Reduce blood cholesterol

1. Reduce the consumption of fatty foods and especially of those high in saturated fats, i.e. the animal fats, and all those that are solid at room temperature such as butter or margarine etc.
2. Use olive oil but not in excess of the recommended 25 ml per day (about 2 tablespoons).
3. Increase the consumption of foods that are rich in vegetable fibres, especially soluble vegetable fibres that are contained mainly in beans, oats, whole grains, apples, bananas, beetroot, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, citrus fruits, fresh beans, okra, strawberries, potatoes, insoluble vegetable fibres that are mainly contained in whole meal breakfast cereals and breads, nuts, eggplant, cabbage, pears, beetroot, fresh beans, okra and strawberries.
4. Enrich your weekly diet with fatty fish that are rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids such as gilthead, sea-bream (tsipoura), common sea-bream (fangri), red fish (rossi), red mullet (barbouni), salmon etc.
5. Avoid foods that are high in nutritional cholesterol only if there is a serious form of hypercholesterolemia.
6. Consume foods that contain phytosteroles such as soya, legumes, dry fruits, vegetable oils and products enriched with phytosteroles.
7. Enrich your daily diet with antioxidants (vitamin E, C, B-carotene, selenium, zinc, flavonoids, vegetable fibres) as well as with folic acid and vitamin B6.