The best way to control and lower high cholesterol levels is to pay special attention to your diet. High cholesterol is a very common health problem that is on the rise because of unhealthy diet that many people tend to eat. The fact is that most people are unable to distinguish between high cholesterol foods that they should avoid and low cholesterol foods that they should consume more of.
Dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol are different from each other. To stay healthy, your daily intake of dietary cholesterol should not exceed 300mg. However, if you are already affected by the problem of high levels of LDL cholesterol, your daily intake of dietary cholesterol should not exceed 200mg.
Cholesterol, which is a wax like substance, is found only in animal meat and tissues. Sources of cholesterol include red meat, poultry, eggs, fish and dairy products. On the other hand, all foods that are derived from plants are free of cholesterol, including fat rich foods such as peanut butter. Consuming a lot of vegetable oil can lead to a significant rise in the level of blood cholesterol, especially when consumed along with high cholesterol foods.
There is a direct relationship between LDL blood cholesterol levels and the amount of saturated fats that you consume. Your levels of blood LDL cholesterol are significantly influenced by your intake of saturated fat. An increase of just one percent calorie derived from consuming saturated fats leads to a two percent increase in the levels of blood cholesterol. On the other hand, one percent drop in the intake of saturated fats leads to a two percent reduction in cholesterol levels.
One important point that people should remember while avoiding high cholesterol foods is that although doing this will reduce the levels of LDL cholesterol, limiting the intake of saturated fat has a far bigger impact on cholesterol levels than one would think. Hence, people suffering from high cholesterol should understand that there is more to reducing cholesterol levels than just avoid the above mentioned high cholesterol foods.
The way you cook your food has a big influence on how it will affect your cholesterol levels. For example, eggs and bacon are two of the most common foods that people like to eat in breakfast. As mentioned earlier, eggs are high in cholesterol. However, what most people don’t know is that the cholesterol present in eggs has little impact on the levels of blood cholesterol. The main culprit in this kind of breakfast is bacon that contains a very high amount of saturated fat and influences the LDL cholesterol levels.
Deep fried fat foods are another major culprit behind high blood cholesterol levels. Even harmless foods become dangerous after being breaded and fried in hot oil. Although high in cholesterol, a lot of fish and sea foods have health benefits due to the omega-3 fatty acids present in them. However, when these foods are deep fried, saturated fats cancel most of their health benefits and make them harmful for your health.
If eaten in moderation, even the high cholesterol foods can have certain health benefits. Hence you don’t need to completely avoid such foods and you can have them once in a while. The main threat occurs when these foods are combined with high level of saturated fats that influence the blood cholesterol levels in a negative way.