HIGH CHOLESTEROL FOODS AND DIETS

If your aim is to lower your cholesterol levels, it is important that you know that basics of high cholesterol foods and high cholesterol diets. There are of course many ideas and theories on what constitutes a high or bad cholesterol food or diet. Just a simple search on the internet will turn out thousands of websites offering you information. Maybe that is how you found us, www.lowering-cholesterol.biz. If you feel overwhelmed by all the information on high cholesterol foods and high cholesterol diets, you can make life easy for yourself by remember just the facts on this page.

 

AVOID DIETARY FATS

Not all kinds. Not all fats are created equal, or in our case, not all fats are created high cholesterol foods. The fats you should specifically be avoiding are saturated fats and trans fats.

You should know first of all that fat IS a necessary nutrient. We have been bombarded by so many images of slim people that we come to think of fat as evil. It is not. Period.

Your body needs fat to function properly. Fat serves as an energy source for your body. Dietary fat also carries fat-soluble vitamins from your food into your body. It is also used in the production of cell membranes, and eicosanoids, important compounds which regulate the cardiovascular system, blood pressure, blood clotting and the nervous system. It also gives you healthy skin, keeps you warm and protects your vital organs. In fact, unsaturated fats, classified into monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, can lower your LDL cholesterol levels, this lowering your risk of cardiovascular disease. Therefore not all fats are high cholesterol foods.

This does not mean that you gorge yourself on fats from now. Excess fats do turn into cholesterol. More on that later.

The fats you should be avoiding are saturated fat and trans fat.

SATURATED FAT

Earlier, we mentioned unsaturated fats. There is another type of fat called saturated fat.

If you are looking at high cholesterol foods, look no further. More than anything else in your diet, saturated fat contributes the most to your blood cholesterol level. If you are serious about lowering you cholesterol levels, then you should lower your saturated fat intake. Limit your daily intake of saturated fat to 10% of your daily total calories intake.

A major source of saturated fat is from red meat and other animal products. Animal products like whole milk, cheese, butter, cream, are major sources of saturated fat. In meat, the highest concentration of saturated fat is found in the fat (what else?) surrounding the meat. White meat contains saturated fat too, as well as certain seafood. Most fish are however safe to consume and some are even good for the heart.

Do note that not all saturated fat comes from animal products. Hydrogenated vegetable oils made from plants in the tropics, like coconut and palm oils, are high in saturated fats as well. Unlike animal fats, you cannot actually see them. Therefore always read the food labels before you buy any food. Since vegetable oils are commonly found in many commercially baked goods, such as cookies and biscuits, and other snack foods like chips or candy bars, it is important that you read the food label before buying anything. You do not want your cholesterol lowering efforts to go to waste by buying bad cholesterol foods unwittingly.

Also, the fats themselves do not necessarily contain cholesterol, they just get converted into cholesterol if you do not burn off all the calories you consumed. When you eat, you burn off the calories you take. If you eat more calories than you burn, your liver will convert them into cholesterol.

If you lower your saturated fat intake, you are in effect lowering your intake of high cholesterol food since there will be less saturated fat for your body to convert into cholesterol. Since fat is one of the richest source of calories, an added bonus will be a reduction of calories and potential weight loss. This is good news if you are overweight since being overweight is another important risk factor in contacting cardiovascular disease. If you are not overweight and are one of those fortunate people who have no need to lose weight, then substitute the fats with foods high in complex carbohydrates as an energy source.

 

TRANS FAT

Also know as hydrogenated fat or trans fatty acids, trans fat are commonly found in refined and processed foods. They are one of the worst high cholesterol food of all. Avoid them.

While most saturated fats are naturally found, trans fat is not. It is created in a process called “hydrogenation”. As the name suggests, hydrogen is added to vegetable oils. This makes the oil more solid and less likely to turn bad. Initially thought to be healthier than saturated fat, the opposite turns out to be true. While saturated fat increases your LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol), trans fat increases LDL cholesterol while lowering HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) at the same time.

HDL cholesterol is essential for your health. In any good cholesterol diet, you want to lower LDL cholesterol while increasing HDL cholesterol at the same time. Trans fat does the reverse. It is indeed a candidate for the 'Worst High Cholesterol Food Of All".

If you need more encouragement to avoid trans fat, besides being an high cholesterol food, trans fats also:

Increases triglycerides. Triglycerides are another type of fat found in your blood. High triglyceride levels contribute to the hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), leading to stroke and heart attack.

Increases Lp(a) lipoprotein. Lp(a) is a type of LDL cholesterol found in varying levels in your blood.

Causes inflammation. Trans fat may increase inflammation, which is believed to lead to the formation of fatty blockages in heart blood vessels.

Earlier, I mentioned that you should limit your daily intake of saturated fat to 10% of your total daily calories intake. You should not even consume trans fat at all if possible.

How about food high in cholesterol?

Do we need to avoid food high in cholesterol? Are they considered as bad cholesterol food? Should they be left out of any low cholesterol diet?

Examples of food high in cholesterol are certain seafood (most shellfish), animal organs, red meat and eggs. Cholesterol is not a fat (although most people erroneously think it is). You can find high cholesterol food in both high-fat and low-fat animal foods. A low fat food does not mean that it is automatically low in cholesterol.
While it is commonly stated that only foods of animal origin contain cholesterol, this is not technically correct. Plants do have trace amounts of cholesterol in their membranes, but the amount is too insignificant to be a factor.

You often see some foods like eggs or red meat being branded as high cholesterol food (thus to be avoided) by many people due to the high level of cholesterol found in them. They are only half- right. These foods should be branded as high cholesterol food and avoided NOT because they are high in cholesterol but rather because they are high in saturated fat (which leads to high cholesterol).

A Little Known Fact

Cholesterol is essential to the proper functioning of your body. It is used to produce hormones, membranes and bile. Therefore, your body creates its own cholesterol using the liver. In fact, your body makes 3 - 4 times more cholesterol than the food you eat. Your body works in wonderful ways. It makes just enough cholesterol for your body's needs so that you do not need any additional cholesterol from elsewhere (like food).

Your liver makes cholesterol from the saturated fats you consume. The saturated fat will first be converted into energy for your body. But if you, like most people, eat more calories than you burn, the excess calories will be used to make cholesterol.

So when you eat more cholesterol, your liver simply makes less cholesterol to maintain the balance. That means keeping out eggs, butter and other high cholesterol food from your diet will not have a significant impact on lowering your cholesterol levels. In fact, studies have shown that a diet of eating foods low in cholesterol content can be dangerous because it can lower HDL cholesterol while having no significant effect in lowering your LDL cholesterol.

Avoiding trans fat and excessive amount of saturated fat is a far superior cholesterol diet than avoiding high cholesterol food. In other words, the reason you should avoid food like butter is because it is high in fat and not because it is high in cholesterol.

 

For more information, please visit the following sections:

Cholesterol Diet for comprehensive information on the best low cholesterol foods and diets that help you to lower your LDL cholesterol levels.

Low Cholesterol Foods for information on the foods and diets to lower your LDL cholesterol levels as well as increase your HDL cholesterol levels.

Lowering Cholesterol Levels home page.