Cholesterol, one of the most evil terms known in today's health and fitness world. A lot of us watch what we eat because of cholesterol. No longer enjoying eggs with yolks, restricting usage of cheese in various recipes, and taking some seafood completely out of our diets. But do most of us really know what cholesterol is and how does it actually affect our bodies?
Is it a true evil or just misunderstood? Today we are going to reveal the true nature of cholesterol and what it does to our bodies.
What is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol, unlike common perception, is not one definite substance. Cholesterol actually combine with proteins in our blood stream becoming different types of lipoproteins.
Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL)
LDL is known as the "bad" cholesterol. It is responsible for all the negative effects cholesterol has on our bodies we have commonly heard of. Not all LDL particles are the same though. LDL particles actually come in different sizes and large LDL particles should not be much of our concern. Only small LDL particles can potentially squeeze through the lining of our arteries, oxidise, and cause damage and inflammation. In short, only the amount of small LDL particles is directly proportional to the risk of heart diseases.
High Density Lipoproteins (HDL)
As oppose to LDL, HDL is known as the "good" cholesterol. It helps our bodies getting rid of LDL and triglycerides. Think of HDL as the cleaner of our arteries.
Very Low Density Lipoproteins (VLDL)
VLDL rarely appears in our body check reports as there is no simple and direct way to measure the level of VLDL yet. It is very similar to LDL that they contain mostly fat and not much protein.
Triglycerides
This is a type of fat carried by VLDL. It is converted from excess calories, alcohol, or sugar in our bodies and can be stored as fat throughout our bodies.
Truth About Cholesterol
Cholesterol is actually very essential to our health as cholesterol makes up important parts of our cells and hormones. Without cholesterol, our bodies would not be able to function. We would not have a body at all without cholesterol as it is a vital component of our cell membranes!
What Really Matters?
Eating less cholesterol to monitor our cholesterol level, sounds like it makes complete sense, right? Not quite, what actually happens is that in average, 75% of the cholesterol in our bodies are produced with only 25% from our dietary intake. And guess what, because of our bodies' adaptive nature, when we increase our dietary cholesterol intake, our bodies lower its cholesterol production; in contrast, when we decrease our dietary cholesterol intake, our bodies increase its cholesterol production!
There have been very well-designed cholesterol feeding studies done by universities and health organisations where subjects were fed commonly demonised healthy whole foods (such as whole eggs) daily and had their cholesterol levels monitored. In general, around 75% of the subjects did not experience any noticeable cholesterol level difference before or after the experiment. While approximately 25% of the subjects, later labelled as "hyper-responders" did experience an increase in total cholesterol, the ratio of LDL to HDL though (what actually matters as we have explained above), remained the same. In addition to that, their LDL levels increased due to an increase in size of LDL particles instead of an increase in numbers of LDL particles. As previously mentioned, only small LDL particles are potentially harmful to our cardiovascular health. In other words, for this 25% of the subjects, consuming more dietary cholesterol from natural whole foods actually improved their cholesterol levels!
The good news? All those abandoned indulgences such as whole eggs, cheese, and steak can come back to our diets! Feel no guilt from enjoying a whole egg omelette for breakfast or coupling a glass of red wine with a nice piece of steak!
Alcohol
Excessive alcohol consumption can have serious impact on the health of our livers and heart muscles, which will eventually lead to high blood pressure, and raising triglycerides. Thus, monitor our alcohol consumption to make sure it does not do harm to our cholesterol levels is vital.
Stress
Stress is another factor that can affect our cholesterol levels. In the world of health and fitness, not only regarding our cholesterol levels, stress is a big enemy in general. Make sure to relax ourselves every once in a while especially when working through tough periods in the year. Some common ways of relieving stress includes exercising, and meditating. Find something that suit you the best is the most important part!
Cholesterol is indeed something we should monitor, but we should thoroughly understand what it is and monitor it in the correct way instead of having irrational fear for it! Have no hesitation enjoying your whole egg omelette for breakfast from now on!
Is it a true evil or just misunderstood? Today we are going to reveal the true nature of cholesterol and what it does to our bodies.
Cholesterol, unlike common perception, is not one definite substance. Cholesterol actually combine with proteins in our blood stream becoming different types of lipoproteins.
Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL)
LDL is known as the "bad" cholesterol. It is responsible for all the negative effects cholesterol has on our bodies we have commonly heard of. Not all LDL particles are the same though. LDL particles actually come in different sizes and large LDL particles should not be much of our concern. Only small LDL particles can potentially squeeze through the lining of our arteries, oxidise, and cause damage and inflammation. In short, only the amount of small LDL particles is directly proportional to the risk of heart diseases.
High Density Lipoproteins (HDL)
As oppose to LDL, HDL is known as the "good" cholesterol. It helps our bodies getting rid of LDL and triglycerides. Think of HDL as the cleaner of our arteries.
Very Low Density Lipoproteins (VLDL)
VLDL rarely appears in our body check reports as there is no simple and direct way to measure the level of VLDL yet. It is very similar to LDL that they contain mostly fat and not much protein.
Triglycerides
This is a type of fat carried by VLDL. It is converted from excess calories, alcohol, or sugar in our bodies and can be stored as fat throughout our bodies.
Truth About Cholesterol
Cholesterol is actually very essential to our health as cholesterol makes up important parts of our cells and hormones. Without cholesterol, our bodies would not be able to function. We would not have a body at all without cholesterol as it is a vital component of our cell membranes!
What Really Matters?
Too many people nowadays are over-concerned about their total cholesterol level. The truth is that unless it is way above, I am talking about over 300 here, there is no reason to worry about it. We should also note that different organisations have intentionally lowered the "safety cholesterol level" in favour of drugs marketing.
What we should really be looking at are the HDL to total cholesterol ratio and the triglyceride to HDL ratio. When dividing our HDL by our total cholesterol level, the ideal should be above 24%; and when dividing our triglyceride by our HDL, the ideal should be less than 2. This is what truly matters when monitoring our cardiovascular health.
Dietary Cholesterol and Body Cholesterol
Eating less cholesterol to monitor our cholesterol level, sounds like it makes complete sense, right? Not quite, what actually happens is that in average, 75% of the cholesterol in our bodies are produced with only 25% from our dietary intake. And guess what, because of our bodies' adaptive nature, when we increase our dietary cholesterol intake, our bodies lower its cholesterol production; in contrast, when we decrease our dietary cholesterol intake, our bodies increase its cholesterol production!
There have been very well-designed cholesterol feeding studies done by universities and health organisations where subjects were fed commonly demonised healthy whole foods (such as whole eggs) daily and had their cholesterol levels monitored. In general, around 75% of the subjects did not experience any noticeable cholesterol level difference before or after the experiment. While approximately 25% of the subjects, later labelled as "hyper-responders" did experience an increase in total cholesterol, the ratio of LDL to HDL though (what actually matters as we have explained above), remained the same. In addition to that, their LDL levels increased due to an increase in size of LDL particles instead of an increase in numbers of LDL particles. As previously mentioned, only small LDL particles are potentially harmful to our cardiovascular health. In other words, for this 25% of the subjects, consuming more dietary cholesterol from natural whole foods actually improved their cholesterol levels!
The good news? All those abandoned indulgences such as whole eggs, cheese, and steak can come back to our diets! Feel no guilt from enjoying a whole egg omelette for breakfast or coupling a glass of red wine with a nice piece of steak!
What Should We Be Watching?
If dietary cholesterol is not what we should be looking at, what factors should we be monitoring and how can we better our cholesterol levels?
Weight
Being overweight increases the tendency of having a high LDL level and losing weight automatically helps lowering our LDL while increasing our HDL. So if you are overweight and have to improve your cholesterol level, instead of looking at your dietary cholesterol intake, start looking at your total caloric intake and exercising to lose weight!
Exercise
Not only can exercising benefit overweight individuals to lose weight for improving their cholesterol levels, exercising itself can lower LDL and raise HDL in general for every single person!
Diet
I have just brought justice to those long misunderstood healthy high cholesterol whole foods earlier. On the other hand, there are indeed foods that can worsen our cholesterol. Two no-nos out there that would both directly and indirectly impact our cholesterol towards the dark side are added sugars, and trans-fat. There is one category of food commonly include both of these evil factors, processed foods. It is the best to stay away from processed foods and make up preferably our entire diets with healthy whole foods.
DietI have just brought justice to those long misunderstood healthy high cholesterol whole foods earlier. On the other hand, there are indeed foods that can worsen our cholesterol. Two no-nos out there that would both directly and indirectly impact our cholesterol towards the dark side are added sugars, and trans-fat. There is one category of food commonly include both of these evil factors, processed foods. It is the best to stay away from processed foods and make up preferably our entire diets with healthy whole foods.
Alcohol
Excessive alcohol consumption can have serious impact on the health of our livers and heart muscles, which will eventually lead to high blood pressure, and raising triglycerides. Thus, monitor our alcohol consumption to make sure it does not do harm to our cholesterol levels is vital.
Stress
Stress is another factor that can affect our cholesterol levels. In the world of health and fitness, not only regarding our cholesterol levels, stress is a big enemy in general. Make sure to relax ourselves every once in a while especially when working through tough periods in the year. Some common ways of relieving stress includes exercising, and meditating. Find something that suit you the best is the most important part!
Cholesterol is indeed something we should monitor, but we should thoroughly understand what it is and monitor it in the correct way instead of having irrational fear for it! Have no hesitation enjoying your whole egg omelette for breakfast from now on!
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