Dietary re-education is the best way to fight high cholesterol because, in addition to lowering the amount of cholesterol in the blood during a crisis, it also helps to keep it under control for several years, preventing serious cardiovascular diseases.
However, in order to be able to notice a difference in the result of total and partial cholesterol, in the blood test, it is necessary to undergo re-education for at least 6 to 10 weeks.
Some of the most important tips when starting dietary re-education for cholesterol are to avoid eating fried, processed and high-fat foods, especially of animal origin, such as sausage, cheese or bacon, for example.
The 3 tips for starting dietary reeducation to lower cholesterol are:
1 - Finding food errors
To start food reeducation it is necessary to be aware of what you are doing wrong and therefore we advise you to write down everything you eat, making a food diary.
In this diary write down everything you eat, including quantities for at least 7 days. Take the opportunity to also note if you ate because you were hungry, thirsty, happy, sad or simply because you were in front of you and ate even without hunger.
2 - Adequate feeding
After knowing exactly what you ate for 1 whole week, analyze what you were eating, the quantities and reflect if you follow the principle of:
- Eat every 3 hours; Drink 2 liters of water, juice or tea every day; Avoid fried, industrialized or high-fat foods; Eat fruits, vegetables and cereals daily.
If you discover that you have not been able to follow these guidelines exactly. Choose 1 of them to adopt as a new habit in the first week of dietary reeducation and so on. Replacing one bad habit at a time is much healthier and easier to accomplish than wanting to change everything at the same time.
For example:
- Fruit: If you find that you don't eat fruit regularly, try taking 1 fruit to work and eating it every day for the first week, making it a habit. Timetable: If you can't eat every 3 hours, try adjusting the amount of meals you eat to make this possible. We are generally not hungry after 3 hours if we eat too much at the previous meal. Vegetables: If you don't eat vegetables or salad regularly, try eating 1 different vegetable a day. Learn to vary meals.
Another important tip to adapt your diet to lower cholesterol is to restrict your consumption of fats for the first hours of the day. That's because, the body also produces cholesterol throughout the day, in addition to that eaten in the diet. Thus, if most of the fat is consumed in the morning, the body will know that it does not need to produce too much cholesterol, but if this intake happens at night, the body will have already produced cholesterol in a poorly controlled manner, increasing blood cholesterol levels.
See what you can and cannot eat at: How to lower cholesterol.
3 - Plan meals
Learn to plan your meals so that you know what you are eating, how it was done and can better choose what you are going to eat. The tip is to think about what you will eat tomorrow today, and preferably leave everything ready for the next day.
Taking meals to work, besides being more economical, helps to make the best choices, which are not always possible when eating out, in a bar or restaurant. If necessary, make a weekly menu to facilitate.
Write down the meal times, what you want to eat, including the quantities and see weekly the process of food reeducation. Remember that the goal is to reduce the amount of fat you eat, even on weekends.
See some extra cholesterol-lowering tips at:
