When eating out in restaurants, try making wise decisions about the food you order. Most restaurants now days offer low fat, low cholesterol foods. Take your time and study the menu before you decide what you are going to order.

Have your server bring water to the table and drink a couple glasses of water before you eat. This will help to fill your stomach up so you don’t over eat when your meal is ready.

Try to avoid foods on the menu that are buttery, fried, creamed, au gratin or ala mode. These types of foods can be high in cholesterol and fat. If you order bread make sure it’s whole grain bread and don’t put butter on it.

Be careful about the type of foods that you order by selecting low cholesterol foods from the menu. Only order foods which have been roasted, grilled, stir fried, broiled or steamed. Seafood and chicken are the best meats that you can order. Don’t order meats that have fat in them. If your meat has fat showing on it, trim it off and if the skin is still left on your meat, such as chicken, remove it.

Be sure to order your potatoes baked or roasted and without any sour cream or butter on them. Stay away from fried potatoes or any other fried foods. If you order an appetizer, pick out a clear soup. For side dishes, order steamed vegetables in the place of other things. If you ask your server to substitute items on the menu for other food items which have low cholesterol, most of the time, they’ll let you.

Salads can be healthy and low in cholesterol but only if you leave certain items out of them. If you do eat salads, avoid putting certain items in them such as cheese, eggs, bacon, and croutons. When you have dressing with your salad, pour just a little on it at a time. This may help you to eat less dressing than if you were to pour it all on at once. Requesting fat-free dressing on your salad is your best option.

Unfortunately, there are usually no symptoms to reveal that you’re getting high cholesterol. That’s the scary part, not knowing. You will not even know you have high cholesterol unless you go to a doctor and have it checked.

When symptoms do reveal themselves, it may be too late because the symptoms are usually angina, a heart attack or a stroke resulting from the plaque that has built up in your arteries. That’s why it’s so important to go to your doctor regularly and have your cholesterol levels checked. You may need to change your lifestyle and begin taking better care of yourself, or your doctor may put you on medication if your cholesterol levels are severe.

To diagnosis high cholesterol, you’ll need to go to your doctor and get a blood test. To get a reliable reading of your cholesterol, your doctor may ask you to not eat or drink anything for up to twelve hours before you get tested. He may also ask you to avoid exercising for up to twenty-four hours before your test.

If the test is inaccurate he will require you to take a second test. However, you may have to wait a while before taking the second test. There are home tests you can get and check your cholesterol but they may not be as complete and accurate as the one your doctor would give.

There is a new test that’s able to check the cholesterol levels in your skin. This test can also determine your risk of heart disease if you have high levels of cholesterol in your skin. You should start having your cholesterol levels checked by age twenty and have it checked again at least every five years if you have normal cholesterol.

If you’re an adult who has risk factors, you should go and get your cholesterol checked every two years or more often. If your parents have high cholesterol or heart disease, this can also indicate a risk factor for you so you’ll need to have your cholesterol checked more often.