A Quick 101 On Understanding Cholesterol

A Quick 101 on Understanding Cholesterol

Your cholesterol level is something that always comes up whenever your health is called into question.
Because of this, the fatty substance has gained a negative reputation.
While high cholesterol is bad for you, fat is not something that is just there to harm your body.

But where does cholesterol come from and where and why is it present inside the body?

Let’s take a look at where cholesterol is found.
Cholesterol present in the human body comes from two sources:
Production inside the liver and from the food that you eat.
80% of all cholesterol present inside the body is produced by its liver organs and cells.
The remaining 20% comes from the food you eat.

What happens to cholesterol in the body?

The food you ingest gets broken down in the digestive system, with the cholesterol and fats being digested in the small intestine.
They are combined with lipases, bile salts, and other compounds before they are sent throughout the body for storage.
A fair amount of cholesterol is stored by the liver and the gall bladder.
Most of it is stored by adipocytes, the fat cells responsible for holding excess lipoproteins.

When your diet is imbalanced towards carbohydrates and fats, the adipocytes enlarge and you gain weight.
Foods that are rich in trans or saturated fats tend to increase blood cholesterol levels and increase them to unhealthy amounts.
The liver tries to make up for it by decreasing its cholesterol production but that can only do so much.
Alternatively, some people inherit genes that impair the liver’s cholesterol production facilities, which can lead to unhealthy imbalances in cholesterol levels.

Source: health.harvard.edu – Cholesterol production in your body

Are there different types of cholesterol?

There are two types of cholesterol:

Low-density lipoprotein or LDL and high-density liberal protein HDL.
LDL cholesterol is known as the bad type of cholesterol
It is the one that ends up lining your arteries and clogging them.

HDL cholesterol on the other hand is vital for the body
It transports the bad cholesterol to the liver which ultimately removes it from the bloodstream.

Ideally, the HDL cholesterol in your body will far outnumber the LDL cholesterol.
Source: heart.org – HDL (Good), LDL (Bad) Cholesterol

Foods that raise LDL cholesterol levels

The foods that are ultimately responsible for giving you unhealthy cholesterol levels due to more LDL include food items high in saturated fats such as:

Red meat, such as beef pork or lamb
Full fat or whole dairy products
Processed foods
Deli foods
Baked goods
Food items high in trans fats such as margarine fried food
Crackers cookies cakes and microwave popcorn
You need to avoid or limit these foods in your regular diet.