Thursday, December 24, 2009

Any good low cholesterol recipes out there?

I just found out that I have very high cholesterol for a 22yr old. I was wondering if anyone has some good healthy low cholesterol recipes to share.Any good low cholesterol recipes out there?
For lunch I love grilled chicken wraps (I grill a lot the night before and cut up leftovers) with lettuce, shredded carrot and a light honey-mustard dressing.


I also love carrots and homemade hummus (I always go homemade because it's easy to do and I can control the sodium) or veggies with homemade guacamole (again, I like to kick up the heat with tabasco in lieu of sodium).


I also substitute guacamoloe for my mayo in all my sandwiches. It gives that nice velvety fatty texture that I crave in a sandwich but again, it's a healthy fat. For this purpose I like to use wholly guacamole, but check with your doctor about the sodium content. Homemade is better again just cause you can control the salt.


If you like cottage cheese (I know, not everybody does) one of my favorite things to have for lunch or dinner is 1% cottage cheese on top of either tomatoes or with cantaloupe.


I really try to make sure I get a lot of different fruits and veggies in my diet. I measure out my portion sizes on meats and dairy (a deck of playing cards is a portion size for meat, and for dairy I refer to the portion sizes on whatever I'm using). They're about the only thing I measure out. I give myself free reign with fruits and vegetables, and try to include at least two different veggies with each meal. However, I do not consider potatoes or corn veggies. They're both high in sugars and starch and low in nutrients. Corn in particular I throw in the grain category. They're not particularly high-cholesterol foods on their own, but people tend to load them up with butter which is no good if you have high cholesterol to begin with. I really like the green giant steamer packages that you can get and throw in the microwave. Very handy and pretty darn tasty (stay away from anything with added sauces however--they make cheese/broccoli and teriyaki sauces with some of their veggies and they're high in both fat and sodium and also really gross IMHO). I love green beans personally. I'll add just a pinch of salt and some olive oil and it's an awesome side. Just make sure that your veggie selection is colorful. That is, don't stick to just green stuff. Fill your plate with reds (beets), purples (leaf lettuces), oranges (sweet potatoes) and of course greens, the darker the better (stay away from iceberg lettuce if you have spring greens available).


Beyond that, fruits and veggies should comprise 2/3 of your plate at each meal. The other 1/3 is split between proteins and carbs.

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