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What is Cholesterol?

oldroader | Nov 26, 2009 |

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What is cholesterol? - Probably not the most attention grabbing subject matter I'm sure you'll agree! - But please don't switch off just yet – I know we get bombarded with health messages such as cholesterol warnings day in day out – however if we arm ourselves with just a little knowledge and and set ourselves a few goals to work towards, perhaps we can all gain an edge in the fight against this silent killer.

I'm in my late forties now, and I have to admit that over my younger years I never really gave much thought to cholesterol and questions such as what is cholesterol and what is high cholesterol? These days, I do hate to say it, but some of the evidence of that lax approach is now all too clearly visible around my waistline. But it was really when I started researching and writing articles for my health website that it started to bring home to me how foolish and short sighted it was to continue to keep my head stuck in the sand. I now realise I have to do something about it.

So let's get straight down to the point and lay out a few facts about cholesterol. Nine very simple bullet points each of which a scientist could probably quite easily write an immense and detailed study on, but for the purposes of this article we can stick with easily digested one-liners.

So here goes:

Cholesterol has two types
HDL cholesterol = good cholesterol
LDL cholesterol = bad cholesterol
Cholesterol is actually needed by our bodies in order to function
Our liver produces sufficient cholesterol by itself
Good cholesterol helps to carry bad cholesterol back to the liver for disposal
Excess bad cholesterol can be deposited in the arteries causing them to harden and narrow
Narrowing of the arteries can cause high blood pressure
High blood pressure can lead to heart attacks or strokes

Now I can almost hear doctors and scientists sharpening their pencils as I write this, but I hope that what the simplified points above clearly outline is the ongoing chain of events. I believe that it's often the overcomplicated health messages which are thrown at us that cause us to just switch off and ignore the sound advice.

The underlying fact that I think we need to take away and act upon is – Too much bad cholesterol in our diet will eventually damage our bodies and cause us serious harm.

Clearly in order to do something about this, we need to know where this excess cholesterol comes from in our diet. I suppose most of us already know that LDL or bad cholesterol is mostly present in our diets in the form of hard or saturated animal fats (although there are one or two other sources to watch out for).

The first thing to remember is that all foods containing animal fat also contain cholesterol to a greater or lesser degree.

Major dietary sources of cholesterol include:

dairy products – cheese, butter, milk and cream
egg yolks
beef (especially offal such as liver and kidney)
pork
poultry
shrimp

The second thing we need to remember is that very few vegetables contain bad LDL cholesterol.

So if we eat a varied diet, rich in vegetables, and reduce our intake of some of the items above we are well on our way towards lowering our cholesterol and improving our overall health.

A few other useful tips:

Remove excess visible fat from meat before eating
Grill food instead of frying
Eat more vegetables
Eat more oily fish
Eat less processed foods – they often contain alarming fat levels
Use healthy vegetable oils such as olive oil
Take regular exercise
Get a cholesterol level check!

Once you get your cholesterol level checked, exactly what is high cholesterol? Your doctor or health practitioner will no doubt advise you and help you to interpret the results, but as a rule of thumb:

Total Cholesterol Level
Less than 200 mg/dL = Healthy
200-239 mg/dL = Borderline High
240 mg/dL and above = High

LDL Cholesterol Level (higher number = bad)
Less than 100 mg/dL = Optimal
100-129 mg/dL = Near optimal/above optimal
130-159 mg/dL = Borderline high
160-189 mg/dL = High
190 mg/dL and above = Very high

HDL Cholesterol level (higher number = good)
40 mg/dL or less = Low
60 mg/dL or more = Optimal

So there you have it, a purposely simplified answer to the question – What is Cholesterol? - and a few easy to follow starting points to help us all to reduce our LDL cholesterol levels. When you look at it written down like this over a few paragraphs, it really doesn't seem too much to ask of ourselves in order to improve and prolong our lives does it?