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Lowering your cholesterol is the most important step you can take in reducing your risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Eating healthy foods and lowering cholesterol levels take deliberate effort on your part, but are the best way to reduce high cholesterol. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

Tip #1: Choose foods that are rich with vegetables, fruit, and whole grains. Get in the habit of shopping the perimeter of the grocery store where all the fresh foods are found, rather than in the aisles where processed foods are located. Oatmeal and blueberries are a winning combination for lowering cholesterol, so try them together.

Tip #2: Eat fish, especially salmon, shellfish, and nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and flaxseed).

Tip #3: Incorporate fresh garlic into your diet. You can now buy the odor-fresh garlic tablets, but fresh is always better.

Tip #4: Make sure you are getting enough potassium and calcium. Include low fat or non-fat dairy products to ensure that you are receiving enough calcium, especially yogurt.

Tip #5: Soy protein. Tofu, soy beverages, and tempeh are all good sources soy protein and are a healthy alternative to red meat.

Tip #6: Vitamin E. Avocados, wheat germ, leafy green vegetables, nuts and vegetables are all good sources.

Tip #7: Vitamin B12, B6, and folic acid. These are useful in reducing homocysteine levels which keep the arteries clear of plaque and lower cholesterol.

Tip #8: Red yeast rice. Did you realize that most statin drugs to lower cholesterol, like Pravachol, contain red yeast rice? Some people have lowered their cholesterol as much as 30-60 points in less than six months by using 600 mg of red yeast rice with 30 mg of CoQ10 with milk thistle and alpha lipoic acid.

Tip #9: Other healthy foods to decrease cholesterol include: olives, olive oil, flaxseed oil, 100 percent cranberry-grape juice, pomegranate juice, black soybeans, and fish oil.

Tip #10: One of the best ways to lower cholesterol and increase HDL levels is to exercise daily. Working up to thirty minutes a day is best, whether it's a walk around the block, climbing stairs, or working out at the gym.

One in every five deaths in America is due to heart disease. Lowering cholesterol is the first step in preventing heart disease. Arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis begin with plaque build-up around the arteries. Taking steps to reduce your cholesterol will help you to live a heart healthy life.

Learn more about this author, C. Kay Rowley.
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