Cholesterol Explained HELLO I AM DR. SUGAR, YOUR INTERNET DOCTOR, HERE TO continue our discussion on understanding cholesterol. I will go into a lot more detail on even more exciting facts about cholesterol. - - so if you are ready, let’s get started with a dose of MEDICAL INSPIRATION.
Fact #4 – You need to eat some fat in order to survive. Eat it in moderation, though. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture you should be consuming between 3 – 7 teaspoons of oils per day depending on age and gender. Unfortunately, the USDA’s new food pyramid can be very complex and not terribly user-friendly. Equating fats and oils to teaspoons is a cumbersome way to monitor fat intake. Just realize that most Americans get much more fat in their diet than they need to in order to survive. One useful rule of thumb: read labels; if the number of calories from fat divided by the total number of calories is greater than 0.3 then try to avoid that food. Another way of saying this is if the calories from fat is more than 1/3rd of the total calories in the food, stay away from it.
Another difficulty is that if you try to do that calorie math with any pure oil or fat you will soon realize that the number is 1.0. Therefore if you must use oil to cook, try to use it sparingly and choose oils that are mono- or polyunsaturated. Most of the research shows that the best choice for an oil is olive oil and the best quality of olive oil is called extra-virgin. Besides olive oil, the other mono-unsaturated oils are canola, peanut, and avocado oil – these oils do not pose the cardiovascular risk that the saturated oils do nor the cancer concerns of the polyunsaturated oils. So remember mono-unsaturated is best and the best of the monounsaturated is extra-virgin olive oil.
Saturated oils are the worst since they tend to throw HDL and LDL levels out of whack. Basically, If you eat a lot of foods high in saturated fat, this can cause the liver to make LDL cholesterol in levels higher than the body can remove from the circulation, which can lead to atherosclerosis or damage to the walls of the arteries. The quickest way to cut down on saturated fats is to decrease the amount of animal foods you eat especially meat and whole milk products.
Fact #5 – There are no nutritive benefits to trans fats. You probably never heard of trans fat five years ago but now it is at the center of our collective cholesterol consciousness. Trans fatty acids are hardly ever found in nature, instead they are produced under extreme physical and chemical conditions and research has shown that they can be extremely toxic. Trans fats are most often found in baked goods, some margarines and shortenings, and many fried foods. Trans fats do not have any dietary benefit (except that they taste great!) but they have been linked to cardiovascular health problems. Since trans fats are not specifically needed for humans to survive, many groups are calling for them to be removed from human diets altogether. The reason that trans fats are so bad is that they lower HDL and raise LDL. Since we are not using good and bad terms anymore, keep in mind that this is the opposite direction for healthy cholesterol. Some jurisdictions are actually fining manufacturers and retailers for selling food that contains trans fat making it will increasingly difficult to find foods that contain trans fats. As of 2006, the FDA is requiring that trans fat content be included on all food labels. The simplest way to avoid trans fats are to read labels again, if the label says partially hydrogenated oil, stay away from it – also avoid all margarine and solid vegetable shortenings
Fact #6 – Diet and exercise can help get cholesterol levels where they should be. A proper diet that includes limiting fat intake and exercise that leads to weight loss can make a real difference in people with abnormal cholesterol levels. Not only does LDL drop, but exercise can boost HDL, a feat that even most cholesterol medicines can only do to a limited extent. The original prescribing scheme for doctors when treating high cholesterol was to first encourage diet and exercise in patients for 6 weeks to 6 months before starting a drug treatment. Many physicians have found it much easier to write a prescription than motivate patients to change their behavior but that does not make diet and exercise any less powerful. If you have been told you need to modify your cholesterol levels, discuss diet and exercise with your doctor, especially if you are hesitant to begin cholesterol drug therapy.
I am Doctor Sugar and I want to invite you to join me for part 3 of my blog series on Understanding Cholesterol. In the next section, you will learn even more exciting facts about cholesterol. Make sure to check it out. I’ll see you there!!
Giving You Your Dose of MEDICAL INSPIRATION, Dr. Sugar
TO YOUR TOTAL WELLNESS!
References:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Hbc/HBC_WhatIs.html http://www.americanheart.org/ http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/oils_allowance_table.html http://www.fda.gov/womens/getthefacts/cholesterol.html The information contained in this blog is not medical advice.
Please consult your medical doctor before making any decisions
or taking any actions on your health or the health of your family.
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