Foods To Avoid High Cholesterol – What You Need to Know

When selecting foods to avoid high cholesterol, you need understand some of the poor information that is out there. A lot of the time when we think about high cholesterol then our first thought is that we need to entirely do away with cholesterol stimulating foods from our lives, however the truth iswe do need some cholesterol in our blood for our bodies to work properly and also while we can skip certain foods to avoid high cholesterol, diet only plays a small part in cholesterol levels.

Cholesterol is a wax like entity which is produced by the liver and the body needs it for creating and looking after cell membranes and balancing the hormones. As we have already mentioned a tiny part of it can be made through what we eatbut most of it is produced by our livers. The foods to avoid high cholesterol are primarily foods that contain saturated fats such as red meats and dairy products, and in all likelihood the worst offenders are foods that contain trans fats; trans fats are created from hydrogenated vegetable oils, and a great deal found in fast foods and processed foods.

The foods to avoid high cholesterol that we have named i.e. the saturated fats and trans fats will lower a little bit of production of LDL cholesterol normally refferred to as “bad” cholesterol, nevertheless there is another cholesterol that you want to have high amounts of which is HDL cholesterol. The role of the HDL cholesterol is that it helps to reduce plaque buildup produced by LDL cholesterol and not only that it clears up the LDL cholesterol and returns it to the liver for reusing. Foods that can give you a good boost of this HDL cholesterol are usually foods that comprise of omega three fats along the lines of flax seed and walnuts; oily fish is particularly outstanding at raising the HDL cholesterol because it contains two omega3 fats known as DHA and EPA and these have been scientifically established to not only help balance out cholesterol levels but also reduce triglycerides as well.

Ofttimes if you go to the physicians to talk over your cholesterol levels, they will just look your total cholesterol and look to reduce that rather than observe the seperate cholesterol levels and also triglyceride levels. Usually the course of action that is taken is to order statins. The problem with statins is that even though they will lower your LDL cholesterol by way of inhibiting the enzymes that create it, concurrently they also inhibit enzymes that the body needs to function properly, and suppressing these good enzymes can lead to some awful health complications. Regrettably statins are prescribed quite often before looking at other remedies to help counterbalance the cholesterol levels such as talking about foods to avoid high cholesterol. You need to think carefully if you are offered statins by a physician as once you are on them then you are on them for life.

However, at the end of the day, they are a qualified medical expert, so ultimately you should always follow their advice or get a second opinion from another suitably qualified medical expert.

This entry was posted on January 21, 2010 at January 21, 2010 and is filed under Miscellaneous Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.