If you already had your Regular Girl today, you’ve already helped out your cholesterol in addition to your digestive health. Popular nutritionist, fitness expert and health author Lisa Lynn told Natural Solutions readers Regular Girl’s fiber, the gluten-free prebiotic called Sunfiber, helps lower serum cholesterol levels. When you give your gut the fiber it needs, you’re helping yourself in more ways than you realize.
Lynn says women need to be concerned about their cholesterol levels. While you may have heard that cholesterol-rich foods may no longer be directly linked to increased heart disease risk, serum cholesterol levels still plays a role in unpleasant, and potentially health-threatening, conditions such as leg cramps and bumpy, yellowish skin patches. “Leg pain could be a sign of peripheral artery disease (PAD), which happens when cholesterol clogs the blood vessels leading to your extremities,” explained Lynn. It’s recommended that women begin getting cholesterol screenings at age 20. Because drops in estrogen levels may increase your bad LDL cholesterol level risk, women over 50 may want to monitor their levels closely.
To help busy women make cholesterol-savvy choices, Lynn offered the following suggestions:
- Add Sunfiber to your favorite foods. “Human clinical research has shown that guar fiber, a powder that appears on labels as Sunfiber, helps to lower serum cholesterol levels,” wrote Lynn. Three cheers for this Regular Girl ingredient! “It also helps fill you up without filling you out,” she added. More great news since we know maintaining a healthy weight helps manage cholesterol levels. Lynn suggests adding tasteless, odorless Regular Girl to water, juices, yogurt and smoothies for its cholesterol-lowering punch.
- Instead of salt, add garlic to foods. Studies have shown that garlic may help reduce blood cholesterol by up to four percent.
- Choose more fish. The omega-3 fatty acids in salmon, tuna, mackerel and sardines have been shown to increase good HDL cholesterol and reduce triglycerides by 20 to 50 percent. Next time, pass up the chicken for some better-for-you fish.