5 Fruits to Balance Your Cholesterol Levels

Including these fruits in our diet can be of great help to improve our overall health and even regulate our cholesterol levels. Read on!

Written and verified by psychologist Valeria Sabater.

Last update: 27 May, 2022

Cholesterol is one of the chemicals our liver makes. It’s vital for our health. In this sense, it’s very important to have adequate cholesterol levels to ensure our well-being and internal balance.

This is important information because many people still think cholesterol is bad or harmful. The key is keeping it balanced. In this regard, it’s also important to keep bad cholesterol, or LDL, from increasing.

LDL is bad because it’s the chemical that accumulates in our arteries. Little by little, it strips us of our health.

Also, another piece of information we should remember is that our bodies make cholesterol. If our bodies make the right amount for us, getting cholesterol from other sources can put our bodies in danger.

There are several situations where we need to be careful. Some examples of these situations are if we are over 40, overweight, or have a family history of high cholesterol. In these situations, we need to really watch what we eat.

In this article, we share some information about fighting cholesterol. We can control our levels by changing our habits, avoiding a sedentary lifestyle, and making our diet more colorful and flavorful.

Today, we’re going to focus on our diet. What better way is there to make it more flavorful than with fruits? We can help balance our cholesterol levels by consuming more fruits.

1. Avocados

You might be asking yourself if avocados can really help balance cholesterol levels. The answer is yes. In reality, we only need to eat half an avocado a day. Along with a healthy diet, this can help us see changes in our cholesterol in about a month.

• Avocados are a healthy source of monounsaturated fats that help keep your heart healthy.
• This fat turns into energy (it isn’t stored). It reduces the level of lipids in our bodies. In addition, it can also help regulate our blood sugar level.
• Avocados also have niacin, or vitamin B3, which helps balance our cholesterol.
• Avocados aren’t the only foods that have this property. We can also eat asparagus, peas, potatoes, mushrooms, artichokes, and beans. They all help us get vitamin B3.

2. Pink grapefruit: Great for balancing cholesterol

If you can eat pink grapefruit, you definitely should. The reason is that few fruits have as many positive effects. In this regard, it can also reduce bad cholesterol.

• That being said, it’s also important to know that it will only be effective if we’re consistent. We need to eat half a grapefruit every day at breakfast. Also, we need to make sure that the grapefruits are organic.
• According to a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, grapefruit has amazing benefits. For those who have trouble controlling their cholesterol with medication, eating grapefruit can help.
• The antioxidant properties this fruit has are amazing. Without a doubt, they help increase quality of life thanks to their heart-protecting qualities.

Remember that grapefruit can have a bad reaction with some medications. Thus, you should discuss this with your doctor or pharmacist.

3. Orange juice for good cholesterol

To understand why orange juice helps us balance our cholesterol, we need to talk about sterols:

• You’ve probably heard of sterols. They have a chemical structure similar to cholesterol.
  They’re natural compounds found in fruits like oranges, in some vegetables, dry fruits, seeds, and even vegetable oils.
• Sterols reduce both the total cholesterol level and the level of LDL cholesterol in your body. While oranges don’t have a lot of sterols, they also do something else. Oranges increase the amount of HDL or good cholesterol in your body.

This is why we should eat oranges every day. Also, if we eat a balanced diet, we’ll see results the next time we go for a checkup.

4. Strawberries: A healthy temptation

Strawberries are healthy and can help us reduce our levels of cholesterol. But they’re only good for us if we eat them naturally, without adding any sugar or chocolate.

• Strawberries, like other berries, reduce lipoprotein density. That means they lower LDL levels.
• If we can, we should eat 10 to 15 strawberries a day. This is because they can also reduce triglycerides due to their antioxidant effects.

Easy dietary changes, like increasing the amount of red fruits we eat, can be helpful. Some examples of red fruits are cranberries and even red grapes. They keep our heart healthy.

5. An apple a day… reduces cholesterol levels?

You can eat apples in many different ways. In this regard, you could eat one with oatmeal in the morning or with a salad with celery and nuts for lunch. You can even drink a glass of apple juice in the afternoon. Apples are amazing foods to include in your diet. Eat them however you want, but be consistent.

The reason that apples help us maintain good cholesterol levels is their skin. Apple skins contain both pectin and polyphenols.

Thanks to them, we can process cholesterol better. We can even reduce the inflammatory molecules that often come with cardiac diseases.

We know that fruit on its own will never be enough. This means you have to make changes in your diet. This takes a lot of effort. Something as easy as adding fruits to your salads can help balance your cholesterol levels. Another idea is to take an apple with you wherever we go. This way, you have a healthy snack when hunger strikes.

These fruits can work miracles on our health.