If you need some really hard hitters to get a quick head start on getting a high cholesterol level down, here are ten important steps. (More details follow the list.)

For the next two to four weeks:
1. Exercise 30 minutes a day, at least six days a week.
3. Don’t buy prepackaged foods, skip the fast food altogether, and cook all of your meals at home.
2. Cut out ALL hydrogenated oils, trans fat, and saturated fat (except for what naturally occurs in lean meats), and limit red meat to once a week, or not at all. Don’t eat any organ meats (liver, heart, kidney, or gizzard).
3. Eat hot oatmeal for breakfast at least four times a week, and have high-fiber cereal on the other days, as well as an oatmeal cookie (no saturated fat please) for a snack if that cereal didn’t include oats.
4. Eat two or three prunes and an apple every day.
5. Eat salmon at least once a week, and other high omega-3 fish (such as tuna, mackerel, or sardines) two or three times per week.
6. If you must have cheese, no more than one ounce per day, and switch to egg substitutes and low-fat or skim milk.
7. Take an Omega-3 supplement every day.
8. Eat 1.5 ounces of walnuts (no added oil or salt) every day.
9. Use olive oil and garlic to add flavor to foods, and an ounce or two of avocado to make sandwiches moist or add omega-3s to a salad.
10. Switch to whole grain bread and pasta, brown rice, and get two or three servings of beans every week (green beans don’t count). Include kidney beans at least once a week.

After you see some improvement in your numbers, you can start to reintroduce some foods back into your diet, such as an occasional visit to a fast-food restaurant, one or two whole eggs per week, and perhaps vary breakfast a bit more.

Read on for details on the above steps, as well as healthy lifestyle habits that you may want to develop for the rest of your life, no matter what your cholesterol numbers are!

Although the focus of this article is on foods, there are some very important lifestyle changes that will directly impact the speed and effectiveness of lowering cholesterol levels and must be included here:

Exercise 30 to 60 minutes a day. 30 minutes of walking minimum, and don’t be afraid to take one day off a week. Park farther away from the store; take the stairs when you can. Wear a pedometer and get it over 10,000 steps every day, no matter what. A short walk in the evening is a good idea to fill in the extra steps. Take the whole family – it is good for them, too!

Lose weight, stop smoking, and don’t drink alcohol. These are the obvious big hitters when it comes to your overall health, as well as each being linked to cholesterol levels. No room for discussion but definitely worth mentioning.

Now on to my favorite subject: FOOD!

Foods you need to completely cut out of your diet:

Anything hydrogenated! (These are usually healthy oils that have been turned into bad fats.) You’ll need to start reading labels, and the first ones to check out are those in your pantry and fridge. Be sure to check the peanut butter, margarine, mayonnaise, and salad dressings. Replace these with heart healthy oils such as olive, canola, and flaxseed. You may want to learn how to make your own mayonnaise. Stay away from stick margarine, and look for a spread that uses good oils that aren’t hydrogenated. For an extra boost, look for one that has plant stearols added.

High Fructose Corn Syrup! This may have many people wondering what sugar (a non-fat food) has to do with cholesterol. Many studies have proven that the less sugar you eat, the less you crave fats – and vice-versa. Beware of low-fat foods marketed at the restaurant or grocery store; most of them are loaded up with sugar and salt to “make up” for any lost flavor from the missing fat. Cutting out HFCS has other huge health benefits, as well. Did you know that your body has its own “calorie counter”? As you eat, it keeps track and tells you when you are full. (Obesity, smoking, and HFCS intake can short-circuit this internal monitor a bit, so it may take some time to get it functioning properly again once you are on a healthy eating and lifestyle plan.) In addition, High Fructose Corn Syrup has the unique ability to completely bypass this system, so no matter how much of it you eat (or drink), it will never satisfy you. Talk about new meaning to the words “empty calories”! At the very least, cut down soft drinks to no more than 12 ounces a week, and always get 100% juice products. Even better, drink water, eat the whole fruit, and ditch the juice entirely. It is time to check those labels again! Pay close attention to your salad dressings and peanut butter (again), ketchup and other condiments, anything marked as low-fat or fat-free, and even your canned soups, fruit, and vegetables. Warning: This does NOT give you free license to consume artificial sweeteners! These chemicals have dangers all their own, and aren’t very conducive to weight loss, either. (But that is an entirely new discussion.) What I’m saying is, if you have something sweet, be sure it uses real sugar or fruit juice. Agave, stevia, and honey are also excellent natural sugar sources.

Cut down on saturated fat by choosing leaner cuts of meat, and limit red meat to two or three times per week. Limit the amounts of butter, cheese, and whole eggs; switch to lowfat milk and use egg substitutes whenever possible. Don’t eat the skin of poultry items, and limit your fried foods to no more than once a month. (Even less is better.)

Fast Food Warning! Don’t eat out more than once or twice a week – even less often is better for you and your pocketbook. Restaurants know what our bodies like, and that is fat, salt, and sugar. They trigger addictive responses that keep us coming back for more. Decide what your absolute favorite fast food items are, and make them a treat, not a regular feature. Your body can recover from an occasional high-fat or unhealthy meal as long as it isn’t very often. You also may find as you cut out a lot of unhealthy foods from your diet, that your previous fast food favorites may not be as tasty to you as before. They may even make you feel a bit yucky, which really tells you something about how what you eat affects your body, especially when it gets used to eating healthy.

Enough of the bad stuff. Let’s get onto the good stuff! What SHOULD you be eating?

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. At the very least it will make him (and likely your dentist) happier. Apples are chock full of fiber and antioxidants. The skin has most of the fiber, as well as pectin. All of these are good for your body, and very beneficial in helping lower your cholesterol.

Eat salmon at least once a week. Salmon has other great stuff in it, too, besides it’s cholesterol-fighting properties. You should aim for 2 to 3 total servings of fish per week; other body-beneficial fish are mackerel, herring, albacore tuna, and sardines. Fatty fish, high in omega 3 fatty acids, will help raise your HDL (the good or Healthy cholesterol), which is what helps prevent the LDL (the bad or Lousy cholesterol) from sticking to places it shouldn’t. (In many cases the total cholesterol number isn’t as important as the ratio of HDL to LDL. You should get all of these numbers when your doctor checks.)

Walnuts are great, just not too many! Make sure you get good quality nuts that aren’t prepared with oil or salt. Walnuts are the best bet for fighting your cholesterol, but other good ideas are almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, and pistachios. Nuts are high in calories, too; so a small handful per day (about 1 1/2 ounces worth) is plenty to pack a big Omega-3 punch, and provide a good protein and energy source. These are a great snack to have before a workout, or even half-an-hour before a meal; having a small amount of healthy fat will help you eat less, and not crave the fatty foods so much.

Avocados. An excellent source of nutrition and healthy fats. (Have you heard enough about Omega 3 yet?) Like nuts, this is still a high-calorie food, so limit yourself to a couple of ounces per serving. Try using avocado (either sliced or mashed) to moisten up a sandwich instead of mayonnaise!

Olive oil. Replace other oils and butter with olive oil. This is another great source of those Omega 3s!

Oatmeal. Eat oatmeal for breakfast at least four times a week, and have high-fiber cereal on the other days. A low-fat oatmeal cookie once in awhile is a good snack, too. (A great oatmeal cookie recipe coming soon!)

Whole grains. Replace as many white flour foods as you can with whole grains. Switch to whole grain bread, pasta, and brown rice whenever possible. Introduce whole grains gradually; mixing half regular pasta with half whole grain pasta, for example. Your body needs to get used to the additional fiber content!

Prunes. I’m a big fan of these nutritional powerhouses. High in fiber, vitamin A, vitamin B6, potassium, iron, and antioxidants, they are ideal for a healthy lifestyle and are recognized as having a number of health benefits. Two or three as an everyday snack is perfect; don’t overdo it, as they are high in sugar content and are a natural laxative.

These outline healthy habits that you should be incorporating into your everyday lifestyle in order to keep your cholesterol in check and greatly reduce the risks of heart disease.

What are your favorite foods for helping to lower your cholesterol?

I had been trying Dannon Activia yogurt, which has the same Bifidobacterium culture; they just give it the fancy name Bifidus Regularis, which honestly makes me feel the company takes its customers for idiots. Apparently it worked, though; Dannon’s sales of Activia and Danactive soared to three times the expected projections. But I digress; that is the subject of a future review!

Armed with a fistful of coupons, I picked up eight packs of Yo-Plus yogurt at a substantial savings. The flavors are fantastic; Yoplait has always been great on using real fruit and creating tasty combinations. The whole family loves them; we usually eat yogurt every day.

We all started to experience some stomach pain. Even my one-year-old was in distress. We honestly couldn’t figure it out and didn’t attribute it to the yogurt until three days later. We have many food allergies and have learned from experience that it is best to re-read ingredient labels every time you purchase a product, as well as when we get ready to eat it (in case we missed something). What I hadn’t noticed before was the fiber added to the yogurt, called inulin. Our family is on a carefully moderated food plan and we get a good amount of fiber in our diet already. The extra fiber shouldn’t be an issue; but apparently the type of fiber is.

On the package itself it states that inulin wasn’t normally found in yogurt. I’ve recently dug a little bit deeper and found some disturbing facts:

Inulin feeds bad bacteria in your intestinal tract (which are normally inactive and fine) as well as the good bacteria. Depending on what is present in your system, it can cause a lot of problems when you consume too much in a super-refined form!

Inulin is found to cause mild to severe gastrointestinal issues in people depending on the amount consumed.

Inulin is yet another super-refined food substance like high fructose corn syrup. We’ve found that HFCS is linked to all sorts of health problems, as are many other naturally-occurring food substances that have since been refined down to chemical additives. Inulin is naturally found in onions and garlic and is good for you when you get it in whole foods and in reasonable amounts. We get plenty of it every day in our house already!

Yo-Plus could have been a great product had they not tried to boost sales with additives and claims on how this could “naturally boost your digestive health”. I’m sure they were lured in by Dannon’s success; now they are following in their footsteps with their own class-action lawsuit against false advertising. (Dannon has already settled theirs for $35 million, the biggest settlement ever to be made over false advertising of food products.)

I think that companies should quit messing with the food! I eat yogurt because I want milk and good bacteria in my system, and like the taste of fresh fruit added to it. Don’t add a bunch of sweeteners (milk and fruit both are naturally sweet), don’t add artificial flavors (what is wrong with just using the fruit?), and definitely don’t add stuff that supposedly makes up for my supposed diet deficiencies! Don’t add fiber to my yogurt, calcium to my juice, nor artificial sweeteners to my non-diet gum that has REGULAR sugar in it. (Surprise! Take at look at those the next time you’re in the checkout lane!) And, for the love of people who hit the top two allergens in the country, QUIT adding soy products to absolutely everything! (Another thing that you find in all that gum!)

Yogurt IS good for you. It is on the Better Homemaking Network’s Top Foods List (article coming soon). Plain with active cultures is best, of course; if you get fruit flavors, try to avoid artificial sweeteners or flavors and a lot of added sugar. Our family will be going back to making our own yogurt, mixing in fresh fruit purees. We still like regular Yoplait, and Dannon Activia, although it is a bit too sweet. We often mix in some homemade plain yogurt and they taste even better. Greek yogurt is the yummiest way to buy a plain variety, although it is a bit more expensive. It also makes a great starter to make your own!

The bottom line: Enjoy your yogurt, and get your fiber from the real thing; in other words, other healthy choices throughout the day. Fresh vegetables, fruits, and whole grains are all great sources.

I don’t even feel comfortable in giving the rest of this Yo-Plus away. No matter that I got it on the cheap; it burns me to have to waste food regardless of the reason or cost. But the best place for it is in the trash.

ETA:  Yoplait Fiber One yogurt also has inulin added to it.

Sources: Law Firm That Won Dannon Settlement Targets Yoplait

Inulin: Friend or Foe?

Yo-Plus for Digestive Health

I’ve grown, stored, prepared, and eaten squash of various kinds my entire life, so I speak as an humble authority. They happen to be one of my favorite foods.

The standard procedure to make baby food is just to puree cooked food until smooth, adding water if needed. Following are specific tips on how to cook different types of squash.

Winter squash (with hard skins like pumpkin, acorn, and butternut) you don’t eat the seeds or the skin. You cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, then bake them until soft. We like to put them face down in a microwave dish with a couple spoonfuls of water and cook them that way. Or you can put microwave-safe plastic wrap around the tops and microwave them face up.

Butternut is also good in soup! Peel, halve, seed, and cube them, and toss them into the pot!

Spaghetti squash is a winter squash – you don’t eat the skin or the seeds. However, spaghetti squash tends to stay rather firm. You seed and cook them like other winter squash, then scrape the insides with a fork and it comes out like long strands of yellow spaghetti! It is done when it has a little bite to it (think pasta al dente) and is awesome with a little butter or even with your favorite pasta sauce. Very calorie friendly! I can’t imagine it as baby food but I guess you could do it. I’d overcook it a bit and blend the heck out of it, and even then I would wait until baby can handle some texture.

Pumpkin may have to be broken into smaller pieces to fit into the oven to bake. Always good as pumpkin pie, of course. Or you can fix it up like a sweet potato with brown sugar and cinnamon. You really should try eating it as a regular squash, either plain or with a little bit of butter – it is fantastic. (I’d only use fresh for this. Canned pumpkin is nearly always hubbard squash – still good but not the same, and definitely distinguishable without the sugar and spice of pie filling.)

Summer squash (like yellow squash, crookneck, and zucchini / courgettes) where you eat the outside, you can eat the whole thing, seeds too! They are technically a fruit. Cool, huh?

Summer squash is entirely edible. Just cut off the stem and flower ends, cut into pieces, and steam them up until soft. For baby food, first let them cool completely in a sieve so they drain more liquid, then blend or process them (seeds and all) and they turn out great. No need to strain. For our family, we quite often cook a big steamer full of yellow squash, zucchini, and sweet onions to go with dinner.

Here is the yellow squash I pureed and froze for baby food. Aren’t they a beautiful color?

Yellow Squash Baby Food Cubes

Zucchini (also known as courgettes) have to be canned with an acid so normally you find it with tomato sauce. You can grate raw zucchini, freeze, and use it for zucchini bread. I actually buy freeze-dried zucchini to toss in pasta sauces and stews during the winter months. I can’t stand the canned stuff because they put tons of salt in it and I don’t always want tomato sauce with them! So fresh is definitely the way to go. Plant a couple of seeds in the garden – the things are nearly impossible to kill – and you can feed the whole block! My grandpa used to say he wishes he could grow half of a zucchini plant! (You actually need two for pollination, though.) As an example, here are the results of my garden a few years ago: The best onion, the best potato (lol), and the best zucchini:

What are your favorite ways of eating squash?