1 in 3 American adults has high cholesterol.
If you have a poor diet, are overweight or are a woman after menopause, you are at higher risk for having high cholesterol.
When you have high cholesterol, you have a significantly greater risk of heart disease.
Let’s look at Cholesterol
HDL (good cholesterol) has great health benefits and high numbers here are good. LDL (bad cholesterol) numbers need to be watched because high numbers are not good.
Cholesterol helps the structure of your cell membranes and is involved in hormone production. However, if you have more LDL than your body needs for those functions it builds up in your arteries and increases your risk for heart disease.
Healthy tip:
Reduce your LDL (bad) cholesterol by 10% and you can give yourself a 20% decrease in heart disease risk.
Naturally Reduce Your LDL Cholesterol
Research has found ingredients in nature that can help you naturally reduce your cholesterol. Plant sterols and stanols are natural compounds found in plants, fruits, vegetables and grains. They are clinically proven through 80+ studies to lower LDL cholesterol.
In order to get the results, the body is fed these plant sterols and stanols from food or supplements. Structurally, they are very close to cholesterol in your body and compete with it for absorption.
What we want is for this process to prevent excess cholesterol from being sent into your bloodstream and your body where it would be absorbed and raise your LDL.
It would be almost impossible to eat this amount of plant sterols and stanols as part of your daily diet. A daily dose is the equivalent of 6.5 cups of soybeans or 50 oranges or 47.5 cucumbers.
To reduce cholesterol, the National Institute of Health (NIH) recommends that people consume 2,000 mg of plant sterols and stanols daily, and eat less saturated fat and cholesterol, exercise, lose weight and eat more soluble fiber.
Specific tips from the NIH:
Your saturated fat intake should be less than 7% of your total calories
If you are overweight, lose at least 10 pounds.
Your dietary cholesterol intake should be less than 200 mg each day.
You will benefit from adding 5 to 10 grams of soluble fiber to your daily diet.
Add 2,000 mg of plant sterols and stanols to your diet each day (naturally reduces cholesterol).
To learn more about reducing cholesterol naturally, visit the document posted at: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=49861917.