High Cholesterol Foods

How do Foods High in Cholesterol Affect You?

High cholesterol foods should be avoided mostly and should be restricted in your diet, whether you already have been diagnosed with high cholesterol or not. You may be affected and not know, because there may not be any major obvious symptoms.

Here is a list of the most common high cholesterol foods:

Fast Food and Junk Food

Fast food and junk food are usually high in cholesterol, salt, calories and sugar. Some very bad fats called trans fats are usually found in fast food. Trans fats are by-products of hydrogenated oil. They behave like saturated fats when they get in the body. They clog up the human arteries and cause plaque to build up contributing to heart disease and stroke symptoms.

Some people believe that if they exercise more they can eat fast food or junk food. That’s off beam. Exercise will not provide the results you want on its own without diet changes and healthier eating habits.

Fast food does little by way of providing nutrition. They contain all the things that contribute to raising your LDL cholesterol level. Bear in mind that fast food restaurants are not thinking about your nutritional needs when they prepare these foods. Just one meal from a typical fast food restaurant can contain all the total fat and saturated fat quantities experts recommend you have for the day.

How then do you eat your other two meals in the day without consuming too much fat? By the way the excess fat just stores itself in your body and possibly around the arteries. Dangerous.

Now you can understand why fast food and junk food are a major class of high cholesterol foods.

Cheese

Generally, cheese is high in cholesterol. So use genuine low-fat versions if you want to eat cheese. Cheese should be eaten on occasion, not as part of a lifestyle. If you have healthy cookware that enables you to de-fat cheese and other family foods automatically, then you can eat your cake and have it! Soya versions of cheese are much healthier. Tofu too is.

Dairy Milk

Milk is another of foods high in cholesterol. This is because cheese high in the types of fat that produce cholesterol too. Full-fat milk to be precise is, so semi-skimmed and skimmed milk are much better options. Soy milk and rice milk are great replacements.

Fried foods

The problem with fried foods is the extra added oils. Think about it. Added oils are oils that are not found naturally in foods. Any added oils to your foods are adding calories to your foods. Extra calories you don’t need.

When you eat fried foods, the body finds it harder to digest than non-fried foods. So the fat gets deposited in some part of the body, and the body is in no time craving more food. And then you’re likely to go and eat even more high cholesterol foods.

Fats getting stored around your body are dangerous to your health, most especially when it’s stored around your arteries.

Eggs

Eggs are one of the foods high in cholesterol. Eggs contain a high amount of saturated fat even when boiled, let alone fried or burnt. The amount of saturated fat in your body can have an effect on your cholesterol levels.

Meat

Meat is an excellent source of protein but is very high in saturated fat. If you are trying to lose weight, you should stay off meat, especially red meat, until you get to that healthy weight you’re looking for. And even after that, keep red meats in your diet to a minimum. You’re also better off taking the skin off white meat like chicken to reduce fat.

Butter

Butter is made from animal fat; therefore also contains a lot of saturated fat. Make sure you go easy on that butter.

Cakes and Biscuits

Baked products can contain a lot of fat, which can contribute to raising your cholesterol level. Try baking at home instead of buying baked products from shops, since you don’t know what they would have put in them. That will put you in control; you can then try cutting the amount of fat and cholesterol in whatever you bake.

You can easily replace butter, eggs, and milk with other alternatives that are healthier, such as egg substitutes, soy milk, rice milk and healthy vegetable oils.

Fatty Salad Dressings

Heavy salad dressings are high in fat, calories and can contribute to raising your cholesterol levels. You don’t have to give them up completely, just use low-fat versions. Don’t go with what the supermarket calls low-fat, read the labels so that you can understand what each salad dressing is made up of. Think olive oil and vinegar dressings.

Conclusively, high cholesterol foods should be limited in your diet and many of them can easily contribute to raising your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels, and they are one of the major reasons for high cholesterol in your body.

The information here is for general guidance only.
Talk to your doctor before making any changes to your diet and lifestyle.