Lower Your Cholesterol

Foods, high in cholesterol, are often the more popular foods but what may be pleasing to the palate may be harmful to the body. So, before you eat your favorites without thinking, consider - are they really as good as they seem?

The body’s liver normally produces the right amount of cholesterol necessary to carry out its essential functions. There is usually no need for extra external sources. Indescriminately eating foods high in cholesterol is the main reason the levels rise. The worst culprits are saturated fat and trans fast which are found in animal products.

High cholesterol foods with a high saturated fat content can increase the levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol level in your bloodstream. Decreasing your consumption of them is a big step towards reducing your overall levels.

An interesting fact about foods high in cholesterol can be illustrated using seafood as an example. Seafoods are known to contain cholesterol. However, they also have polyunsaturated fat content which makes the liver produce less bad cholesterol and more HDL (good) cholesterol.

Pay attention to what food labels say about the products.

For example:

~ "Cholesterol free" doesn’t exactly mean the absence of cholesterol but rather that the food contains 2 milligram cholesterol and 2 grams or less fat content.

~ "Low cholesterol" contains 20 mgs or less and 2 grams or less of saturated fat.

~ "Fat free" is not the absence of fat either. It means about ½ gram fat content.

~ "Low fat" would mean fat content of 3 grams or less.

~ "Reduced fat" means 25% lesser fat content than the same foods of other brands.

Why a High Cholesterol Diet can be Life Threatening

Many people are living their lives right now with a high cholesterol diet, and this can be more than simply dangerous, it can be downright life-threatening. This is why it is so truly important to determine whether or not your diet is a high cholesterol diet, and thus what you can do to change it if need be.

How to Tell if your Diet is a High Cholesterol one

There are many ways to tell if you have a high cholesterol diet. For example, if you are consuming a lot of foods that are high in saturated fats, then you have a high cholesterol diet and are much more prone to having a heart attack or a stroke. As well, there may even be other health problems at bay, such as obesity or other types of coronary problems, for instance.

It is also important to know that there are both good and bad types of cholesterol. LDL is the bad type of cholesterol, and HDL is the good type of cholesterol. Basically our body does need cholesterol in order to make bile salts, hormones, vitamin D, and so on, and this is mainly produced by the liver.

However, in the case of LDL cholesterol, what happens is that it builds up on the arteries, which thus decreases the flow of blood to the heart, therefore posing a serious risk on the person for a heart attack, stroke, or even death.

However HDL cholesterol on the other hand actually takes excess cholesterol away and then carries it back to the liver to be excreted; in fact, it can even remove some of the cholesterol that is already attached to the artery walls, thus creating a better health situation overall.

If you are looking to lower your cholesterol, you should know that there are many ways that you can do this. For instance, incorporating something such as soy into your diet can be incredibly helpful. What has most interested scientists in recent years is that of the discovery of phytochemicals and the profound benefits of soy on the human health overall.

Basically the cholesterol lowering effect of soy milk and its role of heart disease was widely recognized in the mid 90s when the results of a meta-analysis of 38 clinical studies were published, and the results demonstrated strongly that a diet with significant soy protein greatly reduces total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides.

What Is A Food High in Cholesterol?

Keeping your cholesterol levels low is vital for keeping your heart healthy. If you are a normally healthy person, your body makes all of the cholesterol that it needs. Adding too much more cholesterol on a regular basis can lead to heart disease or a heart attack. By recognizing food high in cholesterol, you can limit your ingestion of it. Combined with regular exercise, this is the most effective way to fight high cholesterol.

Read The Labels

A diet low in cholesterol shouldn’t have too many labels. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables are the key to a low cholesterol diet. When your food does come with a label, you should be looking at the most important items to spot food high in cholesterol. First, remember that all the numbers are based on the serving.

Some foods seem to deliberately make their bad numbers seem small by defining a serving size as something less than the average person would eat. For instance, when a 16 ounce beverage bottle claims to contain two servings, you may wonder what they are thinking. Just remember that no matter how small the package is, if it claims to contain two servings, double all of the numbers.

Look at the calories and calories from fat. This will tell you the percentage of fat it contains. You should have fewer than 30% of your daily calories from fat. That’s easier to accomplish if each serving you have sticks to that figure. The listing of total fat shows the number of grams of fat per serving. The percentage is not the percentage of the serving is fat but the percentage of your daily fat allowance is contained in one serving. Look at the amount of saturated fat and trans fat is in the food.

This is where you will find whether this is food high in cholesterol. Both types of fat increase bad cholesterol. Your daily allowance for these is zero. The nutrients are good for you. Look for high percentages of these. Fiber is good for controlling cholesterol. If your food should have fat, salad dressing for instance, look for fat-free, low fat, reduced fat, and cholesterol free and so forth.

Pay Closer Attention To Menus

Eating out may mean a break from cooking but it doesn’t mean a break from healthy eating. Study the menu to avoid food high in cholesterol. Stick to low-fat choices. Clear soup instead of creamy, steamed or broiled instead of fried, dressing on the side are all good ideas. Choose lean meat, fish or chicken. Chicken should be skinless. Vegetables should have no butter or cheese. Be careful at the salad bar. Food high in cholesterol is bad even on a salad. If you stick to your guns, you can keep your heart healthy for a long time to come.

High Cholesterol Food Avoidance

If you have high cholesterol levels in your body it is very important to reduce the amount of cholesterol in your diet. Cutting down on the number and amount of high cholesterol food you eat is the easiest way to do that. You should replace it with healthieroptions, preferably with foods that are low in cholesterol. You might also consider not just making changes to your diet but also talking medication that helps to process those high cholesterol foods once they are in your system. You can improve the way your body digests food with some changes in your diet and by taking cholesterol medication prescribed by your doctor. However, medication should be considered a last resort and may not be necessary with sufficent changes in your eating habits.

A diet that contains a lot of high high cholesterol food is usually high in saturated fats, so this is always the best place to start. Look at the fatty foods you eat on a regular basis and consider removing them. Eating other foods that are high in cholesterol also helps to raise the level of cholesterol in your diet, of course, but it is the saturated fats that are actually most harmful in terms of a high cholesterol food. It may sound confusing at first, but with a little look at the foods we eat that are high in saturated fats it will become clearer as to what the connection is. A careful dietary change to lower the levels of both food types is beneficial.

Replacing The Saturated Fats

Some of the most popular types of high cholesterol food don't seem so bad at first but a closer look at their content actually reveals a shocking amount of cholesterol. One boiled egg, for example, has about 225mg of cholesterol in it. Butter, cream cheese, cheddar cheese and ice cream are all high in cholesterol as well. While that may be disappointing to hear you have to decide which is more important - your long term health or the short term pleasures of eating "naughty but nice" foods. Other foods high in cholesterol are things like lamb, beef, steak and fatty meats generally as these proteins add up to more cholesterol for your body. Taking a good look at the amount of these food types in your diet can be a good lesson in controlling your food intake.

Avoiding high cholesterol food is one part of the equation. Another part is eating more foods that are low in cholesterol. These foods include vegetables, fruit, grains, nuts, seeds, and the use of vegetable oil as opposed to animal fats. Adding more of these foods to your diet whilst reducing the level of the high cholesterol food types will help lower your overall cholesterol levels. Cutting down on the dangerous saturated fats will lead to a fitter healthier you.