Top Snacks to Help Maintain Cholesterol Levels

Top Snacks to Help Maintain Cholesterol Levels

The food that you eat can definitely help you lower your cholesterol levels. LDL is the dangerous cholesterol carrying particle that contributes to the clogging of your arteries. In order to avoid this from happening, one should maintain a low cholesterol diet. Scroll down to take a look at some of the snacks that you can eat which will help lower your cholesterol levels:

  • Barley and other whole grains: Whole grains have a lot of soluble fiber in them and this can thus help lower your cholesterol levels. They also make a good and filling snack.
  • Oats: Although most of us eat oatmeal for breakfast, it can be had as a snack as well. Oatmeal is also loaded with soluble fiber that works on lowering your cholesterol levels.
  • Beans: Beans make a great snack that can help lower your cholesterol because of the amount of soluble fiber that it contains. Beans also help you get full faster and stay full longer. Beans are very versatile snacks as there are so many varieties to choose from like kidney beans, garbanzo beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas and so on.
  • Nuts: Consuming almonds, walnuts, peanuts and other nuts is not just good for your heart but it can also help reduce your cholesterol levels by at least 5%. But you do need to bear in mind that you cannot indulge yourself and you need to stick to eating just 2 ounces of nuts per day.
  • Apples, strawberries, grapes and citrus fruits: Pectin is a type of soluble fiber which these fruits are rich in. Eating these fruits on a daily basis as a snack can help to lower your LDL cholesterol.
  • Avocados: Avocados contain abundant amounts of monounsaturated fats and fiber, which are the two nutrients that can help reduce LDL cholesterol and increase HDL cholesterol. Clinical studies have showed that the consumption of avocados can definitely help in lowering cholesterol levels in a person who has high cholesterol.
  • Dark Chocolate: This is definitely good news if you are a chocolate lover but are struggling with high cholesterol levels. As we all know cocoa is the main ingredient in dark chocolate. Although it does seem too good to be true, dark chocolate and cocoa do have the ability to help lower cholesterol levels. They also protect the bad cholesterol which is the LDL cholesterol that is in your blood from oxidation, thereby helping to reduce the risk of heart diseases as well. So having an in between snack of dark chocolate is a definite yes, even if you are someone whose cholesterol is on the higher side.
  • Vegetables: Some vegetables are especially high in pectin which is high in cholesterol lowering soluble fiber. These vegetables include potatoes, carrots, eggplant and okra. Having one of these vegetable as a snack is a good thing as it can help you fight in lowering your cholesterol levels.

Thus even if you are a person struggling with high cholesterol, there are some good snacking habits that you can follow which will actually work out to your advantage by helping you lower your high cholesterol levels.