Eat Heart Healthy Foods
I spent the past month working in a family medicine clinic. Over and over, I noticed that many patients suffered from high cholesterol. One physician shared with me the story of a patient who had found a medication to treat her cholesterol. The patient's insurance dropped the medication from the formulary, and the physician had been working with him or her to find another medication to bring his or her cholesterol under control again. After several tries, the patient was about ready to go back to the med that worked, even though it cost an extra $100/month.

Eat Heart Healthy Foods

Cholesterol can be controlled by diet and exercise. I hate that insurance companies and big pharma have the influence they do. If I can do anything to keep money out of their pockets (while making myself healthier simultaneously), I want to do it.

FAQ

Do I need cholesterol? Yes, you do. However, your liver makes as much as you need, and you don't need EXTRA cholesterol from your diet.

What foods contain cholesterol? Cholesterol is *only* found in animal products. No plant products contain cholesterol. Within animal products, there is cholesterol in both high- and low-fat foods. For example, liver is low in fat but high in cholesterol (since it manufactures cholesterol).

How much cholesterol should I eat per day? Keep in mind that your body makes enough on its own so you don't need any. But you can eat up to 300mg of cholesterol per day. A three ounce piece of meat, fish, or poultry has 60 to 90 mg of cholesterol; one egg yolk contains about 270 mg; and a three ounce serving of liver has about 390 mg of cholesterol.

Are sex and age linked to cholesterol levels? Yes. Cholesterol levels rise in men and women starting around age 20. Prior to menopause, women's cholesterol levels are lower than mens (comparing men and women of the same age). After menopause, women's cholesterol tends to increase to a level higher than that of a man.

I'm a vegan - am I off the hook from worrying about this? That'd be nice, wouldn't it? It's true vegans do not need to worry about cholesterol from their diets. However, for a healthy heart you should also pay attention to what types of fats you eat. First of all, stay away from anything marked "partially hydrogenated" (trans-fat). Labels are beginning to alert you to trans-fat content, and New York City recently embarked on an effort to remove transfat from restaurant food in the city. Second, even though saturated fat is mostly found in animal products, be aware of coconut oil, palm kernal oil, and palm oil as all three are also high in saturated fat. Try to use polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat in your diet instead. Polyunsaturated fats are found in safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean, and cottonseed oils; nuts; seeds; and in fatty fish. Major vegetable oil sources of monounsaturated fats are primarily olive and canola oil.

Easy Substitutions

If the recipe calls for...	Substitute it with...
Eggs	Egg whites, silken tofu, bananas, store-bought egg replacer, or ground flax
Heavy cream, whole milk, half and half, or 2%	Soy milk, rice milk, skim milk, or 1% milk
Cream in cream-based soups	You can thicken soups to replace cream in one of two ways, or both. First, use a bit of extra virgin olive oil with 2 tbsp of flour to the pot when you start cooking. Make sure you do a good job mixing them together. Make the base of the soup out of lowfat milk or vegetable broth and lowfat or soy milk. After you bring the soup to a boil, it will thicken up. Second, I like to add veggies like potatoes, fennel, onions, and celery into the soup at the beginning. Then I add chicken broth and sometimes tomatoes with the juices. Blend the soup together and add a splash of lowfat milk or soymilk at the end, and you'll never miss the heavy cream.
Butter	Earth balance or extra virgin olive oil. If you are cooking anything in a saucepan, even if you still do use some butter, reduce the amount and add some extra virgin olive oil. This will not only reduce cholesterol, but it will also raise the temperature that your cooking can withstand without burning.
Cheese	As a Wisconsinite, I can appreciate cheese. However, often it can be skipped altogether (I can skip it on a sandwich or in a taco, but I still think I need it on a pizza). Yes, there are vegan cheeses but I'm not crazy about any I've tried (is it an acquired taste?). Nutritional yeast is good in some situations. When you absolutely need cheese, use it - but go for a little less than you might have otherwise.
Meat	When possible, reduce the amount of meat in your cooking and add more vegetables or legumes. Remember that a serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards (3-4 oz.). If you have ever been to an American restaurant and ordered a meat dish, the amount they serve you is *NOT* one serving.
Liver	Believe it or not, there are recipes for vegetarian chopped liver. Recipes involve various mixtures of eggs, mushrooms, onions, nuts, and other vegetables like peas. If you are a chopped liver lover like me, no, it is *not* as good as Grandma's traditional chopped liver recipe that your family brought over from the old country - but if Grandma is watching her cholesterol too, then it's a good option.
Coconut oil, palm oil, or palm kernal oil	Safflower oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, olive oil, or canola oil
Oil in baked goods	Applesauce. Be aware that most recipes for brownies, zucchini or banana breads, and muffins call for a lot of oil. When you buy these at the store, you are probably eating some sort of oil. Bake them yourself to substitute applesauce for oil. Not surprisingly, it tastes better with applesauce.
Oil for sauteing vegetables	Replace the term "saute" with "sweat." Now you can do the same thing with the same result and use no oil. If you are cooking onions for a soup or stew, heat them at a high heat without any oil.
Oil for roasting vegetables	You can get a cooking device at many stores (definitely a Williams Sonoma or Sur Le Table, probably other, less expensive stores too) that is for misting oil on your veggies. Instead of pouring the oil right on, give your food a light spritz. The food will taste fresh and you'll use less oil.

Last, I am going to plug this all week. Please leave some feedback here (and see what others have to say too).