Say Cheese!

I love cheese. 

Sharp or mild, goat or cow, soft or hard, blue or white or yellow or green, stinky or um...not stinky.

But I know that, being someone with slightly high cholesterol numbers, I shouldn't eat too much of it no matter how yummy it is. 

Alas!  A new survey has me thinking that Danish researchers are geniuses!  (And not because I like to eat Danish, too.)

According to a recent Danish study, cheese may not be so bad for cholesterol after all.  OK, they compared it to eating butter--but it shows that in moderation, cheese isn't as bad as you might think.

According to an article from the Chicago Tribune, here's how the tests were conducted:

The group surveyed about 50 people. Each person was put on a controlled diet and added a measured amount of cheese or butter daily.

Throughout, each participant was compared against his or herself, to follow changes in the body caused by the foods. Researchers gave each person cheese or butter, both made from cows milk, equal to 13 percent of their daily energy consumption from fat.

During six-week intervals, each person ate the set amount of cheese or butter, separated by a 14-day cleansing period which they returned to their normal diet. Then they switched, and for six weeks those who had eaten the cheese before, ate butter, while the butter eaters in the first phase ate cheese.

While eating cheese, the subjects showed no increase in bad or overall cholesterol, while when they were eating butter, their cholesterol increased by an average of 7%.

According to the article, it could be the calcium and/or protein in cheese that helped these results to occur.  Whatever the reason, I'm all for it. 

So does that mean that on a grilled cheese sandwich the cheese and butter cancel each other out and it's just like eating toast? 

 

Lower Your Cholesterol

I have slightly high cholesterol.  When my doctor told me that a number of years ago, I really took a look at the things that I ate and was surprised to see that I ate very little that was high in cholesterol.  So my problem isn't from the food I eat, it's probably hereditary (thanks, guys).

So since I don't really have high cholesterol foods to cut out of my diet, what can I do?  Well, instead of cutting out foods, I can eat foods that will help to both lower the "bad" cholesterol and raise the "good".

Fiber is a huge factor in fixing cholesterol in your blood.  Oatmeal, apples, kidney beans, barley and prunes are just a few of the foods that are great sources of fiber.  You probably know that lots of other processed foods--breakfast cereal, for example--tout that they're high in fiber.

If you've read this blog for a while, you know that eating fish is a great way to be healthy--including helping your cholesterol.  Those fish high in Omega-3 fatty acids are the best: mackerel, trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna, salmon, halibut.

Nuts are a great (and tasty) way of lowering your cholesterol.  Just eat them in moderation because they're high in calories.

Like nuts, olive oil has calories, but is full of the good fats that can help your cholesterol levels.  Try to switch out olive oil for something else in your diet, so you're not adding calories.

For a lot of great cholesterol information, check out the Guide to Lowering Your Cholesterol with TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes) from the National Institutes of Health.