A lot of us think of cholesterols as perpetrators of most deadly heart diseases. Foods high in cholesterol are shunned away by the health-conscious, but do you know that not all cholesterols are bad? We need them in our body and there are actually two kinds of cholesterols, the bad ones and the good ones.
What is cholesterol and what are its functions?
Cholesterol is a fatty substance manufactured by the liver and can also be found in foods like meat, fish, and dairy products. It is carried in the blood and body cells by lipoproteins. They are essential in the formation of cell membranes and certain hormones in the body.
What are bad cholesterols?
Bad cholesterols are called LDL cholesterols, those carried by low-density lipoprotein. Having too much LDL cholesterols in your blood is dangerous as the cholesterols can form plaques in the artery and obstruct the proper blood flow.
What are good cholesterols?
The role of good cholesterols is to transport excess cholesterol back to the liver, which excretes them, hence they prevent blockage of the artery and prevent heart ailments.
What is a healthy cholesterol level?
A healthy total blood cholesterol level must not exceed 200 mg/dL. Those with 200 to 239 mg/dL cholesterol level are under “borderline high risk” category while those with total blood cholesterol levels equal to or exceeding 240 mg/dL are at high risk.
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if only cholesterol levels were the problem, no people would have heart disese and death with even lower then ideal levels. Even lowered levels. Yet it happens!There is more to this and we need to look into factors, some dietary, (lack of the variety of antioxidants, the wrong vegetable oils, high animal fats, lack of omega 3) and the rest of inflammation-provoking factors. Oxidized LDL and low HDL in a nutshell with the above.
what are foods with bad cholesterol
Eggs and dairy products are rich in cholesterol; however, our body absorbs only a little amount of cholesterol directly from these. Most cholesterols in the blood are made by the liver from the different kinds of food that we eat, especially from saturated fats mostly found in meat, lard and suet. Eggs and dairy products are also rich in saturated fat.
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