It's no secret that out of control cholesterol levels are a severe health risk and certain low cholesterol foods can help minimize the threat.
But before we expose a few of the most health friendly low cholesterol foods first let's take a walk down cholesterol lane, to find out more about this often reviled body chemical.
Despite its reputation as bad news, the fatty like substance we refer to as cholesterol is an essential component of cells and is a building block for many hormones.
The substance itself is a waxy, fatlike substance of which excess amounts in the blood have been linked to atherosclerosis, a condition which blood vessels are narrowed by fat deposits.
This narrowing reduces blood flow to the vital organs.
Over time the buildup of cholesterol deposits can lead to heart attack or stroke.
Avoiding this buildup is a very important part of achieving and sustaining good health.
Knowing which low cholesterol foods are the most beneficial is a good place to start, putting you on the road to winning your personal battle against high cholesterol.
Oat Meal or Even Better Oat Bran: For years researchers have known that consuming foods high in soluble fiber can lower cholesterol and oat meal and oat bran are two the best.
There are numerous studies to back up this claim with one concluding that by adding only ½ cup of oat bran daily to a person's diet cholesterol levels could be reduced by as much as 25 percent.
Oat bran seems to be the gold standard for cholesterol busting high soluble fibers with oatmeal lagging somewhere in the middle of the pack.
But remember that this type of supplementation only works if you don't add a bunch of high cholesterol toppings to your oat bran or oat meal.
Grapes or Grape Juice: Grapes are high in vitamin C, low in cholesterol, and contain resveratrol.
Resveratrol is flavonoid and there is good evidence to suggest that eating foods high in this substance could actually lower cholesterol levels.
While grapes are great, grape juice is grand.
Ounce for ounce, you will get more resveratrol from grape juice than from grapes.
The darker the grape the higher levels of resveratrol.
Beans: Beans make our list of low cholesterol foods because they contain high levels of soluble gums and pectins.
Gums and pectins rounds up fat like an obsessed cowboy and hold them in the digestive tract until they are sent to their just reward.
Beans are also slow to digest, which makes them a great food for diabetics with high cholesterol concerns.
But while beans seem to be the perfect high cholesterol food they also have a deserved reputation for causing flatulence.
So if beans are your low cholesterol food of choice plan your social schedule carefully.
In summary, there are many more low cholesterol foods.
We have purposely given you one carbohydrate, one fruit, and one high protein food to provide you with a good starting point to build your low cholesterol diet around.
What Next? Lowering cholesterol, in most cases, is about changing old habits, adopting new healthier habits, and enlisting the help of convention medications such as statins or natural cholesterol reducing remedies if needed.
Put simply, this basically means finding ways to increase HDL (good cholesterol), decreasing LDL (bad cholesterol levels), and reduce overall cholesterol levels, which low cholesterol foods can play an intricate role.