High cholesterol: Here’s a 5-day healthy diet plan to lower cholesterol levels

New Delhi: High cholesterol is now a common issue with more and more people being diagnosed with the condition. While medications can help lower cholesterol levels, making healthier lifestyle choices - such as regular physical activity and eating well - can make a huge difference to your numbers and overall health. In fact, an elevated level of cholesterol doesn’t always mean you need treatment, one can easily maintain and control the cholesterol level by eating a simple, heart-healthy diet plan.

So, whether you have a genetic condition such as familial hypercholesterolaemia or your cholesterol has gone up over the years, adopting healthy eating habits can help. A healthy diet that is high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains will help lower your blood pressure, prevent or reduce blood sugar, keep you in good shape and much more. And if you’re obese or overweight, losing a few extra kilos, even 5-10 per cent, of your total body weight may help lower your cholesterol levels.

A 5-day heart-healthy diet plan for high cholesterol

Our modern diet is often high on fat and sugar, which leads to raised cholesterol levels, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. In this heart-healthy meal plan, Dr TS Kler, a leading Interventional Cardiologist, Chairman at PSRI Heart Institute and a Padma Bhushan awardee (2004), maps out five days of meals and snacks to help you kick-start a healthy lifestyle, which will help keep your numbers in a healthy range. Below is the sample diet plan for 5 days.

Monday

Breakfast: Oatmeal with fresh berries and non-fat milk or soymilk would be a great breakfast meal. Oats are high in cholesterol-lowering soluble fibre, so are berries. All berries - blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries - have high fibre content. You can also include tea or coffee in your first meal of the day but with little non-fat milk or soymilk and/or a packet of sugar substitute.

Mid-morning snack (If you’re hungry): Baby carrots and broccoli with Greek yogurt dip. To make this dip, in a small mixing bowl, combine ¾ cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt, 1 minced garlic clove, 2 tablespoons chives, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and a few grinds of black pepper. Use leftovers as a creamy, tangy, totally healthy topping for your baked potato on Day 2.

• Lunch: Sweet potato with a dollop of dijon mustard (low-sodium). You can microwave it. Simply pierce the skin 5 or 6 times. Then nuke for about 6 minutes, depending on the size of your sweet potato, rotating halfway through. It’s done when the skin puffs to a crisp finish and is soft to the touch. The flesh should be sweet and pillowy.
• Roti (use mix atta /multigrain atta), daal, any seasonal vegetable, toned  curd/low-fat and salad
• You can also try a big salad of romaine lettuce, red onions, and cherry tomatoes tossed with aged balsamic vinegar and grilled tofu cubes.

Mid-afternoon snack: A big, crisp apple, buttermilk, vegetable soup, beetroot palak soup.

• Dinner: A big bowl of salad made with baby greens and tossed with healthy homemade salad dressing. You can also opt for Pritikin’s Tuscan Sunshine Italian dressing. Unlike many other salad dressings, Pritikin’s dressings are genuinely low in added sodium, sugars, and fats, and bursting with flavour from savoury ingredients like ginger, herbs, and mustards.
• Salmon with sweet chilli sauce.
• Garlic-roasted Brussels sprouts. Vegetables are great sources of soluble fibre, with Brussels sprouts topping the list.
• Prefer light dinner consisting of mix vegetables, khichdi with curd.

Dessert (If you’re hungry): Vanilla yogurt (non-fat, no sugar added, 1 Cup) with fresh raspberries, homemade makhana kheer or carrot kheer.

Tuesday

• Breakfast:  Egg white omelette with fresh salsa and chopped green onions. Cook your eggs in the microwave. Lightly spray the inside of a microwaveable bowl with oil spray like PAM. Scramble your egg whites in the bowl. Add veggies and black pepper, with no salt added seasoning. Nuke, covered, for about 1 to 2 minutes, depending on the heat of your microwave.
• Half of the cantaloupe filled with cottage cheese (fat-free, low-sodium).
• A good brand choice for fat-free, low-sodium cottage cheese can be a good option.
• Again you can include coffee or tea but with little non-fat milk or soymilk and/or a packet of sugar substitute.

Mid-morning snack (If you’re hungry): Pear. Keep a big bowl full of fresh fruit - apples, bananas, pears, grapefruits, tangerines, grapes, and more.

• Lunch: Salad of baby spinach and roasted Brussels sprouts
•  “Homemade” barley soup. Pick up a box of Tabatchnick Barley and Mushroom Soup - low sodium. While it’s heating up on the stove, toss ½ to 1 cup of sliced fresh mushrooms and ½ cup chopped celery in a bowl. Ladle your soup into a bowl and top with freshly diced green onions, if desired.

Mid-afternoon snack: A handful of grapes. Eating fresh fruit every day might help your heart.

• Dinner: Meatless burger topped with slices of roasted red pepper. Veggie patties have only about half the calories of red meat patties and 0 artery-clogging saturated fat.
• Top your burger with slices of roasted red bell pepper. So smoky and savoury! Roast 5 or 6 peppers at a time so that you can use them throughout the week on salads, in soups, or as a side dish.
• Baked potato with the Greek yogurt dip or top your baked potato with non-fat sour cream and chives.

Dessert, if desired: Passion fruit

Wednesday: Same as Monday

Thursday: Same as Tuesday

Friday: Same as Monday/Wednesday

We hope these tips will help you create a healthy meal plan that will lower your cholesterol levels, help you maintain a healthy weight, and boost health while providing your body with all essential nutrients it needs to function normally.