The Truth About Bad Cholesterol

So much is said and talked about bad cholesterol that it is bad and not necessary for the body, but the fact is you do need bad cholesterol. The bad cholesterol is also named as HDL cholesterol and the good cholesterol by LDL cholesterol, these two types of cholesterol are very essential for our body to create hormones, bile salts and vitamin D.

On the contrary bad cholesterol causes a lot of health problems. LDL Cholesterol dumps the cholesterol in the artery walls which in turn creates plaque. The arteries get blocked and narrowed by plaque and as a result of this the blood flow gets blocked which is very bad for their heart.

What Raises Cholesterol?

There are a lot of confusing terms being thrown around when it comes to cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol is one of those terms. You might think that all dietary cholesterol is bad, but in fact dietary cholesterol does not raise blood cholesterol as much as you might think. The two bad guys here are trans fatty acids and saturated fats.

Therefore the best way to tackle the cholesterol problem is to cut down the levels of LDL or bad cholesterol. The most effective way the world over is the diet. You will have to make certain dietary changes in your daily routine. More to the point, as you cut down on food that are bad for cholesterol such as eggs, meat, and seafood, you can also fill up yourself with food that are LDL cholesterol friendly.

Packaged food contains a lot of trans fatty acids such as Microwave popcorn, hard stick margarine french fries which are normally served in the fast food outlets. By eliminating these foods you can cut down your consumption of trans fatty acids which contribute to bad cholesterol in your system.

How good are good fats

You can increase the amount of good cholesterol in your body while reducing the bad cholesterol. This is because the presence of good cholesterol in your body means that excess cholesterol will be taken back to the liver to be excreted out of your body. This means you want plenty of good cholesterol as high levels of good cholesterol means a reduced risk of heart disease.

Lifestyle changes such as eating foods rich in soluble fiber and monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats will help to increase good cholesterol levels.

One can also do a lot of physical activities to bring a reduction in the cholesterol levels. It is also good to limit the intake of alcohol to two glasses a day in case of men and one glass in case of women.

Getting to know more cholesterol information is vital for improving your food habits. Maintaining a healthy cholesterol level is a necessity to have happy life.

Tags: heart disease prevention, heart disease symptom, obesity and heart disease