Cooking and Cholesterol - Part I

Cooking and Cholesterol - Part I

If you want to lower your cholesterol, you will want to cook your own meals more often.  This is because many restaurants add lots of fat and salt to their foods in order to cheaply add texture and taste. Convenience foods, of course, are notorious for offering poor nutrition and plenty of fat, salt, and sugar.

This isn’t hard to do, even if you are lost in the kitchen.  There are a number of very fast and easy ways to ensure that you can whip up tasty and cholesterol-friendly meals - no matter how harried your schedule:

• If you are very busy and tired at the end of a long day, a salad and sandwich take less time to put together than it takes to phone the pizza parlor. Wrap some veggies in a tortilla, cut more veggies into a salad, and drizzle the salad with olive oil and lemon juice.  Use a mashed avocado or salt-free salsa as the “dressing” on your sandwich.  Soups and stir-fries are other kitchen friends of busy people who aren’t very handy in the kitchen.

• Keep fresh ingredients on hand and don’t tempt yourself by keeping convenience foods and junk food in your house.  This is very important.  If it isn't around you can't eat it, but if it is there the temptation is just too great.  If you have children or husband/wife, this is a great time to teach them nutritious eating.