Any ideas for a vegetarian with high cholesterol?

Question

My doctor told me I had high Cholesterol and suggested diet and exercise, but what type of diet? most of the diets I find have beef or fish or even pork *shudders*

Can anyone suggest a vegetarian friendly diet to help lower my cholesterol. I am desperate, but not enough to actually eat meat

Answer 1

Going vegan and eating healthy are great ways of reducing cholesterol. You can also take medication.

Answer 2

I too have high cholesterol (268!!) and recently started following a vegan diet that is laid-out in a book called "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Caldwell Esselstyn. My cousin told me about it because there's a history of heart disease in my family. The book has a ton of great recipes.(appetizers, breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert)  Your local library may have it. If not, you can get it at Amazon or Borders. I plan to follow it for 12 weeks and get my cholesterol re-checked. If it works, I'll stick with the plan.  

Answer 3

Most diets to help lower cholesterol should be vegetarian.

However, high cholesterol isn't caused by diet alone, and there are other natural, vegetarian friendly things you can do:

Helpful Herbs

Cayenne (capsicum), goldenseal, and hawthorn berries help lower cholesterol.  Kombucha Tea has also been found to lower cholesterol.

Supplements:

(use as directed)

Apple Pectin

Chromium Picolinate

Garlic

Lecithin

Vitamin B3 (Niacin)

Vitamin C with bioflavonoids

Dietary:

The following foods help to lower cholesterol:

Apples, bananas, carrots, dried beans, garlic, grapefruit, olive oil.

Increasing dietary fiber is very important:

Consume plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, barley, beans, brown rice and oats.

Drink fresh (unpasteurized) juices, especially carrot, celery and beet.

Avoid all animal products, and fried or fatty foods.

Do not consume alcohol, candy, carbonated drinks, caffeine, gravies, non-dairy creamers, pastries, processed or refined foods, and avoid tobacco.

Get regular moderate exercise.

Best of luck.

Answer 4

If you want to remain a vegetarian, then cut back on the high fat foods - dairy and oils.  Keyword here is cutback not eliminate... and use healthy oils.

Also, exercise and lose weight.

Overall, it's pretty straight forward... cutback on the fats and exercise.  

Your alternative is to start taking meds.

Answer 5

Saturated fat triggers cholesterol production in the liver, so you want to minimize your consumption of saturated fats.  These are fats that are solid at room temperature (animal fats are saturated, as are any fats that show up in an ingredient list as "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogentated.")  There is NO dietary requirement for saturated fat OR cholesterol, so you can remove as much of them as possible.  Eggs, cheese, milk all have saturated animal fats in them, so should be minimized.  Only animal foods have cholesterol.

Replace sat fat with mono- and poly-unsaturated fats like olive oil, canola oil, avocados and other plant-based fats.  You have to have some fat in your diet, but a monounsaturated fat like olive oil does not have the same effect on serum cholesterol levels as a saturated fat like butter.  Also make sure you are getting plenty of fiber in your diet (hence the oatmeal recommendation.)

I can't imagine why a cholesterol-reducing diet would have meat in it, since all the fat in meat is saturated.  Google Dr. Dean Ornish and check out his plan for reversing heart disease; it's almost completely vegan for the reasons outlined above.

Some people are just genetically predisposed to high cholesterol and cannot control it with diet and exercise, but it's good that your doctor is trying that route before putting you on medication.

Answer 6

eat food with low fat (NO JUNK FOOD)

Answer 7

soya milk

Answer 8

Beans (legumes) and rice once a day are actually supposed to help lower cholesterol ... also using olive oil.  Almonds are also very good to lower cholesterol, and an excellent source of protein - tofu, fresh veggies & fruit, whole grain products.  Most vegetarian foods are low in cholesterol, since there are no animal fats (duh).  Of course, your high cholesterol could also be due to heredity, in which case no amount of exercising or diet will really help (that's the case with ME - my doctor said no diet changes would help, since I already eat very healthy)

Answer 9

I have to say I'm shocked to hear that someone who is veg has a cholesterol problem. Try a fresh food detox for a week or more if you can. At first, you should maybe only do like two days then take a break. Chances are that if you try to jump right into it for a week, you'll just be setting yourself up for failure. You'll want to sort of "test the water" first. A great book that will help you with these sort of things is "Skinny B**ch". Don't be fooled by the name... this book is actually very informative. It gives you several detoxes and lots of healthy eating advice. For now, you have to stay away from saturated fats! But definitely do a detox..... The fresh food detox would be best for your case since it will clean up all that junk inside and you can eat as much as you want so long as it is fresh. Remember: we can live on potato chips and soda and call ourselves vegan or vegetarian, but we need to eat healthy so that these problems don't occur.

Answer 10

When I was a vegan my cholesterol level was at the very top of the normal range. Like others on here have said, all I thought was "How can my cholesterol be so high when I'm not putting any cholesterol in my body?" The key for me was to exercise and eat low-fat foods. Even when I stopped being vegan and returned to vegetarianism my cholesterol was much better.

I can't recommend highly enough Cooking Light magazine. The vegetarian recipes are great (and almost every issue has at least a handful). I use meat replacers, like Morningstar Farms Steak and Chicken Strips or Quorn Cutlets, in many of the other recipes.

As someone else mentioned, oatmeal is good, too. I have a bowl every weekday morning for breakfast.

Answer 11

Usually, the better it tastes, the more cholesterol it contains. Avoid junk food (ice cream, cake, pizza) and dairy. Remember to get lots of exercise too.

Answer 12

Most vegetarian food in low in cholesterol.  Veggies and fruits don't have it and from looking in my cupboard, neither do cashews and peanuts, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, beans, pasta sauce etc.  

Answer 13

You can lower your cholesterol by eating less fatty and fried foods.Instead get some good fats from primrose/avocado/grape oils and eating seeds,nuts and avocardos  are an especially good source of good fats.

Answer 14

hummus

avocados

beans and rice

raw nuts

Answer 15

Vegan diets are cholesterol-free, since cholesterol is only found in animal products such as meat, eggs, and dairy.

Even if you don't want to go completely vegan, you could work on reducing the amount of eggs and dairy in your diet. Eggs are loaded with cholesterol -- about 213 milligrams for an average-sized egg.

Here are some good vegan (cholesterol-free) sources of protein, iron, and calcium: http://www.tryveg.com/cfi/toc/?v=08sourc...

Good luck!

Answer 16

Hi there, sorry to hear you're having problems.

You're right to stay away from meat, it's loaded with cholesterol as well as being murder.

I'd stay away from hen's eggs, as they contain almost your whole daily allowance of cholesterol. As well as the hens having gone through h**l in the farm.

There are some soya products which are 'proven to lower cholesterol as part of a healthy diet', so perhaps you could try those? They'll usually say on the packet, but I know for sure that Alpro soya is good for this.

Apart from that, I'd recommend staying away from processed foods and those fried or cooked in lots of oil and eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, and do try to exercise.

Also, it's possible to cook pretty much anything without adding oil. Even in the frying pan, I often use just water to kind of sauteé the food.

I hope that helps!

Tim

P.S. Just remembered something, if you lower your salt intake (i.e. try not to eat stuff with added salt and don't put salt on your food) it should help you with your cholesterol. Salt stiffens the arteries and makes them more susceptible to a cholesterol buildup.

Answer 17

Really cut back on, or eliminate eggs and dairy from your diet. Use healthy veggie oils like olive oil. If you have a family history of high cholesterol, your liver may still make more of it then your body needs.

BTW: just wondering, have you tried eliminating MSG from your diet to control migraines?

Answer 18

I am a former chef and diabetic, we have cholesterol issues with our diabetic conditions both type 1 and 2.

I would recommend as low fat diet, with plenty of soy protein, beans like chickpeas for fiber and protein, use a light veg oil like canola, sunflower or soya, watch your portion sizes and if your commited to do this for yourself, see a dietitian, most hospital have one and have them work up a diet plan to help lower the problem, and oatmeal is one good way, I eat if 2-3 times a week and now am a low normal on my HDL and LDL levels