Mayo … To RAISE Your Good Cholesterol
This is from the Mayo Clinic — the 5 best foods to raise your good cholesterol.
The old idea that you should lower all cholesterol, at all costs, was wrong and potentially harmful. Now we know that this HDL cholesterol actually prevents heart disease, and should be raised as high as possible.
Let’s just start with the first one: Oatmeal (see below). But, here’s the deal. If you have a morning oatmeal, and eat it with a dash of low fat milk, margarine, fruit, and a glass of orange juice, you are going to be STARVING by 10:00.
The low carb people, although way off base in many other ways, actually have this one right! You need some healthy fats in there to prevent the carbs in the oats from turning to sugar in your veins. So, supplement your bowl ‘o oats with a dab of real butter and perhaps half-n-half: not a lot, just enough to enrich it. This lowers the glycemic index of the oatmeal and, basically, makes it last longer through the day.
1. Oatmeal, oat bran and high-fiber foods
Oatmeal contains soluble fiber, which reduces your low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the “bad” cholesterol. Soluble fiber is also found in such foods as kidney beans, apples, pears, barley and prunes.
Soluble fiber can reduce the absorption of cholesterol into your bloodstream. Five to 10 grams or more of soluble fiber a day decreases your total and LDL cholesterol. Eating 1 1/2 cups of cooked oatmeal provides 6 grams of fiber. If you add fruit, such as bananas, you’ll add about 4 more grams of fiber. To mix it up a little, try steel-cut oatmeal or cold cereal made with oatmeal or oat bran.
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