Cereal Muffin
The trouble with most cholesterol-lowering diets, comments Postgraduate Medicine is that they involves far too many don'ts and only a few do's.
Most of us find it difficult to reduce our intake of animal fats by significant amounts. Another problem we have is that, by increasing our intake of roughage (dietary fiber), we can only lower the blood cholesterol by about 10 percent. When the blood cholesterol level is dangerously high, of course, one has to take a cholesterol-lowering drug, and a few unlucky people need to do so all the time. But what should the average person wishing to lower the blood cholesterol do without resorting to medication?
Most of us find it difficult to reduce our intake of animal fats by significant amounts. Another problem we have is that, by increasing our intake of roughage (dietary fiber), we can only lower the blood cholesterol by about 10 percent. When the blood cholesterol level is dangerously high, of course, one has to take a cholesterol-lowering drug, and a few unlucky people need to do so all the time. But what should the average person wishing to lower the blood cholesterol do without resorting to medication?
The answer may well be that we should eat some whole oat bran regularly every day. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, if we take about three and a half ounces of oat bran every day in the form of cereal and/or muffins (items sold in most supermarkets), most of us can easily bring the blood cholesterol level down by about 20 percent. This regimen should not be difficult to follow and is likely to be yet more effective if animal fats are also restricted, thereby in many cases making medicines for lowering cholesterol unnecessary. Cholesterol-lowering drugs, incidentally, tend to be expensive and to cause side effects.
Oat bran contains a vegetable fiber that is water soluble and bring down cholesterol blood levels in several ways. First, it stimulates the liver to include more acid (produced by tearing down cholesterol) in the bowel juice that it secretes into the intestines. Second, oat fiber is broken down in the intestine into chemical fragments that, after being absorbed, inhibit cholesterol production by the tissues (cholesterol comes not only from our food but is also made by our own tissues).
According to Postgraduate Medicine, a carefully controlled study at the University of California whole wheat flour, and a mixture of wheat and oat bran. Only oat bran brought about a significant drop in cholesterol and triglycerides. Interestingly, the amount of oat bran used in the study was only two rounded tablespoonfuls every day. No side effects were reported.
One wonder, though, whether some side effects would have been encountered if a larger amount of oat bran had been taken. Some people, as many as 15 percent in one survey, state that they are unable to take oat bran because it causes so much bloating and diarrhea. Possibly these people have been taking too much bran. They might well experience no bloating and diarrhea and derive just as much benefit, so far as cholesterol is concerned, if they were to take merely two rounded tablespoonfuls a day. Most good things are spoiled if takes in excess.
Oat bran reduces blood levels of cholesterol even in diabetics, who otherwise have trouble in keeping their cholesterol down at reasonable levels and are unusually prone to have cholesterol deposits in their arteries, with complications such as heart attack and stroke.
An oat bran hot cereal product is in the market and now available in many groceries health food stores. With oat bran and salmon oil, we have two safe and very effective non-drug natural foodstuffs that can be used to control cholesterol.
Oat bran contains a vegetable fiber that is water soluble and bring down cholesterol blood levels in several ways. First, it stimulates the liver to include more acid (produced by tearing down cholesterol) in the bowel juice that it secretes into the intestines. Second, oat fiber is broken down in the intestine into chemical fragments that, after being absorbed, inhibit cholesterol production by the tissues (cholesterol comes not only from our food but is also made by our own tissues).
According to Postgraduate Medicine, a carefully controlled study at the University of California whole wheat flour, and a mixture of wheat and oat bran. Only oat bran brought about a significant drop in cholesterol and triglycerides. Interestingly, the amount of oat bran used in the study was only two rounded tablespoonfuls every day. No side effects were reported.
One wonder, though, whether some side effects would have been encountered if a larger amount of oat bran had been taken. Some people, as many as 15 percent in one survey, state that they are unable to take oat bran because it causes so much bloating and diarrhea. Possibly these people have been taking too much bran. They might well experience no bloating and diarrhea and derive just as much benefit, so far as cholesterol is concerned, if they were to take merely two rounded tablespoonfuls a day. Most good things are spoiled if takes in excess.
Oat bran reduces blood levels of cholesterol even in diabetics, who otherwise have trouble in keeping their cholesterol down at reasonable levels and are unusually prone to have cholesterol deposits in their arteries, with complications such as heart attack and stroke.
An oat bran hot cereal product is in the market and now available in many groceries health food stores. With oat bran and salmon oil, we have two safe and very effective non-drug natural foodstuffs that can be used to control cholesterol.
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