Cholesterol gets so much bad press that it's difficult to believe that your body actually needs it. There are two types of cholesterol in your system, bad cholesterol or LDL cholesterol and good cholesterol also known as HDL cholesterol. Cholesterol in your body is needed to produce hormones, vitamin D and bile salts.
The bad cholesterol on the other hand could cause you many problems. The main worry with LDL cholesterol is that it could put cholesterol onto artery walls that will create plaque. In turn, theplaque will narrow and block the arteries. This could be the cause of blood flow to be blocked, which is bad news for your heart.
When it comes to cholesterol, there are a lot of confusing terms being thrown around. Dietary cholesterol is one of those terms. You might think that all dietary cholesterol is bad, but actually, dietary cholesterol does not raise blood cholesterol as much as you may think. The two bad guys here are saturated fats and trans fatty acids.
So what you need to do when you think of cholesterol problems is to reduce your levels of bad cholesterol. The best way to achieve this is through dietary changes. As well as cutting down on foods with bad cholesterol such as meat, dairy, eggs and seafood, you could also eat various foods that could reduce LDL levels.
Trans fatty acids are found in a lot of packaged food. Microwave popcorn, hard stick margarine and a number of French fries from certain fast food chains are all responsible. You can reduce your assimilation of trans fatty acids that will all contribute to the level of bad cholesterol in your system, by eliminating these foods or trying to find better substitutes.
You may augment the amount of good cholesterol in your system at the same time as lowering the bad cholesterol. This is because the existing of good cholesterol in your body means that surplus of cholesterol will be taken back to the liver so it can be expulsed out of your system. This denotes you need a lot of good cholesterol since high levels of good cholesterol can reduce risk of heart disease.
Lifestyle changes like eating foods rich in soluble fiber and monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats will help to increase good cholesterol levels. You could also increase the amount of physical activity in your every day life to decrease cholesterol levels. Limiting alcohol intake to one glass a day for women and two a day for men is also a good idea.
by paul zayer