Pass the Cranberry Juice

I recently had my yearly physical. I’ve never paid close attention to my blood cholesterol levels before but I was interested to know what they were this time, because I'm, uh, getting older. The nurse called me back the other day and all the levels looked good, except my HDL was a little low. When you think of cholesterol levels, your initial thought is “The lower the better.” Well, that isn’t always the case. There are two types of cholesterol in your blood: HDL and LDL. You want High HDL and Low LDL. For the best protection against heart disease, men want their HDL levels to be above 40 and women want theirs to be above 50. What am I going to do to raise my HDL levels?? I’ll tell you: .....

1. Keep exercising – Aerobic exercise is one of the best ways to raise HDL levels
2. Eat more good fats and less bad ones. I like salmon, almonds and olive oil. Those all have good fats. Less ice cream, oreos and greasy fast food.
3. Cranberry Juice – I went out and bought some tonight. Here’s an easy way to boost my HDL. Along with being a super antioxidant cranberries have been shown to help raise HDL levels.

I encourage everyone to know what their cholesterol levels are and if they aren't in the ideal range, do something about it. I hope to report better numbers next time.