If you have recently seen your doctor for the results of your cholesterol blood test, then you probably have some valid concerns about your diet, the role cholesterol plays in your diet, and have lots of questions about which foods lower cholesterol and how you can adapt your recipes to a more cholesterol friendly diet.

Now, consuming a good diet needn’t be as complicated as you may think. First of all you should be eating a diet that contains lots of fresh fruits and vegetables (the healthy carbohydrates), as well as protein from legumes (dried beans, peas and lentils), and meats or dairy products.

And this is where it starts getting a little difficult. Animal products, and this includes butter, meat, poultry, eggs and cheese, everything that comes from an animal contain cholesterol, with red meats, egg yolks and butter having the highest cholesterol levels.

For your recipes and your cooking, you should try to include some low cholesterol foods, while you also work on decreasing the volume of high cholesterol foods.

The result will be a decreasing of the risk that you have for heart attacks and strokes.

The protein that these foods provide is very important for the health of your internal organs, and for building strong tendons and muscles, as well as maintaining hair, blood and bones. So, somehow you still need to have this protein in your diet, but it doesn’t have to be from high cholesterol foods available. Fish can also provide you with protein, and seafood is a good source too, especially salmon, sardines and herring which contain the omega 3 fatty acids that your body also requires.

Milk too has protein, but since it is an animal product it too has fat so you should drink skim milk, or 1% milk in place of whole milk or 2%. If your relatives are used to drinking the higher fat milk, you may get some complaints to start with, but in time, if you continue with the healthier choices, they will probably come to accept it.

Instead of cooking with butter (animal product), try using olive oil (plant product) instead, in particular the virgin olive oil which is processed less than the light olive oils. You should note that the light olive oil refers to its color, and not the number of calories it contains – very misleading since we usually use light meaning less calories.

One way of lowering the fat level in baking is to use mashed bananas, apple sauce or pureed prunes instead of the fat, and this also increases your fruit in your diet too.

Almonds, walnuts, peanuts and some other nuts are good for you when you are concerned about your cholesterol, but make sure you only eat a handful a day, or you will be eating too many calories which is never a good idea.

If you are making hamburgers, you can throw in some oats, as this is a great food to help you lower your cholesterol. Pulses are legumes as they are also called, or more commonly, dried beans, peas and lentils are also good foods to lower cholesterol containing soluble fibre, as do apples, pears and barley.

There are a lot more hints and tips about foods which have high and low cholesterol as well as cholesterol lowering foods and recipes here .