If you've been diagnosed with high cholesterol, you're
probably trying to modify your existing diet to lower your
cholesterol. You might be surprised to learn that a high
cholesterol diet is not necessarily the culprit behind your
high serum lipid levels.
Let's talk about cholesterol first, and then we'll get into
the effects of a high cholesterol diet. What is
cholesterol? Cholesterol is a fatlike substance that is
synthesized by the body. That's right! We make it in our
bodies. Only animal products contain cholesterol. If it
didn't have a liver, it doesn't have cholesterol! As a
matter of fact, I get a kick out of food labels that tout
"No Cholesterol" as a marketing tool when the food item
never had a chance of having cholesterol in the first
place. I know what you're thinking. Some items have
cholesterol and it doesn't appear to be an animal product.
This is simply because they used animal fat to produce the
product.
Cholesterol is used in the body as a structural component
of cell membranes and in the synthesis of some hormones as
well as Vitamin D. Doesn't seem so bad, right? Wrong.
The problem is that when cholesterol is being transported
in the blood stream, it tends to stick to the walls of
arteries which of course, isn't a good thing. When there's
a high amount of cholesterol in the body, this is far more
prevalent. So, does a high cholesterol diet raise the
level of cholesterol in the body?
Yes and no. There, how's that for fence-sitting!
Seriously, the actual cholesterol component in a high
cholesterol diet doesn't necessarily raise blood levels of
cholesterol. More importantly is the fat that is usually
in the high cholesterol items. Remember how I told you
that cholesterol is only in animal products? Well, animal
products such as steak contain a lot of fat. In addition,
foods that are not even high in cholesterol and are high in
fat are generally what need to be eliminated when trying to
lower high cholesterol levels.
The fat that we're talking about here is that nasty old
saturated fat. It has been well documented that high
levels of saturated fat in a person's diet raise total
cholesterol levels and more importantly, LDL (the bad one).
Saturated fat is found in fatty meats, greasy, salty
snacks and most baked goods as well as other high fat
foods. A high cholesterol diet may or may not contain high
saturated fatty acids.
In addition, diets high in fat are often consumed by people
who are overweight. People who are overweight tend to not
exercise (not that all overweight people don't exercise).
Carrying extra weight and not exercising contribute to
increased blood cholesterol. So, you can see there are a
lot of contributing factors to high cholesterol than simply
a high cholesterol diet.
More importantly than worrying about a high cholesterol
diet, your diet will be lower in cholesterol naturally if
you lower your fat intake. Keep your fat intake less than
30% of your daily intake. If you've been diagnosed with
high cholesterol, go for less than 25% of total calories.
Watch saturated fat intake closely. Work towards getting
your fat intake from healthier sources such as fish and
oils like canola oil.
There's also a significant portion of people with high
cholesterol that don't follow a high cholesterol diet, do
not consume high amounts of fat and do exercise regularly.
These people are merely genetically predisposed to having
high cholesterol. Though they may achieve some lowering of
cholesterol through increasing their efforts at exercise
and adding foods known for lowering cholesterol, they will
probably still need a medication.
Look closely at a high cholesterol diet and re-evaluate it
based on the amount of fat it contains. Lower your fat
intake overall and you'll probably notice you are not
eating foods high in cholesterol, either. This is the best
way to avoid letting your diet affect your blood
cholesterol.
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From a sickly little girl to a healthy chef to the stars,
Darlene Nicholson transformed herself into The "Kick in the
Butt" Healthy Lifestyle Expert and creator of the popular
DVD "The Healthy Grocery Store Tour". Grab a copy of her
free ebook "4 Steps to Permanent Weight Loss"...guaranteed
to open your eyes to how easy weight loss can be with the
right plan of attack. http://free-weightloss-book.com/
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