Cholesterol Lowering Diet Plan

It sounds crazy, but advertising can help you lower your cholesterol because advertising is likely already a big part of your higher cholesterol. Think about it: why do you eat the way you do? At least part of the reason has to do with learned behavior. You learned to like some foods as a child, but you have also learned to associate certain foods with certain ideas and ideals - and likely this has been the doing of advertisers.

Do you associate champagne and truffles with elegant dinner parties? Chips and beer with a fun night out? Lattes with work friends? Advertisers spend millions and even billions of dollars getting you to eat their foods - even when those foods are processed and contribute directly to higher cholesterol.

When you picture a hamburger, you likely picture the hamburger you see in advertisements - a large, juicy burger with all the toppings. When you think of a salad, you may nit get the same strong images in your head, simply because salads and vegetables are advertised a lot less. Think of the last ten food advertisements you have seen. Odds are, they were for less-than–healthy processed foods.

Traditionally, less than healthy foods have needed advertising, because they were not needed. Today, though, there is a huge market for convenience and "junk" foods. When you visit your local grocery store, compare the amount of shelf space given to convenience foods, junk foods, sugary foods, and sodas to the amount of space given to the produce section.

In too many grocery stores, the amount of space that fresh produce and grains take up is far less than the amount of space devoted to less heart-healthy foods. This is no mistake. Take a look at those high-fat and cholesterol-high foods. Odds are, they come in brightly designed packages that grab the eye. Often, they are placed at eye level. Advertisers are trying to make their products appealing. Is it any wonder that it is hard to walk by the foods you know are less than healthy for you?

You can turn the power of advertising in your advantage, though, and lower your cholesterol. Start with your own cholesterol-lowering diet and action plan:

1) Reduce the amount of food advertising you see. Advertisers do an incredible job at making foods attractive, but many times these foods are less than great for your cholesterol level. There is no reason why your heart health should suffer because some advertiser is good at their job. Figure out where you see advertisements for foods and then avoid those ads. Most people see the majority of food advertisements on television. If this describes you, avoid the television for a while and watch your cravings for fatty foods decrease. Also avoid radio ads and restaurant advertisements in magazines and newspapers.

2) Make good-for-you foods appealing. Put your low-fat dinners on nicer china and eat at the table instead of in front of the television. Use brightly colored fruits and vegetables and arrange your heart-healthy food in an attractive way on the plate, much as restaurants do. Add some music or candles to your dinner. Any small and fast touches that can make your meal more appealing will make your new low-fat diet seem more like a luxury than anything else.

After all, this is exactly what restaurants do to advertise their food when you are actually in the restaurant - they add ambience to make the meals more attractive and appealing, so that customers are more likely to walk away feeling happy and satisfied with their meal.

In fact, good restaurants will often spend large budgets on consultants that can tell them what they can do to make meals more appealing to customers. Is it any wonder that restaurant meals - even those that are fatty and terrible for your cholesterol - are so hard to resist? The great thing is that you can add this same type of "advertising" to your own low-fat and heart-healthy meals.

3) Describe foods in a way that makes them appealing to you. Advertising works by staying with you. Advertisers work very hard to make sure that you remember jingles and descriptions of foods - that’s why you can often sing the slogans for popular advertisements years after the ads are no longer shown.

You can use the same technique to make good-for-you low-fat foods seem appealing. This is especially important since there are few ads for these foods and many of us come to associate negative images of health foods. You likely have heard fresh fruit and vegetables described as "rabbit food" or as being "boring" or even "tired" or "wilted." This is not likely to make you crave these foods - especially since you are always hearing great adjectives - such as "delicious" and "juicy" described about fatty foods.

Try to do the same thing as advertisers - when buying food that is good for you, watch out for negative words. Use words such as "crisp" and "delicious" to describe low-fat and good-for-you foods such as produce and lean meats.

4) Use a little negative advertising. Whenever you find yourself craving foods that are high in fat or sodium, use a little negative advertising. As soon as you are aware that you are craving the foods, imagine them in the worst possible light - as mushy, greasy, cold, congealed, and disgusting. This will make bad-for-your heart foods seem far less attractive.

If you find that you crave convenience foods, fast foods, and other foods you are trying to avoid during the next 30 days, try to find ways to make these foods less appealing. For example, recall the times you have had terrible fast food or convenience food meals. Ask your friends and family for their dining-out horror stories, and look up stories about the disgusting things people have found in the fast foods and convenience foods.

Collecting and reading stories about the hairs and other unappetizing things that have been found in convenience food will make these foods seem far less attractive. By making heart-healthy foods such as vegetables and lean meat more attractive and high-fat foods seem more disgusting, you will find it much easier to stick to a low-fat diet - without feeling cheated or deprived.