I have high cholesterol, can I use Purition?

We asked Registered Nutritional Therapist Kate Bevan Wood to give us her thoughts on using Purition if you have high cholesterol or are following a low cholesterol diet.

Types of cholesterol

Firstly, Cholesterol isn’t all bad. It is an essential nutrient which our bodies make & need to keep your cells healthy and functioning.

There are two types of cholesterol:

LDL or ‘low density lipoproteins’: This is often known as ‘bad’ cholesterol because too much of this can be unhealthy, as it gets deposited into your veins and artery walls.
HDL or ‘high density lipoprotein’: This is the 'good' cholesterol made by the liver and used to protect your cells and help transport LDL to the liver for elimination.

Purition & cholesterol

Purition is a great meal replacement shake to use if you have been told to follow a low cholesterol diet. Here’s why:

1. It's rich in healthy fats

There may be 10 – 12g of fat in one serving of a Purition shake, but these fats are what are known as healthy fats and come from the variety of nuts and seeds in Purition.

These monounsaturated fats or polyunsaturated fats (which include omega 3 & 6) have been shown to have a positive impact on heart health by reducing the harmful LDL cholesterol.

Purition contains none of the nasty trans fats which you need to be concerned about for our cholesterol levels.

2. It’s a great source of fiber & phytosterols

Purition also contains some great sources of fiber in the form of psyllium husk, apple pectin and flaxseed.

Dietary fiber has many benefits for a healthy body. Specifically, for cholesterol, it is said to be heart protective and maybe beneficial in lowering the LDL levels by supporting your liver to make more good cholesterol.

Eating a plant-based diet rich in phytosterols may also help reduce ‘bad’ cholesterol. The nuts, flaxseed and other seeds found in Purition are high in phytosterols.

3. It keeps you full

Many Purition consumers report that a shake for breakfast can keep them going through to lunchtime with no signs of hunger. Why is this?

As well as being heart healthy, the healthy fats in Purition make you feel fuller for longer and help to slow down the release of nutrients into your bloodstream.

The healthy fats also satisfy your hunger hormone, leptin, which sends a signal to the brain to say that you have received enough fat to nourish your cells and to stop eating. Unfortunately, without the healthy fats we don’t always get this message relayed, which can often result in overeating.

Fiber is great for keeping those hunger pangs at bay. It takes longer to digest fiber and the food stays longer in your stomachs, providing a feeling of fullness and satiety.

All in all, this can help you to maintain a healthy weight, which has also been shown to be beneficial for lowering LDL levels.

3. It keeps you full

There are other lifestyle considerations that also need to be included when looking to healthily manage your cholesterol levels.

Regular exercise has been shown to naturally lower cholesterol levels, so think about introducing a form of exercise you enjoy into your routine, twice a week.

Purition is a great accompaniment to your exercise program to help build and repair muscle tissue and reduce any inflammation in the body that exercise may cause.

Article written by Kate Bevan Wood