Little Known Cooking Methods to Help Reduce High Cholesterol Levels

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To eliminate the cholesterol and fat in your diet, follow these tips when you’re cooking.

Several of your best recipes can be made healthier merely by substituting lower-fat ingredients. Look at the list of ingredients on your own recipe. Then consider the table below to view if any of the ingredients are listed in the left column. If that’s so, you can make the recipe a healthier one utilizing the ingredient in the right column instead.

What Am i allowed to Substitute?

- Rather than: Whole eggs, egg yolks – Use: Egg-whites or ¼ cup egg substitute
- In place of: Butter – Use: Liquid or tub margarine, unsaturated vegetable oils, butter-flavored granules, spices and herbs to flavor food
- Instead of: Mayonnaise – Use: Nonfat yogurt, mustard, low-fat or nonfat mayonnaise
- As an alternative to: Regular yogurt, sour cream – Use: Nonfat yogurt, nonfat sour cream
- Rather than: Potato chips – Use: Pretzels, low-fat or baked chips
- As an alternative to: Whole or 2% milk – Use: Skim or 1% milk
- Instead of: Whole-milk ice cream – Use: Ice milk, low-fat frozen yogurt, low-fat or nonfat ice cream, sorbet
- As an alternative to: Whole-milk cheese – Use: Reduced-fat, low-fat, or nonfat cheese
- As an alternative to: Whole-milk sour cream – Use: Nonfat or low-fat sour cream or yogurt
- Instead of: Coconut oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil – Use: Unsaturated oils, like safflower, sunflower, canola, and olive oil
- Rather than: Regular salad dressings – Use: Low-fat or nonfat salad dressings, vinegars

Use less fat in recipes. In case a recipe needs 1 cup of butter, use ½ cup butter and replace the other half with 1/4 cup of prune puree. You may make prune puree by pureeing 1 1/3 cups of pitted prunes and 6 tablespoons of warm water in a blender or food processor. This makes one cup of puree. For baked goods, it is possible to replace 1 cup of butter, oil, margarine, or shortening with 1 cup of applesauce and still have a moist, great-tasting item without all the fat and calories.

Follow these guidelines for the healthiest cooking methods.
- Bake, broil, roast, steam, microwave, poach, grill or stir-fry with just a little oil.
- Use nonstick pans.
- Spray a light coating of vegetable oil in preference to liquid oil or butter, or cook with defatted broth, bouillon, fruit juices, or wine.
- Thicken sauces and soups with skim or 1% milk and a little flour or cornstarch instead of whole-milk products.

More than once each week, substitute nonanimal protein sources, such as tofu, beans, peas, or lentils, in preference to animal protein. This could take some getting used to if you are a so-called meat-and-potatoes guy. If this sounds new for you, evaluate some vegetarian cookbooks or magazines to get ideas for preparation methods and spices.

Make gradual changes. As time passes, you’ll get used to your new meals, plus your tastes will change. Adding more vegetables can also raise your dietary fiber, and that helps reduce your LDL – or bad – cholesterol.

Soluble fiber can be found in all of the following:
- oats
- oranges
- pears
- Brussels sprouts
- carrots
- dried peas and beans

You may choose healthy food and after that without realizing it add unhealthy ingredients if you aren’t wise about how you add flavor. Use herbs instead of butter or margarine. Or make use of a little unsaturated vegetable oil. Many cookbooks have lists of herbs that bring out the taste of foods. Try some. You’re apt to discover some new flavors that you like. Try basil on zucchini, in particular. Or use lemon pepper on broccoli.

The term homemade usually makes food sound better. And, not surprisingly perhaps, many times, it is more enjoyable too. The true secret is that it’s usually healthier for you. Use fewer prepackaged foods. Prepackaged sauces and mixes and instant products, like instant rice and pasta meals and instant cereals, often contain fat. It might appear less convenient in the beginning, but try recipes for rice dishes from low-fat cookbooks or magazines.

Soon you will have a few recipes memorized. This will make it simple for you to make dishes in fresher, healthier ways making use of your own mix of spices. You can also be very impressed at how little time other homemade dishes that don’t rely on a package really take.

In case you cannot bring your LDL – the bad cholesterol – down to a proper level by reducing the volume of fat and cholesterol you consume, try this. Add food products just like margarines and salad dressings that reduce cholesterol levels.

About me – Georgia Rascon writes recipes to help lower cholesterol on her personal hobby weblog dedicated to guidelines to eat healthy to avoid high cholesterol.

Author’s note: The info provided on this document are created to guide, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her doctor. Georgia Rascon hasn’t business intent and does not accept direct source of promotion coming from health or pharmaceutical businesses, doctors or clinics and websites. All content supplied by her is based on her editorial judgment and it is not driven by an advertising purpose.