"Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are," said the French philosopher. Two hundred years later, doctors agree. If you eat unhealthy, you end up unhealthy. Here we focus on just one of many dietary villains: cholesterol, and his sidekick, triglycerides. If you want to steer clear of heart and artery disease, then you must understand the unhealthy nexus between the cholesterol- (and triglyceride-) laden food you consume and cardio-vascular disease. This understanding is crucial to making an informed decision about your choice of food, because that's going to affect your health and your life.
Health magazines and sites warn you about the dangers of cholesterol. They say that high levels of cholesterol in your diet can and do lead to serious heart problems like strokes, heart attacks, heart disease, and artery disease. These serious ailments and conditions are further aggravated if you smoke, or suffer from hypertension and obesity, or have a hereditary condition.
The thing to understand is that when we speak of cholesterol, we are actually speaking of three different things: good cholesterol (HDL), bad cholesterol (LDL), and triglycerides. Triglycerides are not really cholesterol but are very intimately associated with regular cholesterol. Now not all these things are unhealthy or disease causing. In fact, the body requires cholesterol and triglycerides too. The trick is in identifying the good ones and including them in your daily diet, and simultaneously avoiding the unhealthy ones. Fish cholesterol and triglycerides is good. Omega-3 fats found in a number of fish are recommended by physicians and nutritionists for patients suffering from diseases caused by cholesterol, because Omega-3 actually helps to reduce the level of bad cholesterol.
The food containing cholesterol is not always to blame for cholesterol related problems. The way the food is cooked, the medium used to cook the food, and even the foods eaten along with basic food are all contributory factors to high levels of bad cholesterol. Ignorance of the facts about cholesterol and how they affect our health has often led to ridiculous situations about certain foods. Once upon a time eggs were a considered a must-have food for proper health; then it was discovered that eggs were rich in bad cholesterol, and thenceforth eggs were banished from the breakfast, lunch and dinner tables. Now we are advised to have the whites of the eggs but to stay away from the yolks!
So now you are careful about eating eggs. You have restricted to one poached egg. But are you looking at what you're having along with the egg? Bacon and cheese and sausages, with thick slices of white bread liberally coated with butter! The egg isn't going to harm you, but those side helpings definitely are! Once again the point is that instead of adopting a policy of exclusion of a specific food, we should have a more holistic approach to the entire meal.
The way the food is cooked is just as much to blame for high cholesterol levels in the bloodstream. Even foods innocent of any trace of cholesterol, can be transformed into real dangerous dishes. If the food is fried in oil or margarine then the goodness of the food is overpowered by the saturated fats present in the cooking medium. Red meats, poultry products, and dairy products contain high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. So it's best to stay away from fried stuff and animal products.
Apart from keeping a watch on the cholesterol in foodstuffs, you should also keep tabs on the saturated fats that you consume. Saturated fats have an effect on the way the liver produces cholesterol. Too much saturated fat causes the liver to increase production of LDL and triglycerides which coat and ultimately block the arteries.
The key to good health it appears is to moderate the dietary intake of high cholesterol foods and saturated fats. So choose poached eggs over that egg omelet, and grilled chicken over fried chicken, and a fresh salad over French fries! That's the way to a healthy heart and a healthy life!
More Information:
To find out additional information about eating
low cholesterol food visit
www.reduce-high-cholesterol.com, a popular website devoted to helping people live a heart healthy life. Also find out how a
cholesterol monitor can help you keep your levels where they need to be.
Categories
