Jakarta –
After New Year’s celebrations, cholesterol usually rises because you enjoy lots of meat at BBQ parties. Some of these fruits can help reduce high cholesterol levels.
BBQ parties are a favorite agenda to celebrate New Year’s Eve. This meat grilling party is indeed fun to do with family and friends, but if you eat too much meat it can certainly trigger high cholesterol levels.
High cholesterol is often triggered by irregular eating patterns. Another factor is consuming too much food which can trigger bad cholesterol (LDL) levels in the body.
There are several ways to lower cholesterol levels, apart from taking cholesterol medication. One of the main things is to have a healthy diet by consuming these fruits.
Also read: 7 foods that cause high cholesterol, here is a complete list of their saturated fat content
Here are 5 fruits that are effective in lowering cholesterol:
1. Guava
guava Photo: iStock
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Guava is a fruit that is popular as juice. This fruit is good for the body to consume because one of its main benefits is to protect the heart and prevent free radicals in the body.
The potassium content in this fruit functions to reduce bad cholesterol in the body. Consumption can also increase good cholesterol levels in the body.
Apart from that, guava contains the highest vitamin C and iron among other fruits. This has been proven to prevent flu infections and sore throats such as coughs.
2. Apple
Apart from guava, apples are included in the list of natural cholesterol-lowering fruits. Apples are a fruit that is very easy to find and the price is also affordable. Apples have long been known as a fruit that contains many minerals and vitamins for the body.
According to the book ‘Healing foods’, the pectin fiber in apples along with polyphenol antioxidants can reduce unhealthy LDL cholesterol levels and slow oxidation.
This can be a risk factor for atherosclerosis, a condition characterized by hardening of the arteries. Not only that, heart-friendly polyphenols also prevent free radicals that damage heart muscle and blood vessels.
3. Orange
Illustration of Orange Fruit Photo: Rachman
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Citrus fruits such as lemons, limes and grapefruit can also control cholesterol levels.
Citrus fruits contain hesperidin which can reduce symptoms of hypertension and pectin (fiber) and limonoid compounds which can slow atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and reduce “unhealthy” cholesterol (LDL) in the blood. The antioxidants in it can also reduce the risk of stroke in women.
Apart from that, oranges have serum that can control cholesterol by 10.6% of its total nutritional content. In the observations carried out, it was also found that the effect of consuming oranges showed a reduction in bad cholesterol after regular consumption for 60 days.