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9 Worst Habits That Can Increase Cholesterol

By Chandana Rao

You have just been diagnosed with 'high cholesterol', after getting your symptoms checked by a professional. This could make you feel disheartened and scared, right?

Well, it is quite natural to feel that way because any disease, be it major or minor, can affect your daily life and mental peace!

worst habits for cholesterol

For example, even a simple flu can disrupt your daily activities until you are all healed. So, you could only imagine how the life of a person suffering from incurable diseases can be!

Now, most of us would be very familiar with the term "high cholesterol", right? Because this lifestyle disease has become very common lately!

When the unhealthy cholesterol level in your blood stream becomes higher than normal, it is termed as "high cholesterol" and this can be a very serious disease!

High cholesterol is one of the main causes for fatal heart diseases, obesity and other such ailments which can affect people.

High cholesterol can be kept under control with lifestyle changes like following a healthy diet and exercise routine, along with certain medications.

Here are a few unhealthy habits that you must avoid, if you have high cholesterol!

1. Avoiding Healthy Fats

1. Avoiding Healthy Fats

Now, most of us layman think that all fats are unhealthy and can make us gain weight or increase our cholesterol levels. However, we do not realize that the body needs healthy fats in order to function well and remain healthy. Not all fats are unhealthy. For example, the fats in pizzas and burgers are unhealthy, but the fats in avocados, ghee and coconut are healthy! So, adding healthy fats to your diet can also reduce high cholesterol, naturally!

2. Eating The Wrong Kind Of Meat

2. Eating The Wrong Kind Of Meat

If you are a meat eater, who consumes meat dishes almost on a daily basis and you have been diagnosed with high cholesterol, you must immediately make certain changes in your diet. Consuming meats such as beef, pork, etc., can further increase your cholesterol levels and cause more health complications. You can go for lean meat like chicken and also seafood, which are healthier options instead.

3. Low-calcium Diet

3. Low-calcium Diet

Calcium is a very essential mineral, which is required for our body to remain healthy and strong, specifically in the areas of bone and brain cell development. In addition, many research studies have proven that calcium can also help reduce high cholesterol levels. So, if you are not consuming calcium-rich foods like dairy products, spinach, eggs, etc., you could be worsening your high cholesterol problem!

4. Consuming Bakery Foods

4. Consuming Bakery Foods

Most of us love foods like cakes, cookies, white bread, etc., right? These products are popular bakery products, which are made from using high amounts of yeast, sugar and other processed ingredients. Now, these ingredients can be very harmful for your health, especially if you are already suffering from high cholesterol level! Bakery foods can increase your cholesterol levels, along with giving rise to a host of other health problems.

5. Consuming A Low-fibre Diet

5. Consuming A Low-fibre Diet

As we know, along with essential nutrients like protein, healthy fats, minerals, etc., fibre is also very important to be added to your diets to remain generally healthy. Fibre is especially helpful for people with high cholesterol, as they can remove the plaque formation in the arteries, caused by this condition. So, adding fibre-rich foods to your diet such as sprouts, fruit, leafy greens, etc., can help!

6. Consuming Excess Alcohol

6. Consuming Excess Alcohol

We may already know that consuming excess alcohol on a regular basis can be extremely bad for our health, right? Along with psychological problems, it can cause dangerous physiological problems, including cancer! Now, alcohol is rich in unhealthy fats, so it can drastically worsen your high cholesterol symptoms, even if you consume it occasionally!

7. Not Working On Weight Loss

7. Not Working On Weight Loss

Both high cholesterol and high body fat are lifestyle diseases which go hand in hand. High cholesterol can trigger weight gain and vice versa. So, if you want to keep your cholesterol levels under control, you must work on reducing your body weight and body fat levels, by sticking to a strict diet and exercise regime, after seeking help from a professional!

8. Not Consuming Nuts

8. Not Consuming Nuts

Whether you have high cholesterol or not, consuming nuts on a regular basis can improve your overall health by a significant extent. Nuts contain compounds known as sterols, which are proven to reduce the bad cholesterol levels in the body, naturally. So, consuming a handful of nuts on a daily basis can help with your high cholesterol problems.

9. Not Managing Stress

9. Not Managing Stress

As we may already know, stress is one of the main causes for a number of health problems, both mental and physiological. Right from headaches, stress can go as far as being responsible for diseases like cancer! So, when the cortisol levels in your body increase due to stress, the cortisol in turn can further hike up the cholesterol in your body. So, learning to manage stress can help lower your cholesterol levels.

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Story first published: Wednesday, January 31, 2018, 18:17 [IST]