Cholesterol is vital to life, but too much cholesterol can block vital arteries and lead to heart attacks and early death.
Where does the cholesterol that causes the trouble come from? It results from a combination of factors, but one of the most important is eating foods high in cholesterol and fat. Changing what you cook and how you cook it makes a difference that can save your life.
When your doctor tells you your cholesterol or the cholesterol of someone in your family is too high and it has to come down, the information is upsetting and worrisome, but the information should not be confusing or scary. Will it last forever? Yes. Is it contagious? No.
Cholesterol can be too high at any age. Some of us have it because we are overweight or eat the wrong foods. We learned our eating habits when we were children. The response is simple. Lose some weight and adopt sensible eating habits.
Others have inherited genes that make their liver produce too much cholesterol. They need to be careful with what they eat. They will have to exercise. They need medicines.
And some people have both problems. They eat too much cholesterol and fatty food, and they make too much cholesterol as well.
The most important part for everyone to remember is that managing cholesterol is “for the rest of your life.”
Low-cholesterol cooking in The Happy Heart Cookbook is for the entire family. People who eat too much cholesterol need to eat carefully. People who inherit genes for making too much cholesterol need to eat carefully. Parents with poor eating habits or with bad genes can pass their habits as well as their genes to their children. Those children should be tested and they in turn will have their own children who need to be tested.
The adults who have too much cholesterol or triglyceride in their blood because of their eating habits must eat differently to lower their blood fat levels. They need to start early so their children will develop the food habits and preferences that will protect them when they become adults.
This is a cookbook. It is not a nutrition manual. There are no food value charts or calorie counts. Very few people pay attention or use them even when they are included in a cookbook. A person determined to count every calorie and weigh every gram should consult a standard nutrition textbook and then be prepared with a diary, scales and rulers to weigh and measure every morsel.
That is not practical for most people. Therefore, you will only find suggestions in this book.
