Low Cholesterol Diet

BACKGROUND

If you have high cholesterol and are at risk for heart disease, but would prefer to lower your cholesterol without the use of drugs, The Low Cholesterol Diet, which was created by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP), will help you to meet your serum cholesterol goals through dietary means.  

In 2001, the NCEP put forth new dietary guidelines for individuals with high cholesterol and with a risk of heart disease. The American Heart Association then endorsed the diet and started to include it as part of their guidelines to lower cholesterol.

The Low Cholesterol, also affectionately referred to as TLC, is a diet that allows for 200 milligrams or less of dietary cholesterol to be consumed each day in addition to less than 7% of your total daily calories from saturated fat.

On the TLC diet, you create a mini profile of yourself by selecting your age, height, weight, gender and activity level. From this data, you are then given recommended levels of calories, saturated fat and cholesterol that you can consume each day. From there, you create an online daily meal plan of what you are going to eat and how much you are going to eat. Based upon your selections for each meal, it gives you a report of how many calories, cholesterol, saturated fat, sodium, and total fat you will consume and how this compares to your recommended levels.

It may or may not aid in weight loss, but it is intended to help lower blood cholesterol levels.  

PRO

- Endorsed by the American Heart Association  

- A diet low in cholesterol can also reduce the risk of heart disease

- Meal planner is easy to follow

- The TLC meal planner does all the calculations for you

- Includes exercise as part of its program

- Medically-approved

CON

- Online daily meal planner does not keep your user profile so you must recreate one each time you visit the website

- The TLC online daily meal planner does not include already prepared food or food that you would order from a restaurant

- The TLC Diet requires that you know what you are going to eat and how much of each item that you are going to eat before you eat it

- Need to be vigilant about comparing your daily totals with those recommended to you. If you exceed them, no red alarm bell goes off telling you that you need to adjust what and how much you are eating.

FOOD and RECIPE

The TLC Diet is comprised of consuming no more than 200 milligrams of cholesterol, 50% - 60% of your total calories from carbohydrates, 25-35% of your total calories from fat with no more than 7% of your total calories coming from saturated fat, 15% of your daily calories from protein and less than 2400 milligrams of sodium each day. This may sound like a lot of adding and measuring that you will have to do, but as long as you use the meal planner, these totals are computed for you.

The TLC Diet encourages eating foods that are low in cholesterol such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins without any skin, whole grains and moderate amounts of unsaturated fat that are either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. Here’s a quick tip if you’re in the loss as to what constitutes an unsaturated fat: If the fat stays solid, like butter, margarine or cream cheese, it’s a saturated fat.

There are also heart-healthy recipes on the website including Latino and African American recipes.

EXERCISE

The TLC Diet recommends that you should aim to get at least 30 minutes of exercise per day, 3 or 4 days per week. This kind of exercise includes brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming or playing tennis. But since exercise depends upon your medical history as well, it is suggested that you talk to your doctor about your exercise program if you have heart disease.

EXPENSE

THE TLC Diet is free to anyone who has access to the Internet.

CONCLUSION

The TLC Diet is a medically-approved way to lower cholesterol safely and effectively. It is not a plan to lose weight although losing a few pounds for some might occur as a natural result of the diet. Its reliance on balanced nutrition and its avoidance of processed foods, full-fat dairy and heavy meats and saturated fats is an eating style that can be easily adopted for the long-term. The online eating plan and accompanying support for the TLC Diet is easy to follow even though it is not entirely comprehensive in its food choices and in its practicality.

COMMON MISSPELLINGS

cholestrol, colesterol,  colessterol, cholestrul, cholistrol,