Foods To Avoid High Cholesterol – What You Need to Know
When choosing foods to avoid high cholesterol, you need to be aware of some of the misinformation that is out there. Most often when we think about high cholesterol then our first opinion is that we need to totally eliminate cholesterol causing foods from our lives, the fact is thatwe do need some cholesterol in our blood for our bodies to work correctly 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 created by the liver and the body needs it for creating and looking after cell membranes and balancing the hormones. As we have already brought up a small part of it can be made through what we eatbut most of it is created by our livers. The foods to avoid high cholesterol are generally foods that include saturated fats such as red meats and dairy products, and in all probability the worst types are foods that include trans fats; trans fats are made from hydrogenated vegetable oils, and often discovered in fast foods and ready made meals foods.
The foods to avoid high cholesterol that we have mentioned i.e. the saturated fats and trans fats will reduce a little bit of production of LDL cholesterol which is the “bad” cholesterol, however there is another cholesterol that you want to increase and that is HDL cholesterol. The function of the HDL cholesterol is that it helps to keep down plaque buildup produced by LDL cholesterol and not only that it mops up the LDL cholesterol and takes it back to the liver for reusing. Foods that can give you a good boost of this HDL cholesterol are normally foods that contain omega three fats along the lines of flax seed and walnuts; oily fish is particularly excellent at raising the HDL cholesterol because it has two omega3 fats which are DHA and EPA and these have been scientifically proved to not only help balance out cholesterol levels but also cut triglycerides as well.
Frequently if you go to the doctors to talk about your cholesterol levels, they will just turn to your total cholesterol and look to lower that rather than look at the seperate cholesterol levels and also triglyceride levels. Normally the course of treatment that is taken is to order statins. The problem with statins is that even though they will reduce your LDL cholesterol by way of inhibiting the enzymes that create it, concurrently they also inhibit enzymes that the body needs to work properly, and inhibiting these good enzymes can contribute to some awful health ramifications. Unfortunately statins are served quite often without looking at other treatmentrs to help counterbalance the cholesterol levels such as talking over foods to avoid high cholesterol. You need to think carefully if you are offered statins by a doctor 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.