Mirror, mirror on the wall, What risks heart disease most of all-high blood pressure or high cholesterol, lack of exercise or too much stress, Type A behavior or a fatty diet, family history or cigarettes? If scientists had the answer, heart disease might not still be our number one killer. In fact, heart disease comes at us from many directions. Researchers do know this and feel free to post it on your refrigerator door lowering high serum cholesterol lowers risk. Some controversy has cropped up in the news regarding this dictum. But it can be reported confidently that the stir was little more than a flash looking for a pan. Virtually every major health organization in the country immediately responded with outrage that the importance of cholesterol should even be questioned, much less debunked. From the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, for example, came the remark that what needs to be discussed is not whether high cholesterol levels need to be reduced but rather how they should be reduced. Cholesterol counts, and a lot. Researchers have been able to calculate that a person's risk of heart disease drops by 2 percent every time his or her cholesterol level drops by just 1 percent. If that fails to impress you, try doing some quick arithmetic. If Fred lowers his cholesterol from 265 to just under 200 a drop of 25 percent he has cut his risk of heart disease in half. The information in this chapter may help those of you who can achieve a substantial reduction in your serum cholesterol level, easily and safely, through dietary changes alone. What sort of changes? The game plan is a wonderfully simple one: Eat more of the foods that can help lower cholesterol and less of the ones that can raise it. It's a one two punch that could, if your cholesterol level is currently high, reduce your risk of heart disease by as much as 50 percent.

Step 1 Go For Soluble Fiber

Fiber comes in two basic styles insoluble, found in wheat bran and the indigestible parts of vegetables and fruit; and soluble, prevalent in oat bran, oatmeal, citrus fruits, and most types of beans. As for the difference between the two types, it's quite simple: Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water, which makes it great for promoting regularity (and reducing risks of colon cancer), while soluble fiber does dissolve in water, which makes it great for cleaning out cholesterol. How? Maybe by flushing cholesterol out of the small intestine before it has a chance to get to artery walls. Some scientists theorize that soluble fiber binds with bile, a digestive fluid that contains goodly amounts of cholesterol, in a way that causes the bile to be excreted in the stool. The result: less cholesterol circulating in the bloodstream, where it can cause trouble. Research by Prevention adviser James W. Anderson, M.D., shows that the addition of soluble fiber to the diet can have a significant and immediate impact on high chole sterol levels. In one study, Dr. Anderson found that men with cholesterol levels around 260 experienced 60 point drops in just three weeks (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition). In another, longer study, cholesterol levels averaging 294 fell by 76 points in six months. That's a 26 percent reduction! And it didn't take truckloads of soluble fiber to achieve these impressive results. The amount in a mere a cups of beans daily, or a single cup of oat bran daily, did the trick. Other very preliminary research suggests that the soluble fiber in rice bran and apple pectin may share these same cholesterol dissolving powers. Include a tasty variety of all of these cholesterol bas hers in your diet, and your cholesterol could suddenly find itself without a leg to stand on.