Service. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. LDLs circulate in the bloodstream as populations of small, medium or large particles, which carry the majority of cholesterol to parts of the body and are therefore referred to as "bad" cholesterol...Read full article


Tea in Your Diet Lowers Cholesterol
Drinking tea lowered low-density lipoprotein, the LDL "bad" cholesterol, in a small group of volunteers in an Agricultural Research Service study reported the Journal of Nutrition. Seven men and eight women were given five servings of black tea per day for three weeks, and a tea-flavored water for another three-week period. In a third study period, caffeine was added to the tea-flavored water in an amount similar to that found in the tea. "Overall, we found a 6 to 10 percent reduction in...Read full article


Blueberry Skins Lower Cholesterol Naturally
According to a Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study announced at the American Chemical Society's (ACS) national meeting in Chicago, blueberry skins could be a key to controlling cholesterol. ARS chemist Agnes Rimando and collaborators found that feeding hamsters a diet extremely high in cholesterol, but supplemented with freeze-dried skins of rabbiteye blueberries, produced plasma total cholesterol levels 37 percent lower than those of hamsters fed a control diet...Read full article


Bean Consumption Lowers Cholesterol
Study shows that cooked dry pinto beans added to a regular daily diet lowers cholesterol. Researchers tested 80 volunteers aged 18 to 55 years. Half were healthy, while half had at least two symptoms that lead to metabolic syndrome, a combination of conditions that signal a risk for cardiovascular disease. Those with "pre-metabolic-syndrome" had abdominal obesity and either high triglyceride levels, low HDL "good" cholesterol, high blood sugar, or high blood pressure...Read full article


Dangers of Cholesterol Lowering Drugs
By Kevin Flatt
During the last 20 years, the industry has mounted an incredible promotional campaign--enlisting scientists, advertising agencies, the media and the medical profession in a blitz that turned the statins into one of the bestselling pharmaceuticals of all time...Read full article


Policosanol lowers cholesterol without side effects
By Kevin Flatt
Policosanol has been shown to normalize cholesterol as well or better than cholesterol-lowering drugs, without side effects such as liver dysfunction and muscle atrophy. Although many laboratory tests on animals have been done, policosanol has demonstrated its performance in human trials, this article will focus on some of the human trials only...Read full article


Cinnamon lowers cholesterol and triglycerides
By Kevin Flatt
Cinnamon has been demonstrated to improve blood sugar, triglycerides, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and total cholesterol in a number of studies. Although these studies have involved volunteers with type 2 diabetes, the focus of this article is on the effects of cinnamon on cholesterol and triglycerides. Researchers have sought out nutrients that can simultaneously improve glucose metabolism and lipid levels (cholesterol, triglycerides)...Read full article


Heart Heath: Saturated Fat Should Not Be Restricted
By Kevin Flatt
Assistant Professor Jeff S. Volek and his colleague Cassandra E Forsythe at the University of Connecticut, reporting in the August 2005 issue of the journal Nutrition & Metabolism, dispel common myths and provide a convincing argument that the restriction of saturated fat is not warranted on a low-carbohydrate diet because of their work showing favorable responses in risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease in low-carbohydrate diets that were rich in saturated fat)...Read full article