How to Control Your Cholesterol, Part 3: Sugar

Control your cholesterol by cutting sugar

You have to understand sugar if you want to control your cholesterol. Sugar is in almost everything we eat and we are eating more sugar than ever. We love it. Yet sugar is one of the leading contributors to high cholesterol levels. A healthy diet, low in refined sugar can help control cholesterol.

Instructions

1. To control your cholesterol, know the types of sugar and what levels are in the foods you eat.
   Refined sugar includes sucrose (table sugar), dextrose (corn sugar), and high fructose corn syrup. The total amount of sugar is listed on the nutritional label on foods. However, that number can be misleading if you are eating more than one serving at a time (based on their serving size, not yours). It also does not tell you the types of sugar. This requires reading the ingredients label (and having a magnifying glass). If the sugar is listed near the top of the label (it is often listed first) then it is included in greater quantity.

2. Understand how sugar impacts cholesterol levels.
   Cholesterol is a fatty substance produced by the liver.
   The sugar you consume converts to fat in your body.
   Refined sugar does not have minerals and vitamins in it, so the body draws on it's own nutrients to metabolize it. This means the body has fewer nutrients to use to metabolize cholesterol. This contributes to higher triglyceride and overall cholesterol levels.

3. Reduce your consumption of refined sugar.
   Reducing your refined sugar intake is one of the steps in controlling your cholesterol. This means avoiding processed foods high in refined sugar content. But don't depend on the sugar number on the nutritional label alone. Food companies are smart and they know we look at those numbers so they make it a little more complicated for us. They reduce the serving size to get a low number per serving. But really, when was the last time you got 32 servings from a single pie? Read the serving size and look at what types of sugar are in the ingredients and how far up on the list they are. Read the "tips" below for more ways to cut back on sugar.

Tips & Warnings

• Trying to calculate at the store or at home can be tiring and trying. Start out by trying to avoid foods that have large amounts of sugar and trying to limit the frequency of high sugar snacks.

• Sugar does not trigger the body to feel full. It keeps you wanting more. If you eat a snack with sugar in it, take just the small amount you plan to eat out and put up the rest of the package up before starting the snack. Immediately after eating the snack, get up and moving or go on to another activity. Try to resist the urge to keep on eating more of it.

• This article is informational only and does not substitute for medical advice.