The Portfolio Diet
You have probably heard of the Portfolio Diet before, so in this article we are going to show you some solid guidelines.
1. Substitute meats with soy food – Instead of milk, try drinking soy milk, and for other meats simply substitute soy protein
2. Eat “sticky” fiber as much as you can – A recent study has been made with three daily servings of natural psyllium supplements. You can replace grains with oats and barley, and remember to eat lots of vegetables such as eggplant and okra.
3. Plant sterol-enriched margarines. You can take dietary supplements such as Benecol and Take Control. These dietary supplements contain plant sterols in capsule form.
4. Eat nuts every day. Any tree nut will reduce your cholesterol levels, so it is recommended that you include nuts in your diet.
Some examples of typical servings each day:
Breakfast: Include oat bran cereal with almonds and chopped fruit, soy milk and oatmeal bread with sterol-enriched margarine and some jam.
Lunch: Bean soup, oat bran bread, soy lunchmeats and fruit
Dinner: Tofu, fruit and almonds, stir fry with vegetables
Snacks: Include in your snacks yogurt, nuts and soy milk which you thicken with a psyllium supplement such as Metamucil.
Effectiveness?
Recently, in order to see how this diet really works, a study was performed on a bunch of signed up people who wanted to lower their cholesterol levels. During the study,, they all received the sample menus and some information regarding what to eat, but they did not provide any prepared foods. The study’s results showed that about 30 percent of the people had a reduction of almost 20 percent in their LDL cholesterol levels after six months. Another 30 percent had a reduction of 15 percent in LDL levels and the remaining third failed to lower their cholesterol levels. The failure was mainly based on the fact that they could not follow the diet as strictly as those with good results.
One of the biggest obstacles in this diet was eating soy food products, because most of the people could easily eat almonds and substitute plant sterol products for margarine.
The portfolio diet – is it for you?
If people are struggling with weight control and high blood cholesterol levels then most of those people will be concerned about heart disease and stroke. Going on prescription medication is not as comfortable for many of those people. There is no risk when going on the portfolio diet since this is an eating plan that does not eliminate food groups or follows some type of fad. It is more of a way of eating instead of a “diet” at all. In the end, it all narrows down to substituting some of the recommended foods for foods they normally eat today.
Jean Helmet is a content editor who focuses on a wide array of niche health topics. Her latest website – Natural Cholesterol Supplement focuses on cholesterol as a whole, and in partcular, a natural product our editors personally use with excellent health results known as – Cholest-Natural
Be sure to check out our cholesterol product of choice, it is the natural supplement we use and recommend to friends and family, and have done for over 3 years.
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