If you’ve been working at lowering your cholesterol and improving your heart health, you’re probably tired of hearing about all the things that you CANNOT eat or CANNOT do.

No trans fats, no saturated fat, no eggs, no salt, no butter, no this and no that.

Then give it a few years and the things that you were denying yourself are proven to have no negative effects on cholesterol at all.

Eggs for example were “no-no” foods for decades but are now considered no problem for those with high cholesterol.

That’s why in today’s feature article I’m going to tell you about 10 yummy foods that are proven to lower bad cholesterol and boost good.

1) Berries:

All berries include great amounts of antioxidants and other ingredients that improve cholesterol and heart health.

Blueberries are the kings and queens of all berries. They’ve been proven to improve every health issue from diabetes to Alzheimer’s.

A handful a day keeps the doctor away.

Strawberries have also been shown to include many cholesterol improving ingredients. One benefit strawberries have over other berries is their high fiber content.

Any type of berry is beneficial so vary it up to never get tired of berries.

2) Chocolate

Here’s some sweet news for anyone who suffers any type of cardiovascular disease, including of course high cholesterol.

You thought your days of enjoying good deserts were over? Think again.

A study from San Diego State University revealed that eating 50 grams of dark chocolate every day drastically and quickly dropped bad cholesterol.

The key is really the cocoa in the chocolate. So make sure your chocolate is at least 70%. Or you can get the same benefit from a sweet cocoa drink.

3) Root Crops

Okay maybe not as sweet tasting but still yummy.

A new study conducted by the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute revealed that all kinds of root crops have been found to lower cholesterol.

Cassava (sometimes known as yucca) and sweet potatoes were found most effective but the high fiber content of any type of root crop blasts your cholesterol in the right direction.

Now you might be wondering about the high starch content of many root crops such as potatoes. You see, the fiber counteracts the starch and slows down how long it takes to get into the blood stream.

Starch is also in essence pure glucose, which can fuel every cell in your body. So it’s healthy and necessary. This is the opposite of fructose (50% of all sugars and HFCS), which can only be processed in the liver and is then transferred directly into body fat.

So starch is good, especially when loaded with fiber as in root crops.

4) Go for Nuts

Although nuts were for a long time considered nothing more than junk food, repeated studies have proven extreme health benefits from eating nuts in moderation.

Since 2003 the FDA has given several types of producers permission to include a statement on their packaging: “Eating a diet that includes one ounce of nuts daily can reduce your risk of heart disease.”

Walnuts are for example high in Omega 3 fatty acids and other beneficial ingredients. A study published in Diabetes Care revealed that type 2 diabetes patients who included a handful of walnuts in their diet lowered their bad cholesterol level by 10%.

[adrotate group=”5″]Another study published in the journal Circulation revealed that people who added two handfuls of almonds into their diet lowered their Cholesterol level by 9.4%.

Don’t be scared of the high calorie level of nuts. The old “calories in, calories out” myth doesn’t apply in this case. Many studies have shown that adding a handful or two of nuts (including peanuts) does not cause an increase in body weight.

5) Cup of Coffee

More good news for gourmet lovers! A study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition reveals that coffee drinkers had a lower risk of stroke and heart attack.

The antioxidant effects of coffee beans have also been shown to improve cholesterol and other health problems. This is true for both caffeine and decaffeinated coffee.

Make sure though that you drink a high quality coffee or take green coffee bean supplements.

And don’t go overboard. The caffeine in coffee will create other health problems if consumed in high doses. Some of these negative effects include insomnia and possible emotional stress.

6) Drink Tea

Another great drink to improve your health.

Green tea has long been endorsed for its various health benefits. A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association for example showed that a daily cup of green tea helped lower bad cholesterol and improve good.

But green tea is not the only tea with health benefits. Almost all types of teas are good for you. Black tea for example has been shown to improve cholesterol and lower blood pressure.

Adding sugar and milk to the tea will not reduce the effects of the tea itself. Excess consumption of sugar and diary products may however of course cause various health issues.

7) Tastes Like Chicken

According to research conducted by NYU Langone Medical Center scientists, large quantities of the amino acid “taurine” helps shield the cardiovascular system from cholesterol related damage.

The study revealed that women with high cholesterol but also high taurine levels had 60% less risk of developing a heart attack and stroke. Taurine also seems to protect against high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

And where is taurine found? Mostly in poultry.

A word of caution though before you run out and buy chicken for dinner. Most kinds of poultry sold in supermarkets contain high doses of antibiotics, making it susceptible to all kinds of diseases due to the resistance built up in this sort of environment. If you have the opportunity to do so, go for free range organic poultry you should.

8 ) Eat it Raw

Now let’s review a little contradiction.

A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that people who adopted a raw food diet drastically improved many health factors including cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Researchers commented that the main reason may be that “raw eaters” consumed more fruits and vegetables.

Another reason may be because raw foods include almost no processing. There are no added chemicals. It’s also not cooked; so many healthy microbes that are killed in other types of diets are consumed in the raw food diet.

Any diet that avoids processed food has been shown to improve overall health. For example, the so called “cave man diet” which is high in meat consumption has been shown to improve cholesterol, blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

Repeated studies however have proven the healthiest type of diet to be a raw-vegan diet. People following this type of diet have healthier cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels. It also protects you from many types of cancer.

The risk of any type of vegetarian diet is being deprived of vitamin B12, zinc and iron. So I recommend supplementing these.

9) A Couple of Vitamins

A specific type of vitamin B, vitamin B3 or niacin has been proven to be a key ingredient toward improving cholesterol.

Not only does niacin help boost good cholesterol, it also helps clear out bad cholesterol.

It’s so important that I recommend supplementing with it. However, there are also plenty of animal and vegetarian sources of niacin.

Animal products: liver, heart and kidney, whale meat including Meke Whale, chicken: chicken breast, beef, fish: tuna, salmon and halibut, eggs.
Vegetarian sources: avocados, dates, tomatoes, leafy vegetables, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, asparagus, nuts, whole grain products, legumes, saltbush seeds, mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, brewer’s yeast, tofu and soy sauce

Another key vitamin that the modern man and woman is deprived of is vitamin D. Repeated studies are linking vitamin D deprivation to almost all modern diseases. That includes cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, arthritis and others.

The good news is that 15 minutes of 25% exposure to the sun per day is enough for most people to get enough vitamin D.

Another option is to supplement with fish oil and other vitamin D ingredients. This type of supplementation is of lesser quality vitamin D but you do get an extra boost of Omega 3 fatty acids, which is good.

10) Omega 3 Fatty Acids

No list of cholesterol lowering food is complete without including Omega 3 fatty acids. So even if I’ve mentioned it before on this page, I’m going to drive the Omega 3 spear in deeper.

It’s actually not that Omega 3 is so healthy in and of itself. The main thing is that we need to have a balance of several types of Omega fats. Since the modern day diet is so high in other types of Omega fats, anything that increases Omega 3 fat is beneficial.

Increasing the consumption of Omega 3 fat has been proven in hundreds of studies to fight inflammation and increase antioxidants more than possibly any other ingredient.

The best sources of Omega 3 come from various fatty fishes such as salmon, trout, herring, swordfish, cod, blue fish and mackerel. Flax seed and flax seed oil are the best known vegetarian sources of Omega 3. Many nuts however are also high in Omega three such as walnuts, pecans and pine nuts.

Final Notes

There are of course many other things you can do to improve your cholesterol and overall cardiovascular health. Light exercise and moving around during the day is essential.

Lowering blood pressure is probably even more important than improving cholesterol. The best method I know to lower blood pressure is Christian Goodman’s simple blood pressure exercises. I’ve witnessed people drop their blood pressure down to normal in as little as 9 minutes using these exercises (no kidding).

You can learn more about the simple blood pressure exercises here…

To improve your cardiovascular health and first and foremost drastically improve your cholesterol level, check out the step-by-step method I used to improve my cholesterol level in less than 30 days…

You can learn more about the cholesterol plan here…

But first, before doing anything else, please leave your comments below.