I wanted to offer you this useful information ,on eating foods that reduce your cholesterol, as I introduce you to Blisstree, a new source of media that speaks to women in their 30s and 40s whose priorities include optimal wellness and overall balance in life among health, work, family, home, and relationships. They have been so kind as to offer us the ability to bring some of their information to you here at Totally Zen. This article was contributed by nutritionist Lauren Slayton of Foodtrainers!

Please, do yourself a favor and learn to like and incorporate these foods into your regular diet. A regular dose of these foods will help your cholesterol, blood pressure, heart and possibly even prevent diabetes.

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 antioxidant that seems to short-circuit the process that leads “bad” 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 “bad” 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 — enough to lower your cholesterol.

8. Salmon: The major health components in salmon include: Omega-3 fatty-acids 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 a day may reduce LDL cholesterol by 12%.

via Dietmotion

When we change what we eat, everything changes. Everything. Food literally becomes our blood, cells, tissues, organs and muscles. But it also becomes our thoughts and emotions. That’s simply the science of food. It affects every process in our body, physically, mentally and emotionally. Is that crazy? Or does it seem to make perfect sense? Stay with me then. Follow this…

If the food we eat literally becomes a part of us, wouldn’t that make the idea of “you are what you eat” quite real? When we begin to grasp this notion and put conscious effort and thought into the process of choosing our foods, we start to realize that we really are what we eat! So what does this mean?

It can be broken down into simple concepts like: buying local and organic products to avoid putting harmful toxins into our bodies, to support not only the environment as a whole but also our personal environments (our bodies!), and to fuel our bodies with the highest quality of food possible. Given half the chance, our bodies will take care of themselves. But we need to give it that chance, starting with the very thing we do at least three times a day – eating! Most of us would not knowingly ingest the chemicals that are now abundant in our food chain – things like methanol, a well-know neurotoxin. But we do, everyday. Reading labels and buying organic can help to start the process of “cleaning up” your diet.

Maybe you can begin to explore more complex ideas like the cross-species transference which hypothesizes that cruelty to animals, during the course of their lifetime or at time of their death, can be transferred over to whichever species chooses to (or unbeknownst to them) eat them – a simple transfer of negative energy. Crazy? I think not. We all certainly have experienced this transfer of energy before – from someone that gave you a “bad vibe” or someone that is so visually broken down and depressed that your own mood begins to change when you are around them (they bring you down).

You can start with a simple idea that works for me – when you eat better, you will begin to feel better. When you feel better, you begin to live better. This makes sense, right? So take a step back (or should we say forward) next time you are at the grocery store or out to dinner and think about what food is going to make you feel better, on all different types of levels: think about where your food came from, how it has been processed, how close is it to its natural state and even think about how it has been treated. This is not a revolutionary idea, but it is evolutionary. It will help decide how we move forward in our existence. Think of where we have come in the last 75 years alone – cancer, obesity, diabetes and diseases of all types are reaching epidemic proportions. I believe it is no coincidence at all that our diets have evolved more drastically in those last 75 years than they have in our entire existence! Can you see a connection? I can.

So just think about it – food, that is. I guarantee you it will change your life. Guarantee.

More Alive Health & Wellness Consulting Eat Better, Feel Better, Live Better…Today! 215-834-5618 www.mauramanzo.com