Rob
10-07-2009, 01:33 AM
It todays world, everything seems to be...not free as in price. It just seems that food companies have noticed that we’re becoming more aware of our health and have made everything free. Take a look around your supermarket and you’ll see what I mean.
Your bread can be yeast free, your yogurt fat free, cooking oil cholesterol-free, preservative free, colouring free, I could go on. Now you’re thinking about the next free product you’ll see.
This isn’t exactly a bad thing. In fact, health experts encourage us to become more aware of the foods we’re eating and what they have in them. However, not everything you see on the shelves that is –free is good for you. Our bodies need certain substances in order to function well. Cholesterol is something most of us don’t know much about. It’s a fatty substance that actually occurs naturally in our blood cell walls and body tissue. Cholesterol is produced by the liver and enters the body via foods rich in saturated fat.
Good and bad
There are two types of cholesterol; these are what they call the good and the bad. It has a bad side for some people who consume large amounts, which can injure blood vessels, cause heart attacks and strokes. But, we actually need some cholesterol for certain important body functions.
Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) is the "bad" cholesterol. This is the form in which cholesterol is carried into the blood stream and is the main culprit for fatty build ups in arteries. The more LDL cholesterol you have in your body, the higher the risk of heart disease. High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) is the “good” cholesterol. This "good" cholesterol carries blood cholesterol back to the liver, where it can be eliminated. HDL helps prevent a cholesterol build up in blood vessels. If your HDL cholesterol levels are too low you’re also at risk of heart disease.
Round up
So before you go cutting out cholesterol from your diet completely, remember that we need it to function properly. It creates and repairs cells, it is used to produce hormones in men and women, is converted in to bile acid to help you digest food and is found in the brain and nerve tissue. Cutting out cholesterol from your diet will do you more harm than good.
Your bread can be yeast free, your yogurt fat free, cooking oil cholesterol-free, preservative free, colouring free, I could go on. Now you’re thinking about the next free product you’ll see.
This isn’t exactly a bad thing. In fact, health experts encourage us to become more aware of the foods we’re eating and what they have in them. However, not everything you see on the shelves that is –free is good for you. Our bodies need certain substances in order to function well. Cholesterol is something most of us don’t know much about. It’s a fatty substance that actually occurs naturally in our blood cell walls and body tissue. Cholesterol is produced by the liver and enters the body via foods rich in saturated fat.
Good and bad
There are two types of cholesterol; these are what they call the good and the bad. It has a bad side for some people who consume large amounts, which can injure blood vessels, cause heart attacks and strokes. But, we actually need some cholesterol for certain important body functions.
Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) is the "bad" cholesterol. This is the form in which cholesterol is carried into the blood stream and is the main culprit for fatty build ups in arteries. The more LDL cholesterol you have in your body, the higher the risk of heart disease. High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) is the “good” cholesterol. This "good" cholesterol carries blood cholesterol back to the liver, where it can be eliminated. HDL helps prevent a cholesterol build up in blood vessels. If your HDL cholesterol levels are too low you’re also at risk of heart disease.
Round up
So before you go cutting out cholesterol from your diet completely, remember that we need it to function properly. It creates and repairs cells, it is used to produce hormones in men and women, is converted in to bile acid to help you digest food and is found in the brain and nerve tissue. Cutting out cholesterol from your diet will do you more harm than good.