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Diet To Lower Cholesterol: Improve Your Health With Cholesterol

By Delynda Lardone
Jul 1, 2008
Many people often hear from their doctor about their cholesterol level either being bad or good, but many do not actually understand just exactly what cholesterol is and what its function is in the body. Many often develop a misconception as to what it really does. Cholesterol is simply a waxy substance produced by your liver that is designed to perform a number of tasks for our health.

As we consume foods in our daily diet, our liver takes portions of it and turns it into cholesterol which has an important job which is to building cell walls, producing vitamin D, and to create bile salts which help digest that fat we consume. So why would we worry about consuming too much cholesterol? Essentially because anything we produce in large quantities is bad for us. If we can be aware of just what is cholesterol, then we can learn to watch what we eat on a daily basis.

The Bad Cholesterol Verses The Good Cholesterol.

One easy way to watch our cholesterol level is to understand what foods that we eat in our daily diet which produce the good cholesterol bad cholesterol. Foods that carry animal fat such as dairy and meats carry bad cholesterol, Foods such as vegetables, fruits, and whole grains carry no cholesterol at all.

Too much bad cholesterol in our system can lead to blocked arteries which is very bad. When our arteries are blocked it prevents our blood from flowing, which is very bad for our health.

The main goal of the good cholesterol is to keep our bodies healthy. It does this by taking the left over cholesterol within our system and carries it to the liver so it can produce bile salt which helps eject it from our body.

What Can Cause Us To Get High Cholesterol?

When people ask their doctor about their cholesterol level, it usually pertains to a high cholesterol level. There are a number of reasons that we can develop high cholesterol and one most important factor is age. The older we get the more likely we are to develop a high cholesterol level.

There are many things that can cause us to get high cholesterol levels. One thing is we may inherit from our parents. If your parents have high cholesterol, you should ask your doctor to be tested to make sure if you have it or not. Another thing is doing physical activity. When we exercise and do any other physical activity, this causes our good cholesterol levels to rise thus keeping us healthy.

When we are looking at the causes and cures for high cholesterol, we often find a direct link between the food we eat and our cholesterol levels. If we eat foods rich in fiber, vegetables, beans, fish, and fruits we can keep the good cholesterol levels up within our body. We also need to try and avoid eating foods that promote high cholesterol levels within our body like meat and dairy products.When we go to the doctor and he gives us our cholesterol reading, many do not understand just exactly what he is talking about. Many people know that cholesterol is either good for you or bad, but many do not understand what is cholesterol. Cholesterol is simply a waxy matter that the liver creates which handles a number of duties in our body.
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