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Smoking increases your risk of heart disease, because it lowers HDL (good) cholesterol levels and increases blood clotting risks.
Maintaining or achieving a healthy weight is very important for both cholesterol levels and for heart disease risk. Lose weight slowly, and stay active. Exercise is a great way to keep cholesterol levels low. Not only does it increase the amount of HDL (good cholesterol), it also reduces LDL (bad cholesterol). In addition, exercise tones up the body's circulatory system which clear up clots, making the heart stronger and more efficient.
Of course, diet is important. Most doctors recommend dietary measures to reduce chlesterol intake and improve heart health.
According to the American Heart Association, some dietary tips to consider include:
- Total calories should be adjusted to maintain a healthy weight.
- Saturated fat intake should be, at most, 7 to 10 percent of total daily calories consumed.
- 10 percent or less of your daily calories should be from polyunsaturated fats.
- 10 percent or less of your daily calories should be from monounsaturated fats.
- Overweight people should consume no more than 30 percent of total calories from fat.
- Total cholesterol intake should be less than 300 mg (milligrams) per day.
- Consume less than 2,300 mg (milligrams) of sodium, which is about 1 teaspoon of salt (sodium chloride).
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has further recommendations. These are:
- Instead of high-fat meats, try lean meats, skinless poultry, fish, and bean and grain dishes.
- Instead of fatback and bacon, try skinless chicken or turkey thighs.
- Instead of pork bacon, try turkey bacon, lean ham, or Canadian bacon (beware or sodium levels, read the labels).
- Instead of Pork sausage, ground beef, and pork, try ground skinless turkey breast.
- Instead of whole milk, try skim or 1 percent milk.
- Instead of whole milk cheeses, try low fat or part skim milk cheeses.
- Instead of cream, or evaporated milk, try evaporated skim milk.
Instead of sour cream, try low-fat yogurt. - Instead of lard, butter or shortening, try small amounts of vegetable oil.
- Instead of regular mayonnaise, and regular salad dressing, try mustard, non-fat or low-fat types of salad dressing, yogurt, or mayonnaise.
Total choelsterol levels are considered desirable (best) if they are less than 200 mg/dL. 200-239 mg/dL is considered borderline high, while 240 mg/dL is considered very high. (For even more dietary suggestions, visit this article on Low Cholesterol Foods.)
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