High cholesterol: Nutritionist reveals top prevention tips
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High cholesterol can be hard to spot due to the lack of symptoms. Building up in your arteries quietly, the condition can lead to heart disease and other severe health problems. The boost in your cholesterol can be often caused by fatty food. Fortunately, healthy food can turn this process around.
An unhealthy diet is one of the main factors contributing to high cholesterol.
Eating too much fatty food can raise your “bad” cholesterol levels, which can lead to health difficulties.
But doing the opposite can help push out this fatty substance out of your body.
The food able to reduce the “bad” cholesterol by six percent is Beneforte broccoli, according to a study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.
During a human-based trial, this broccoli variety was able to lower cholesterol in 12 weeks.
This type of broccoli was bred specifically to contain two to three times more of glucoraphanin.
The research explained: “Glucoraphanin is thought to work by helping our bodies retune cellular metabolism.
“Mitochondria, the energy centres of the cell, convert sugars and fats into energy.
“But if they aren’t working efficiently, or if we overload them with too much fat or sugar, one response is to channel excess into cholesterol.
“Glucoraphanin is converted in the body to sulphoraphane, which turns on specific genes that activate our bodies’ defences against this happening, rebalancing metabolism away from the production of LDL [bad] cholesterol.”
Having looked at 130 participants, the research further confirmed this statement.
The study volunteers ate 400 grams of broccoli per week as a part of their normal diet.
Following this broccoli regime for 12 weeks, the researchers saw a six percent drop in bad cholesterol on average.
The research team shared: “Although the reduction seen in these trials is small, at a population level, a one percent reduction in LDL cholesterol has been associated with a one to two percent reduction in risk of coronary artery disease.”
In case you don’t know, coronary artery disease is one type of heart disease.
If you want to get this green vegetable the next time you’re shopping, you can find it under the name Beneforte.
Another part of broccoli able to target cholesterol is fibre.
Some types of fibre are able to flush out cholesterol from the body.
The cholesterol reduction happens when fibre blocks some of the cholesterol from being absorbed from your intestines into your bloodstream.
Heart UK lists broccoli as a “good option” for lowering high levels too.
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