Prescription for Protection

Yo! I just picked up a 'prescription to protect oneself from high cholesterol' from Prevention's Healing with Vitamins book. Two factors: food, and supplements.

Lets start with the food factor.  Here's the 'to do' list:

[1] To lower saturated fat in diet to less than 10 percent of calories. This means trimming all visible fat from meats (sob! I shall miss those yummy chicken skin); opting for fish and lean red meats (bye bye sirloin and ribeye steaks).    [2] To redistribute the fats in diet by changing the balance. Recommended mix (for people like me with high cholesterol) is 7-10-13.  Reduce intake of saturated fat (found in meats) to less than 7 percent, reduce polyunsaturated fat (found in vegetable oils) to less than 10 percent' and increase monounsaturated fat (found in canola and olive oils) to 13 percent.  [3] Choose fish over other meats. Eating fish either once a week to every day will reduce saturated fat intake as well as counter any drop in HDL due to (too) low fat diet.  [4] Add fiber-rich foods can also reduce level of LDL.  Examples: whole-grain cereals and breads. (And here I am trying to reduce carbo-food in my diet...breads?!)   [5] Include soy products can help flush artery-damaging cholesterol from body.  (I was so happy to know that I can indulge in my favourite tofu and soya milk.)