The Therapeutic Lifestyle Diet...

Many people — 17 percent of Americans — have high cholesterol for a variety of reasons, most of which can be controlled. A healthy diet is one way to reduce the build-up of this fatty substance in your artery walls, which can often lead to heart disease.


If you have high cholesterol (200 mg/dL and higher) and have heart disease or other risk factors, your doctor may recommend the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet, created by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s National Cholesterol Education Program.

How to Lower Cholesterol: The TLC Diet
The TLC diet teaches you how to lower cholesterol levels. It revolves around an intensive lifestyle intervention to reduce your cholesterol and your chances for developing heart disease.

Here are the primary goals of the TLC diet:

* Reduce your sodium intake to 2,400 milligrams per day.

* Make sure saturated fats make up less than 7 percent of your daily calorie intake.Limit your fat calories to no more than 25 percent to 35 percent of your total calorie intake each day.

* Reduce your intake of dietary cholesterol, which is found in foods from animals, to less than 200 milligrams a day.

* Eat only enough calories each day to achieve or maintain a healthy weight.

* Limit your carbohydrate intake to 50 percent to 60 percent of your total daily calorie consumption, making sure it comes mostly from foods that are rich in complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.

* Make sure to consume about 15 percent of your daily calories in the form of protein.
 
You can read the rest of this article on the Everyday Health web site here. 
 
The good news is that if you are eating the FLFL program, you are already complying with this above recommendations and are on the right track to a healthier you! AND you are lowering your cholesterol as you do so!