High Cholesterol Foods Ironies And Misconceptions 

With cholesterol issues, there are ironies. High cholesterol foods are the more delicious foods. What may be pleasing to the mouth may be harmful to the body. So before you gobble up that tempting pasta or that tenderloin steak, consider: are they really as good as they seem?

The body’s liver normally produces just about the right amount of cholesterol necessary to carry out its many functions. There is no need for outside sources. High cholesterol foods are the main reasons why the body’s cholesterol levels go up. Contents of these high cholesterol foods that are considered the culprits are: saturated fat which is a type of fat found in animal products; and cholesterol, which comes from the same sources as well.

   High cholesterol foods with high saturated fat content can increase your LDL (bad) cholesterol level unlike any other in your food. Decreasing your saturated fat intake is a big step towards reducing your cholesterol levels.

This also points out the fact that cholesterol from high cholesterol foods are not as harmful as the saturated fat content. This is so because of the fact that the liver produces four times as much cholesterol from the foods we eat making saturated fat much more of a threat than dietary cholesterol.

Hence, foods high in saturated fats can be regarded as foods that cause high cholesterol. Foods high in saturated fats drive the liver to produce more bad cholesterol and raise the triglyceride levels as well.

Consider that sea foods are known to contain cholesterol. However, they also have polyunsaturated fat content which makes the liver produce less bad cholesterol and more HDL (good) cholesterol.

So it is quite pointless to worry about high cholesterol foods and neglect the foods high in saturated fats and foods high in triglycerides. After all, triglycerides are about 95 percent of our total fat intake.

Be aware of what food labels say about the products. Cholesterol free doesn’t exactly mean the absence of cholesterol but 2 milligrams of cholesterol and 2 grams or less fat content.

 Low cholesterol contains 20 milligrams or less cholesterol and 2 grams or less of saturated fat.

 Fat free is not the absence of fat either. It means about 1/2 gram fat content.

 Low fat means fat content of 3 grams or less.

 Reduced fat means 25% less fat content than the same foods of other brands.

Next time you shop for groceries, take time out to read the labels.