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I personally only use cream on special occasions, and always use Benecol spread and plant sterol tablets available from the internet. I also try to eat white meat mainly, and red meat is perhaps once a week. I also eat a lot of salads (without mayonaise etc). I only eat puddings on rare occasions. I also eat lots of onion, tomatos and garlic. I very rarely eat any junk food, perhaps once a year if that ie burgers, fried chicken. In casseroles I do not add any tins of soup or packet mixes, just tins of tomatoes, carrots,tin of healthy eating, oxo,baked beans, peas, onion, peppers, tin of rataouille and of course the meat (chicken).

I was put on statins for a long time, and believed they were causing me health problems. I came off the statins, and by using these two things my total cholesterol remains between 3.5 and 4.5 (depending if I have a test after Christmas / New year). In fact taking the statins did not do anything to my levels, since coming off them, my cholesterol rates have stayed the same. I do not eat that much dairy product like cheese but I do have a fair bit of semi skimmed milk in my diet everyday.

You also need to know what your good cholesterol and what your bad cholesterol is, not just your total cholesterol.

I do know of a gentleman, that had a heart attack, and survived and instead of going on a low fat diet, he went on a 'no fat' diet to huge extremes......he has caused himself to have endless investigations in to his stomach and anaemia and looks physically awful. His hair is falling out, he is grey and has lost an extreme amount of weight. He now has sever difficulty walking, but he will not come off this extreme diet that he is on. He literally has cholesterol of 2.5 but will not eat an ounce of anything with fat in it, and it is killing him, but he will not listen. He is not diabetic.

Please don't think that cutting out all fat will be good, it isn't, our brains and body need some fat.
 
Excellent advice by donnellydogs on foods to eat! :)

No need though to refrain from eating mayonnaise and diary products, opt for the low-fat varieties, Hellman's light is as delicious as the full-fat version, and I use low-fat yogurt everyday on my cereal, most shops now sell reduced fat cheese so this could be a option too.

Not sure if you can tolerate them, but porridge oats are said to help reduce and maintain cholesterol levels and eating oily fish two or three times a week is said to be beneficial too, not forgetting of course a diet of fresh fruit and vegetables. Here is a link to the cholesterol charity HEART UK for further advice:

http://www.heartuk.org.uk/index.php?/healthy_living/

Nigel
 
Agreed there are some excellent low fat foods out there. Check out the food labels though and get a balance of low fat and low sugar.....

I am still plodding my way through all the onions I grew this year, which is why literally everyday we have an onion in our food....still have 30 + to use....

I went on to using plant sterol tablets beause they worked out cheaper than buying the little bottles of the plant sterol liquids in the cabinets in the supermarkets which used to be over £3.50 for 6...and my husband and I both used to love them and they would be gone in 3 days...so far too expensive. The plant sterol tablets are more expensive initially, but do last longer.

I always used to have my hba1c and cholesterol tests done after christmas for 24 years, as I was originally diagnosed on Jan 6th 25 years ago, finally this year I got my cholesterol and hba1c done before Christmas, so yes, I am going to relax more......

Don't do an extreme no fat whatever you do, I really have seen how badly that affects the body and brain......
 
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