Spice up your life

See that picture?  That's an anti-cholesterol army, that is.

Reading around, it's harder to get cholesterol down by not eating things than it is by eating things.  So, while it is probably a good idea to avoid dairy and cut down on saturated fats (don't kill yourself if you have a bacon sandwich; just don't have another one tomorrow), what is more likely to work is making sure you adjust your diet to include stuff which does bring your cholesterol down.  All of the stuff in that picture above is, somewhere, rumoured to work to bring cholesterol down. 

Some of the rumours are actually backed up by research.  Oats, we already know about, and garlic (although some studies disagree) and red wine.  Suprising, green tea is one of the substances where the claimed cholesterol lowering effects are backed by research; green tea appears to be an all-round wonder-food when it comes to reducing / preventing metabolic syndrome.  I hate it. I try to drink at least one cup a day.

Spices, though: there are huge lists of spices which may lower cholesterol.  We're looking at anecdata here, and some spices are referred to more than others. 

Top of the list is fenugreek, or methi.  You can get it as a tea, or more interestingly, just use the spice in cooking.  It has a clovey/mapely flavour.  There are studies which show that it reduces cholesterol in animals.

Many websites state that there is evidence that cinammon may reduce cholesterol, although other reputable websites state that the evidence is weak. It can't hurt to use cinammon as a flavouring, though.

Similar cholesterol lowering claims have been made about tumeric: again, more reputable sites claim that cholesterol-lowering properties haven't been proven (although tumeric does seem to have some medical activity).

Similarly, ginger may have cholesterol-lowering effects.  One of the things I'm noticing is that substances that may lower cholesterol often appear to be insulin-lowering substances as well.

While chili peppers have only a small cholesterol-lowering effect, they may well prevent the oxidisation of LDL cholesterol, or lower the rate at which it happens, anyway.

Cumin, strangely, seems to have no cholesterol-lowering effect in rats, although it does lower insulin levels.

Anyway, do you see where I'm going with this?

It's easy enough to do your own research, but it seems to me that many of the spices used regularly in Indian cooking may be active in reducing cholesterol.  The evidence that increased vegetable consumption  (do your own cite) will bring cholesterol down is also compelling.

Vegetable curries are the way to go, my friends.  Jackfirecat and myself have decided to cook our way through Indian Vegetarian food and we'll be posting the results here.