Cholesterol and Heart Disease - Get the Facts

If you have high cholesterol then you are at increased risk for developing serious health complications such as heart disease. High cholesterol is an increasingly common health concern which can be caused by a combination of many things. A person's weight is not only a risk factor for heart disease on its own, but being overweight can also increase your cholesterol. Healthy weight loss can simultaneously decrease your bad cholesterol and raise your good cholesterol. Additional factors such as sex, age, and physical activity can also influence your cholesterol. Also, cholesterol production in the body is partially determined by genetics. Some diets can also lower your cholesterol level.

In fact, taking some of the cholesterol straight out of your diet is one of the best ways to improve your numbers. You may not have to totally avoid cholesterol when making food choices, but reducing your intake by just ten to twenty percent will be a big help. Be sure to keep some healthy fats in your diet by consuming products containing fish and vegetable oils. It is the saturated and trans fats that you have to look out for, as these are the real culprits. Try replacing several of these foods, like butter, with healthier options, like plant sterol spreads. Use white wine vinegar to keep your pan moist while cooking instead of butter. It does not change the taste of the food and it is low in cholesterol. Another potential way to reduce cholesterol is to replace your eggs with a yummy cholesterol-free egg substitute..

As important as it is to change your diet to increase your health, it is equally as important to change your diet in the right way. Countless people have tried and failed to lose weight by changing their diets simply because they took out the wrong foods in the wrong combinations. For example, a low-fat, high-carb diet might sound great in theory but may actually be bad for your cholesterol levels. Your body requires some cholesterol to survive, so it is designed to make sure that you will still have some available even in a starvation situation. Your liver produces its own cholesterol from time to time with the goal of maintaining at least a minimum level to keep your body working. Low-fat, high-carb diets result in excess insulin causing more sugar to be deposited from your blood into your liver, which in turn will start making more cholesterol and triglycerides. The best way to manage your diet for cholesterol is not to avoid it entirely, but to focus on finding foods full of good cholesterol rather than the bad. If you were ever able to completely eliminate cholesterol from your diet you would be left missing about 25% of the cholesterol your body needs that your liver could not make up for. The rest of the cholesterol you need comes from the things that you eat. If you lessen the amount of cholesterol that you are eating too much and make up those calories in carbs and sugar, your metabolism goes into famine mode and your liver over produces cholesterol to make up the difference and stock up. The only way to stop the cycle is to eat the appropriate amount of cholesterol that your body needs. So keep your carbs in moderation to avoid the trap of raising your cholesterol on a low-cholesterol diet.

Beth Angelina is a health and nutrition expert. She was born into a family with cholesterol problems and carries this issue very near to her heart. Beth's goal is to educate her readers on living healthier lives and avoiding the problems that arise from having high cholesterol.