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As with fat, your body needs and makes cholesterol. Cholesterol is a fatty substance found in certain foods and made by your liver. It's a vital component of your cell membranes and your skin. There are two kinds of cholesterol: the "good" kind you want to have and the "bad" kind you don't. Good cholesterol is referred to as HDL, or high density lipoprotein; it can help clear out the LDL cholesterol. The bad kind is LDL, or low-density lipoprotein. Too much LDL builds up as plaque in your bloodstream, sticks to, and then clogs arteries. As you know, this causes heart attack and strokes.
The problem is our fat-overloaded diet. We consume far too much HDL and LDL cholesterol in our food. This is absorbed directly from our intestines, right into the bloodstream where we don't want it to go.
Let's not forget the ratio of good HDL and bad LDL cholesterol is equally important. You don't want your ratio to be higher than 4.0. If your total cholesterol is 220, you'd want your HDL to be at least 55, so your LDL is no more than 165. You never want your HDL level to go below 35, or your LDL to be above 165, no matter what your total cholesterol figure. If it's above 35, you can breathe a sign of relief.
Reducing Your Cholesterol Intake
1. See your doctor. You'll need to be monitored for several months, because sometimes even fit people who eat healthily have high cholesterol levels - usually for genetic reasons. There are several, very effective cholesterol-reducing drugs your doctor can prescribe. But no drug can help you if you still eat too much cholesterol.
2. Strop eating foods that contain cholesterol. You don't want to eat more than three hundred milligrams each day. Read your labels carefully, and you'll get an idea of how much cholesterol you're consuming. Foods that are high in cholesterol are: egg yolks, any animal products, organ meats like liver, sweetbreads, and kidneys, full-fat dairy products like cheese, butter, and milk. You'll also want to avoid fatty foods like anything fried, avocado, coconut, and baked goods. And although shrimp and other shellfish are low calories, they're also, unfortunately, high in cholesterol. When you do use oil, vegetable oils like olive, corn, and groundnut are preferable to butter, lard and palm or coconut oils.
3. Start eating the foods that help lower cholesterol. Anything high in fibre, like oat bran, can help reduce cholesterol by preventing your body from absorbing so much of it.
4. Eat garlic. Many recent studies have shown that as little as two cloves a day can reduce blood cholesterol; it also prevents LDL cholesterol from being able to build up into plaque.
5. Warning: Don't be misled by labels that say cholesterol free. All this means is that it has fewer than two milligrams of cholesterol. It doesn't mean the food is good for you, and it certainly doesn't mean there's no fat - especially saturated fat, which is stored in your body and clogs your arteries…you get the picture.
6. Start exercising. This'll not only help lower cholesterol but reduce other risk factors (like high blood pressure) for heart disease.