Cholesterol High Foods
If you suffer from high cholesterol, you will soon recognize that your diet and level of exercise comes into play. If you are a lucky individual, this alone will allow you to control your cholesterol levels.
Cholesterol high foods are really not the problem, it’s highly saturated fat foods. In other words, if they are high in fat content, then you should avoid them. To be honest, if it tastes like sawdust, you are on track. If it’s yummy, you should probably avoid it! Ok, I’m being just a tad cynical, but boy it does feel like that at times.
Sources of high cholesterol foods include:
- high in saturated fats - this is a type of fat mainly found in animal products.
- Cholesterol rich foods - which also come from animals as well.
Don’t kid yourself though, a majority of your dietary cholesterol comes from foods high in saturated fats. Cholesterol high foods are not really bad because of it’s natural cholesterol content. It’s the fat, or saturated fats (which many come from dairy foods, nuts and meats), that cause the liver to produce more bad harmful cholesterol.
To put it into prospect, our liver produces four times the amount of cholesterol compared to what we consume in our diets from cholesterol already apparent in the foods. So, you can see that saturated fats is one of the real culprits here. For example, coconut oil may be ‘cholesterol free’, but is high in saturated fats. Whereas, seafood contains cholesterol, but also contains protective polyunsaturated fats, thus the liver produces less harmful cholesterol from seafood and more protective HDL cholesterol.
Another recommendation that I’ve seen regarding high cholesterol and diet is to eat more fiber based foods. I believe that comes down to helping our bodies flush foods through our system better then without the use of fiber in our diets. This I believe reduces the absorption rate of highly saturated fats. But this is my assumption and I could be completely wrong.
Cholesterol High Foods
In conclusion, don’t get bent out of shape with foods high in cholesterol. The larger issue is foods that have high saturated fats. If you reduce your consumption of these types of foods, and you increase your fiber in your diet, you will be one step closer to lowering your high cholesterol levels. And don’t forget everyone’s favorite, exercise!
Foods you need to Avoid if you Take High Cholesterol Drugs
There is something you need to completely avoid if you are taking any type of high cholesterol medication: grapefruit.
Whether it’s grapefruit juice, or the fruit itself, it acts as an inhibitor in the liver to absorb the high cholesterol drug and therefore nulls the effect of lowering your cholesterol. Now, this comes from a guy who loves grapefruit! Don’t eat grapefruit if you are being treated with high cholesterol medications! Please consult your physician from more accurate information.
