Over the years, we have come to learn just how important a part cholesterol plays in our overall health. Because of this overwhelming importance, we have chosen to put together a list of our TOP TEN Cholesterol lowering foods that can easily be added to anyone’s weekly diet meal plan. Put this list to use starting today!

1. Apples: Apple pectin is a soluble fiber that helps draw cholesterol out of the system. The flavonoids (Quercetin) in apples act as a powerful anti-oxidant that seems to short-circuit the process that leads abada LDL cholesterol to accumulate in the bloodstream.
2. Beans: Beans and vegetables are an excellent source of soluble fiber and high in vegetable protein. By properly combing beans with brown rice, seeds, corn, wheat you can create a complete protein. Properly combined beans become an excellent substitute for red meat protein that is high in saturated fat.
3. Brown Rice: The oil in whole brown rice, not its fiber, lowers cholesterol. Brown rice can be combined with beans to form an inexpensive complete protein low in saturated fat. In addition, this whole grain also supplies good doses of heart-healthy fiber, magnesium and B vitamins.
4. Cinnamon: A study published in the journal Diabetes Care found that half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day significantly reduces blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes. It also reduces triglyceride, LDL, the bad cholesterol and the total cholesterol level.
5. Garlic: Garlic contains the chemical allicin, which has been shown to kill bacteria and fungi, and alleviate certain digestive disorders. It also lowers the blood clotting properties of blood. But the most notable attention garlic has received over recent years is its possible usefulness in lowering cholesterol levels.
6. Grapes: Flavonoids in grapes protect LDL cholesterol from free radical damage and reduce platelet clumping. The LDL lowering effect of grapes comes from a compound that grapes produce normally to resist mold. The darker the grape, the better.
7. Oats: Oatmeal contains soluble fiber, which reduces your low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the abada cholesterol. Five to 10 grams of soluble fiber a day decreases LDL cholesterol by about 5 percent. Eating 1.5 cups of cooked oatmeal provides 4.5 grams of fiber a” enough to lower your cholesterol.
8. Salmon: The major health components in salmon include: Omega 3 fatty-acid and protein. These components have a favorable cardiovascular effect. The American Heart Association recommends that people include at least two servings of fish/week, particularly fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, anchovies and herring), in their diets.
9. Soy: The top health promoting components in soybeans are isoflavones and soluble fiber. Isoflavones act like human hormone that can lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol. All soy products (soybeans, soy nuts, tofu, tempeh, soy milk, etc.) are complete proteins.
10. Walnuts: Walnuts can significantly reduce blood cholesterol because they are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Walnuts also help keep blood vessels healthy and elastic. Almonds appear to have a similar effect, resulting in a marked improvement within just four weeks. A cholesterol-lowering diet with a little less than 1/3 of a cup of walnuts/day may reduce LDL cholesterol by 12 percent.

By now, everyone should know the importance of physical fitness and fitness training programs, but not very many of us recognize the true value of healthy meal plans as well. Irrelevant of the types of fitness training you use, be sure you have a balanced healthy diet to go with it.

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Fatty Acid Pathways

Fatty acids exist in the body primarily as triglycerides and phospholipids. Phospholipids make up the bilipid membrane of cells and the membranes of organelles within the cytoplasm. Fatty acids are split from the triglyceride glycerol backbone and broken down into carbon fragments which are then oxidized to provide energy. Usually, just the 16 carbon fatty acids or shorter are metabolized in this fashion.

Fatty acids 16 carbons and longer from the omega-3 and -6 families can undergo the formation of double bonds and chain lengthening to create compounds called eicosanoids. These substances are autacoids, evanescent compounds which exert their effects locally in the microenvironment of the tissues where they are generated.1 Eicosanoids are cyclic oxygenated derivatives of fatty acids consisting of prostaglandins, leukotrienes, thromboxanes, prostacyclines, and lipoxins which are the moderators of life processes at the microcellular and tissue level (Fig. 14). They are intermediate between biochemicals and hormones. Their presence in extremely small nano and pico molar amounts exerts effects which are more powerful by many fold than various potent organ level hormones.

[ Functions Of Eicosanoids Image ]

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Eicosanoids are regulatory, turning various life processes on and off. For example, eicosanoids can stimulate the clotting mechanism when blood vessels are injured, but they can also stop the clotting mechanism so it does not proceed to the point where circulation other than at the local site of injury is impaired.

Eicosanoids must exist in precise balances for life to continue without the presence of disease. Since the various eicosanoids are produced from dietary fatty acids, modifying the diet can shift eicosanoid balances. Overconsumption of one kind of fatty acid may overproduce one kind of eicosanoid. Its effect will then become predominant and not be properly balanced by its antagonistic eicosanoid and thus disease may result. For example, the overconsumption of omega-6 fatty acids can create eicosanoids which promote inflammation. If these fatty acids are consumed in excess at the expense of a balancing amount of omega-3 fatty acids, inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and allergic conditions may result. Balance is the essence of life.
The various metabolic pathways leading to the production of eicosanoids are complex. The pathways begin with the types of fatty acids in the diet. These in turn are converted by enzyme systems into progressively longer and more unsaturated fatty acids until they reach their eicosanoid destination. Figures 15 and 16 outline these synthetic pathways.

Desaturase and elongase enzymes responsible for these conversions vary in functionality from species to species, within the same species, and even within the same individual under differing circumstances. Additionally, it is believed, these enzyme systems can be affected adversely by various toxins and disease states. Thus not only diet, but environmental and genetic factors can influence eicosanoid balances.

In animal species, sufficient enzyme systems do not exist to permit formation of unsaturated bonds in the omega-3 and the omega-6 positions. Therefore, as discussed previously,

[ Fatty Acid Modification Image ]

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[ Eicosanoid Pathways Image ]

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omega-3 and -6 fatty acids are essential dietary constituents. Plant chloroplasts, on the other hand, have the enzyme systems necessary to form these omega-3 and -6 fatty acids and thus plant food sources become the ultimate source of these essential fatty acids for animals. This means even if an animal is a carnivore, it is consuming prey which in turn has consumed plant material containing these essential fatty acids. Such is the case for fish which concentrate high levels of omega-3 coming up to them through the food chain from phytoplankton.

A natural diet consisting of fresh, raw foods provides an entirely different spectrum of fatty acids than does the modern fare of fractionated, processed, stored, and otherwise altered foods. In a natural diet a wide range of fatty acids will be supplied in their biologically protected and active form. Fatty acids of the omega-3, -6 and -9 families will all be present in the ratios in which life was originally adapted to utilize them. Under these circumstances, eicosanoids are more likely to be properly in balance.

In the modem diet, however, it is possible to receive virtually no omega-3 fatty acids, extremely high levels of saturated fatty acids, oxidized cholesterol, trans-fatty acids and other isomers, and large proportions of omega-6 fatty acids as well as various oxidized forms of these fatty acids which result inevitably from processing. Such conditions imbalance eicosanoids by providing improper starting materials for eicosanoid synthesis and by introducing toxic elements which interfere with enzymatic pathways.

Proper nutrition should therefore be directed toward restoring the natural, unaltered diet and the elimination, as much as possible, of foods comprised of lipids in inappropriate ratios and altered from their natural forms.

References available within book text, click the following link to view this article on wysong.net:

http://www.wysong.net/articles/lipid/05_article_lipid_chapter_five_fatty_acid_pathways.shtml

For further reading, or for more information about, Dr Wysong and the Wysong Corporation please visit www.wysong.net or write to wysong@wysong.net. For resources on healthier foods for people including snacks, and breakfast cereals please visit www.cerealwysong.com.

* Promote and support cardiovascular health.
* Balance triglyceride and bad LDL cholesterol levels.
* Increase good HDL cholesterol.
* Normalize blood pressure levels.
* Strengthen heart function.
* Regulate the heartbeat.
* Destroy cell-damaging free radicals.
* Reduce blood “stickiness.”
* Promote healthy liver function.
* Keep blood flowing smoothly and freely.

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