Fiber

I am trying to eat more fiber because I didn't want to go on cholesterol medication to bring the ldl down.  The doctor said I wouldn't be able to make a dietary change that would help because my triglycerides and blood sugar were already good.  I said I was going to try anyway.  The next time I went, my ldl had gone down 20 points and my hdl hadn't dropped.
I had called my health coach associated with my insurance and asked how to bring down my ldl without bringing down my hdl.  She said to eat fiber.
Well.  It turns out there are two kinds of fiber, soluble and insoluble.  Soluble fiber cleans out the blood vessels and insoluble fiber cleans out the intestines.  I did not find that out immediately.  I asked the nutritionist associated with my insurance if it would help if I left the peelings on tomatoes.  I don't like them because it is like I imagine eating plastic wrap would be.  She clued me in that there are two types.  So tweaking that part of my diet has been a fairly recent change.  Some of the foods overlap for both kinds, but benefiber doesn't do what insoluble fiber does.