lowering cholesterol

[Thorn]

My mother had the "rare muscular side effect" from Lipitor before it was accepted as real--she never recovered. As such, I refuse to use the drugs so I started dietary alternatives when my doc didn't like my cholesterol results. Unfortuately, I didn't do this scientifically, so I can only say that the following diet changes worked for me and did bring the bad count down 50 points. My doctor is now a happy camper. I am the only one in my family not on Liptor or similar drugs.

+ A glass of red wine every evening (really, how painful is that? --edit: oops, sorry to suggest)
+ Vegetarian. I was before, but I cut down on cheese to 4-5 times a week (Hey, I live in Wisconsin, once the cheese capital of the US before we citified--giving up cheese is hard).
+ Removed transfats and bad fats rather religiously--lots of label reading. That meant replacing my afternoon candy bar and/or cookies with either a few dark chocolate Dove bars or a Luna bar.
+ Replaced my morning donut habit with plain yogurt topped with 1/2 c raw thick cut oatmeal, 1/4 c each walnuts, cashews, dried cherries or blueberries and 2T ground flax seed (6 good things before breakfast--ok, during breakfast).

However, I still eat rich foods periodically (we all need comfort foods) and except for the breakfast change, 80% of my diet didn't change. I've since added back to the diet some other things I gave up (my milk chai, for instance) and the cholesterol level is holding.

Good luck.

Disclaimer: I'm a believer that diet, eating real food and exercise can work. I'm not denying that Lipitor and the like aren't required for some, but I tend to believe that American society tosses pills way too easily.