What are high cholesterol foods?
The better the foods taste, the higher the chance that they're high cholesterol foods. This is one of the irony's of life.
Do you like steak and eggs? Macaroni and cheese? A lamb chop? Or a generous piece of cake and ice cream?
If you've been told to reduce the high cholesterol foods, it's a small comfort you're not alone. While nobody tells you to become a vegetarian, it's a good idea to be aware of your high cholesterol foods you eat – and take steps to control the eating of foods high in cholesterol. To start with, you should know that there are two main nutrients in the foods you eat that make your cholesterol high. The high cholesterol foods contain: - saturated fat, a type of fat found mostly in animal products; and
Saturated fats raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol level more than anything else in the diet. Eating too much saturated fat is the main reason for high cholesterol levels and a high rate of heart attacks. It makes sense that reducing the amount of saturated fat you eat is a very important step in reducing your cholesterol levels. If you stop them completely you don't miss anything (except the taste), since your body makes all the cholesterol you need. As such, it is not necessary to take in any additional cholesterol from the foods you eat. You must be aware of "cholesterol free" foods, because cholesterol coming from foods (or dietary cholesterol) is hardly as harmful as the amount of saturated fats in your food. You can call them foods that cause high cholesterol, or high cholesterol foods, but in reality it is not the cholesterol content that makes them harmful. It is the fat, or better the saturated fats (which come mainly from meats, nuts and dairy foods), which causes the liver to produce more harmful cholesterol. The liver produces 4 times the amount of cholesterol from our diets. This makes saturated fat much more harmful than dietary cholesterol and renders dietary cholesterol as quite as negligible factor for your high cholesterol levels, or cardiovascular disease risk factor.
For example, coconut oil may be cholesterol free, but is highly saturated and more dangerous than seafood, as it causes the liver to produce more harmful cholesterol. Saturated fat also raises triglyceride levels and thickens the blood. Seafood, on the other hand, contains cholesterol, but also the protective polyunsaturated fats that cause the liver to produce less harmful cholesterol and more protective HDL cholesterol. That's why, rather than worry about high cholesterol foods, you should pay attention to foods high in saturated fats. I find it that the phrase " high cholesterol foods" is somehow not correct. What you should pay attention to, is foods high in saturated fats or foods high in triglycerides, since triglycerides make up 95 percent of all the fats we eat.
High cholesterol foods are mainly found in all animals and animal products, for example, egg yolks, meat, poultry, fish and higher fat milk products. In addition, beware of processed and prepared foods. Although convenient, they are very high cholesterol foods as well as high in saturated fats. Cookies, pastries, and muffins are as well, part of high cholesterol foods "family" and contain high amounts of fat. You should limit the intake of all these high cholesterol foods. And, always pay attention to food package labels to check fat and cholesterol levels. Keep in mind the following when these labels say:
So, "free" does not literally mean free. To give you an idea you should not consume more than 300 mg of cholesterol per day.The following table clearly spells out how much cholesterol each food and its serving portion contains. Keep this in mind when you consume these high cholesterol foods.
For a layperson, what the table above means is that you should consume at most a 3.5oz of liver or beef in a day and none of the other foods. Or a boiled egg, 1oz of cream cheese and 1oz of cheddar cheese (total cholesterol is 225+27+19=271 mg). Or only a 3.5 oz ice cream and 3.5oz of sponge cake (total cholesterol is 45+260=305 mg, an extra 5 mg per day). I trust you can calculate for yourself on any other food high in cholesterol in this table. Knowing what are high cholesterol foods and limiting their intake does not guarantee lower cholesterol levels. You might want to consider other methods of lowering cholesterol such as exercise, increase of fiber intake (vegetables), or usage of proven supplements that lower cholesterol. While there are drugs that successfully lower cholesterol, their side effects would make them undesirable for your body. Instead, a scientifically and clinically proven cholesterol lowering supplement would serve the purpose. Not only you lower your bad (LDL) cholesterol as effectively with a drug, but you increase your good (HDL) cholesterol, and what's more without any side effects. High cholesterol foods Questions, Problems or Comments?Below you can find comments & questions regarding “High cholesterol foods”. Enjoy reading what other people have to say, and more importantly SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE. Help www.all-about-lowering-cholesterol.com community by posting your comments or questions. What Other Visitors Have SaidClick below to see contributions from other visitors to this page... High Cholesterol In Teens High cholesterol without high cholesterol foods Flax Oil and Cholesterol? Not rated yet Lowering Cholesterol without losing much weight? Not rated yet Soy Milk and Cholesterol - Good or bad? Not rated yet Or click here to go back to all about lowering Cholesterol homepage.
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