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

Now, eating a healthy diet needn’t be as complicated as you may think. Basically it should be a diet that is rich in 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.

But this is where the trouble starts. 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 being the worst cholesterol offenders.

For your recipes and your cooking, you need to try to add as many low cholesterol foods as you can, while you also work on decreasing the volume of high cholesterol foods.

The result will be a lowering of the risk that you have for heart disease.

The protein that animal 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, by some means you still need to get this protein in your diet, but it shouldn’t be from foods that are high in cholesterol available. Fish can also supply your diet with protein, and fish is a good source too, especially herring, sardines, and salmon which contain the omega 3 fatty acids that your body also requires.

Milk too has protein, but because it is an animal product it too has fat so you need to drink skim milk, or 1% milk instead of whole milk or 2%. If your room mates are used to drinking the milk with higher fat levels, you may get some complaints initially, but in time, if you continue with the healthier choices, they will probably come to adjust to it.

Instead of cooking with butter (animal product), try using olive oil (plant product) instead, especially the virgin olive oil which is less processed 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 when we usually use light meaning fewer calories.

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

Nuts are good for you when you are concerned about lowering your cholesterol, but make sure you only eat a handful a day, or you will be consuming too many calories which is never a good idea.

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

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