if you're looking to decrease your cholesterol or just prevent it from increasing in the first place i've got a simple tip for you -- eat nuts. nuts are a wonderful source of high quality fats and protein. and now we know they'll help keep your cholesterol under control as well. researchers at loma linda university found that folks who consumed about 2. 5 ounces of nuts throughout the day decreased their total cholesterol by an average of 5. 1% and reduced their bad cholesterol ldl by 7. 4% and a whopping 10. 4% decrease in trigylerides only if they were elevated to start with. the scientists found that you got your biggest bang for your nut-buck if your bad cholesterol ldl was high to start with and if you were consuming a typical high fat western diet. in other words if your diet is great and your cholesterol is normal you'll be preventing problems but you won't see big changes in your numbers since they're normal to start with. the folks with higher numbers and junky diets see the biggest changes. and those folks need to clean up their diet to start with as well as get physically active to get the most for their new nut consumption. walk around with a 2 ounce plastic bag in your purse or briefcase or car and fill it with 12 nuts -- a combo of almonds and walnut halves or pecans is great. this makes for a wonderful snack anytime you want it. or put the nuts on a yogurt for extra crunch. at the start of every week i load up the bags and keep them everywhere so that i'm always prepared and never caught without a healthy snack.
how much do nuts help lower cholesterol?