Is cholesterol good or bad for you? It’s a challenging question, and one that many of us are still uncertain about. Probably you’ve heard that cholesterol is “bad”, but are not really sure if it’s true. You may be careful
Is cholesterol good or bad for you? It’s a challenging question, and one that many of us are still uncertain about. Probably you’ve heard that cholesterol is “bad”, but are not really sure if it’s true. You may be careful about how much you consume — especially you may have been told not to eat many eggs.
What is really true?
A recent study showed that a relatively high intake of dietary cholesterol, or eating eggs every day, does not lead to an elevated risk of coronary heart disease. This result may surprise you. Actually, more and more studies are showing that our body really needs cholesterol.
If you still have doubts then you’re not alone — we hear so many times about how cholesterol is bad, it’s easy to be scared even to eat eggs. Even my mom still questions whether she should be eating eggs or not.
What is cholesterol?
It’s found in every cell in your body. Your body produces is, mostly in your liver, and we also get some from the food we eat. We can not survive without cholesterol.
It’s oil based (lipid) and doesn’t mix with your blood (which is water based). It carries two types of lipoprotein, LDL (low intensity, also known as “bad cholesterol”) and HDL (high intensity, or “good cholesterol”). The brain contains about 25 percent of your body’s total cholesterol.
It’s main functions are to:
w Produce testosterone (men) and estrogen (women) hormones
w Digest food in the intestine
w Allow the body to make Vitamin D, which is necessary for bone health and calcium absorption
So cholesterol is actually not the bad guy!
As always, it really just comes down to focusing on nutrition and nourishing your body. Food is required by every organism and cell to stay alive — with a correct diet of nourishing, fresh, healthy whole foods you can prevent diseases and improve your current problems too. If you eliminate processed food and eat more whole foods you don’t need to worry about your cholesterol level.
Some examples of healthy food options you might like to add your diet are almonds, avocados, buckwheat, barley, beans, lentils, blueberries, olives and fish with high omega levels.
Remember we are not just what we eat, but what we absorb from the food we eat. We do have a choice to be healthy.
Keep smiling at life.
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Ayda Ersoy is a nutrition and fitness director at The Diet Doc Hawaii. She can be reached at DietDocHawaii.com, Ayda@DietDocHawaii.com or (808) 276-6892
