6 Foods We Overlooked That Raise Your Cholesterol Levels

Most people have heard of the word "cholesterol", but few truly realize that it is an essential thing our body needs to produce hormones and cell membranes. Our liver produces at least 80 percent of body's cholesterol. And we need the good cholesterol or high-density lipoproteins to help us prevent diseases like atherosclerosis, stroke, and heart attack.

For ones who have cholesterol problems, that simply means they have too much of the bad cholesterol or the low-density lipoproteins, which increase the danger of coronary heart diseases by producing buit-up on the arterial walls, forming up plague which result in blood vessel clotting. LDL or the bad cholesterol is also produced by our body as well as built up by foods we eat. Clearly, foods are one of the factors that indicate our risk of having heart problems, stroke, and atherosclerosis.

Another key factor is also our familial history. Our genes have their say in how much LDL our liver produces. Should you have family members who suffer high cholesterol problems, the appropriate action for you to do is to have your cholesterol checked by the doctor. The earlier you do that, the better.

There are certain things you can do to minimize the risk of having cholesterol problems. Lifestyles play a major part in this. If you keep a healthy diet, exercise on regular basis, and become a non-smoker, you will hardly have to worry about having the problem. However, it can get a bit tricky when it comes to avoiding certain types of foods that increases the chance of high LDL even when you know they are bad for you. It gets even more complicated when there are types of foods you don't realize they can raise your cholesterol (LDL) levels. Those foods are

Unfiltered Coffee

As per study by Dr. Michael J. Klag, Vice Dean for Clinical Study at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine (2001), shows that there is certain co-relation between total cholesterol level and coffee consumption. If one drinks more than 6 cups daily of unfiltered coffee, the cholesterol level may increase up to 20 percent. This is influenced by stimulants found in unfiltered called kahweol and cafestol.

Pie, Donuts, and Bakery

Most people tend to think that only deep-fried foods and red meat are the only foods to be avoided when they think of high-cholesterol dishes, and tend to overeat the ones with high sugar and carbohydrates who are also the bad guys. Remember that all high-calorie consumption counts as high-cholesterol stimulants. A Blueberry muffin which has around 300 calories with 17 mg of cholesterol is sure to put your body to hard work of LDL cholesterol disposing.

Eggs

As healthy and full of nutrients eggs are, high-cholesterol, diabetic patients, and those with heart problems, are suggested to have only 200 mg daily (one egg), as it comes also have high cholesterol. One egg contains 231 mgs of cholesterol in just its yolk alone. For healthy people, no more than 300 mg a day is advised.

Chicken

As strange as it may sound, chicken makes it to one of the foods on this list. In general, chicken can be very healthy for its chosen parts like skinned chicken breasts. The parts that should be avoided are internal organs, like liver, and giblets, due to its high amount of cholesterol. Some types of chicken are also high in cholesterol and those are the castrated roosters and capons. Basically if you have high cholesterol problems, 100 grams of chicken per day is the maximum amount recommended.

Butter

Butter has two things that make it a dangerous threat to high cholesterol patients; 1 as having high saturated fat, and two for having high calories. By consuming high saturated fat will increase cholesterol and triglycerides in no time, causing more built-up on artery walls which eventually lead to heart attack. Although it has been said that saturated fat increases good cholesterol as well, consuming more than recommended amount which is no more than 10-15 grams a day, does not make up for the damage it can cause.

Cheese

One article published on reliable online source, "mercola.com", discusses about how cheese is responsible for over 12 million Americans with high cholesterol problems and that are currently under cholesterol-lowering prescription, which is known to cause severe side effects.

That doesn't necessarily mean that you have to say good-bye to cheese for good. Only steer clear from a few types of cheese and minimize the intake amount can lower your heart disease risk. The types of cheese to avoid are ricotta cheese which contains 125 mg of cholesterol per cup (1/3 of cholesterol allowance per day). The regular type of cheese contains around 95 mg of cholesterol per slice (almost ? of the cholesterol allowance per day). Whereas fat-free cream cheese only has 1 mg of cholesterol per tablespoon. Low-fat cheddar and low-fat cottage cheese are also low in cholesterol.

Apart from avoiding all these foods for keep them below minimum daily allowance, you should also try to consume more of the cardiohealthandwellness.com/foods-which-lower-cholesterol lower cholesterol foods, to lower your cholesterol problem. There are certainly alternative ways to lower overall cholesterol levels to taking dangerous statin prescription drugs. If you make a firm commitment to the plan, and also keep yourself informed on the latest research and news, lowering cholesterol levels and maintainig healthy heart would be really simple.

Darah Nielsen, a health enthusiast and a creator of CardioHealthAndWellness.com, where you can subscribe for a FREE Minicourse on how to lower cholesterol naturally, Visit CardioHealthAndWellness.com for more information.