Heart Healthy Diet and Cholesterol Diet

Heart Healthy Diet and Cholesterol Diet

Cholesterol exists in animal type food such as meat, milk and milk products, egg, seashell, and many other fat-containing processed foods. Cholesterol has two types: low density lipoprotein(LDL) and high density lipoprotein(HDL).

Over LDL in blood is the main reason that causes artery atheromas which induces arteriosclerosis, heart disease, stroke,etc. So those with heart conditions shouldn't eat high cholesterol(especially LDL) containing food. Daily limitation of cholesterol intake should be 300mg.

HDL(good cholesterol) transfers cholesterol from body tissue to liver and then discharged.

Certain amount of cholesterol is necessary for our body. It's also dangerous to totally avoid eating cholesterol containing food. It'll affect our regular metabolism, reducing the functions of our body's cell, tissues and organs, or even causing other disease.

Then how to balance cholesterol diet?

Firstly, to control gross amount intake, daily cholesterol intake should be less than 300mg, which is the cholesterol quantity of a regular egg or 100g beef steak. So if you eat an egg at breakfast you shouldn't eat meat/fish at lunch or dinner. Instead, you may eat some bean or bean products to supplement protein. Bean and bean products also help to reduce bad cholesterol.

Secondly, arrange reasonable proportion of meat, vegetables and cereals.

Food fibers in vegetables, fruits and cereals shorten the time of food passing the intestinal track, promoting discharge of cholesterol.

The usage ratio of vegetable oil to animal oil should be at 1:0.7. Unsaturated fatty acid largely exists in vegetable oil which can reduce bad cholesterol, so use vegetable oil as cooking oil instead of animal oil. Eating more fish than meat as there contains lots of unsaturated fatty acid in fish.

Don't take egg as poison. Though egg yolk contains high cholesterol, it contains lecithin which can reduce cholesterol in plasm. Meanwhile the unsaturated fatty acid in egg yolk can combine with cholesterol and then change into cholesterol ester which increases the liquidity of cholesterol and reduces the accumulation of cholesterol. People with hyperlipidemia may eat 2 eggs each week. Senior and obese people may only eat egg white.

Thirdly,test. Since each person's constitution is different, as to how much egg or meat you should eat, you may do some test. Eat half an egg each day for one week, then exam lipid. If cholesterol in blood increases rapidly you should reduce egg intake. If there is no big change you can continue the quantity of the diet(to eat half an egg each day).

Cholesterol in food is different from that in blood. You eating high cholesterol food doesn't mean that you have high cholesterol in blood. The effect of the cholesterol of food on the cholesterol of blood is closely related to the saturated fatty acid and unsaturated fatty acid containing in food. For instance, margarine contains far less cholesterol than that of mayonnaise. But the effect power of margarine is +9.03 while mayonnaise's is -1.17. That means mayonnaise helps to reduce cholesterol in blood. So choose foods containing more unsaturated fatty acide as they have less effect on or even reduce cholesterol in blood. Below is some food's list of cholesterol and their effect on cholesterol in blood.