My Top Dietary Picks

By choosing these foods, you naturally promote healthy cholesterol levels and, as an added bonus, you’ll maintain a healthy weight.

And those foods are…

Flaxseed: Nature's Magical Healer

Flaxseeds are a perfect food to help lower cholesterol. They contain essential fatty acids, high-quality protein, vitamins, precious phytonutrients, and lignans, as well as soluble fiber and insoluble fiber, all of which help to lower cholesterol (and promote normal blood pressure). In fact, research on soluble fiber shows that total cholesterol can be reduced by 11% and LDL cholesterol by 18% over a two- to three-week period.

Flaxseed, or linseed as it's commonly called, is an herb with a tall leafy stem. The plant contains blue or white flowers and shiny, flattened golden seeds. Flax has been cultivated since at least 5,000 B.C.; Egyptian mummies were wrapped in flax fabric, and the Romans turned flax into cloth.

Crushed flaxseeds have been known to relieve constipation, and flaxseeds mixed with water and turned into a paste have been used to heal septic wounds and even skin rashes like psoriasis (the seeds contain a lot of oil—48% is alpha linolenic acid). Some studies suggest that the lignans found in flaxseed promote overall colon, breast, and prostate health.

Even if your cholesterol levels are in the normal range, I encourage you to drink one flax shake a day. Many of my patients have lowered their cholesterol and lost weight when I've put them on this shake. Called Joe's Flax Shake, it consists of two tablespoons of ground-up flaxseed in 8-10 oz. of soy milk.

This shake is a great (and delicious) meal replacement and, when followed with 1-2 glasses of water, will diminish your appetite for the next meal.

Oats: They're So Good for You

Research shows that beta glucan, a water-soluble fiber in oatmeal, oat bran, and oats helps to lower cholesterol. Fiber forms a gel-like material that inhibits the absorption of cholesterol. It's an established fact that heart patients who eat two ounces of oat bran daily for six weeks can expect up to a 10% reduction in their cholesterol. Pectin, by the way, works in much the same way.

By the way, juicing is another great source of fiber. Here's my favorite juicing combo for cholesterol lowering.  I’d mix these ingredients in a juicer at moderate speed until it has the consistency you find most pleasing.

Mix a third of a bag of spinach with a half bunch of parsley, 4–6 carrots, a half-inch of ginger root, one garlic clove and one apple or a half of a red beet.

When my patients drink this tasty juice daily, their cholesterol levels come tumbling down. One of my patients lowered his total cholesterol over a four-week period from 300 mg/dL to 190 mg/dL with this concoction alone. See what you can do with simple diet changes alone!

If you don't care to juice, or don't want to take the time to juice, take psyllium (fiber), or three teaspoons of Metamucil (you can purchase both at any drug store). You can mix any of these products in spring water, or in grape or apple juice.