Currently, there are two methods to lower your cholesterol, diet and/or medication. Medications work well in lowering your cholesterol number, but you might be concerned about long term side effects of taking the medication. For some people, diet and exercise without medication will not sufficiently lower their cholesterol number.

What’s a person to do? Try adding some, or all of, these 15 foods to your diet that have been proven to naturally lower cholesterol.

1. Apples: eaten daily, preferably three times a day. one in the mid-morning, one in the mid-afternoon and one in the evening.
2. Barley: it works by lowering the livers ability to produce cholesterol. Use barley as a cooked cereal or in baked goods.
3. Beans: one cup a day of cooked pintos or navy beans. Beans work two ways, they lower the bad cholesterol and raise the good.
4. Carrots: eating three raw carrots a day has been shown to reduce the bad numbers.
5. Chili Peppers: another food that suppresses the liver’s ability to produce cholesterol. Add some jalapeno peppers to your favorite foods every day.
6. Eggplant: it serves a special function by blocking the cholesterol in the blood from rising when fatty foods have been eaten.
7. Garlic: five fresh cloves of garlic minced and mixed with your other foods daily. If you don’t like the taste or the residual bad breath, try a quality garlic supplements that can be purchased almost anywhere.
8. Skim milk: as the ad says-‘milk, it does a body good’.
9. Olive Oil: use it in cooking or just take a couple of teaspoons every day.
10. Onions: another food that lowers the bad number and raises the good number.
11. Fish: eaten several times a week keeps the cholesterol level from elevating.
12. Sweet potatoes: they contain a large amount of water soluble fiber, plus beta carotene. Eat 4-5 times weekly.
13. Yogurt: three cups a day can lower you cholesterol significantly in just one week.
14. Soybeans: any product made from soybeans will work. Soybeans help break down fatty deposits so your body can flush them out more readily.
15. And last but not least, is good old oat bran. Who would have thought that a cup of oatmeal a day could be one of the best things you could eat? No time for sitting down and eating breakfast in the mornings? No problem, grab an oat bran muffin and go.

If you are trying to lower your cholesterol by diet alone, or are thinking about trying a natural method, just by adding one of these foods to your diet, you can see your bad numbers lower. The more of these foods you add, the lower your cholesterol numbers can go. Some of these foods are also good for other ailments and will serve you by doing double duty in your diet.