Avoid cholesterol-rich foods or better still limit daily cholesterol intake to 300mg. You must have been told this because it’s believed that cholesterol is the bad guy – detrimental to our health and should be avoided. Health professionals even echo this theory. But that’s half the truth.
Cholesterol is both good and bad. Healthy and unhealthy depending on the type you’re taking. So, what is good cholesterol and what cholesterol is bad?
This article explains the types of cholesterol with emphasis on the foods to eat and the ones you should avoid.
Cholesterol: Functions and Types
Cholesterol is a wax-like substance – some people call it a type of fat that our body needs for the production of cells, some hormones, and Vitamin D.
The liver and diets are the sources of cholesterol and the liver produces enough of it to serve the body. However, dietary cholesterol is usually the main suspect in health issues.
But not all dietary cholesterol is bad. By way of transport into the blood, cholesterol exists as Low-density lipoprotein LDL, often called the bad cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein HDL or the good cholesterol.
Worthy of mention that lipoproteins help to convey cholesterol into the blood, so the classification.
However, experts say the lower the LDL, the better, and the higher the HDL, the better. Why?
LDL from our diets builds up in the walls of the blood vessels thus restricting the flow of blood to critical organs of the body. Stroke and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the most common consequences. HDL, on the other hand, takes cholesterol from the blood to the liver for metabolism.
