by Meng

Do you know that cholesterol is essential to the production of sex hormones? Regulate mood and help the body deal with stress ? What we hear these days are all the negative aspect of cholesterol and most people are mis-informed about the important role of cholesterol. There are 2 types of cholesterol namely the dietary cholesterol and the blood cholesterol

Not many people know that our liver produces cholesterol. And cholesterol can be either beneficial to us or expose us to the risk of heart disease and stroke. We have heard of the bad cholesterol that plaque our vein and artery and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke and the good cholesterol that keep our vascular system healthy. It is important to understand both the “good” and “bad” cholesterol so we can tackle high cholesterol problem via informed lifestyle, diet and exercise changes.

The difference between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol is that dietary cholesterol is ingested from our food, absorbed into our bloodstream through our digestive system. Blood cholesterol is produce from our very own liver, circulate within our vascular system.

Dietary cholesterol plays a minute role to our cholesterol level compare to if you have family history of cholesterol problem, presence of thyroid, diabetes and kidney disease. Lifestyle choices such as smoking, exercise routine and our body weight also plays a much more important role in our cholesterol level then dietary cholesterol.

There is a connection between the amount of fat, especially saturated fat and trans fatty acids that we consume and the level of our LDL cholesterol, (the bad one). When we eat an abundance of foods such as meat, egg yolks, dairy products, and foods that contain hydrogenated fats we can help to increase our LDL cholesterol level which is the “bad cholesterol”. We want our LDL blood cholesterol level to be low and our HDL blood cholesterol level to be high in order for our bodies to be heart healthy. We should limit or avoid foods such as French fries, doughnuts, breaded or fried chicken, fish, crackers, cookies and baker products when trying to reduce our intake of trans fats (trans fatty acids).

While attempting to lower the bad (LDL) cholesterol, it is important to avoid the trans fat and saturated fat rather then avoiding the lean meat, eggs and dairy as these food contain the nutrients like zinc, protein, calcium, B-complex etc that the body needed to function properly.

Having high HDL cholesterol is healthy for our body because it helps to break-up the plaque that high levels of LDL cholesterol help to form in arteries leading to the heart and brain. HDL cholesterol can also help to reduce LDL cholesterol and get rid of it from our systems.

Now you know that not only is some cholesterol naturally occurring in our bodies because it is produced in our liver, HDL cholesterol is also an essential part to keeping our hearts and brains healthy.

About the Author:

I used to have a cholesterol level above 300. See how I lower it by 15% in 60 days at How to lower cholesterol naturally I’ve done it without any medication.