{"id":6526,"date":"2021-01-21T07:38:05","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T07:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=6526"},"modified":"2021-01-21T07:38:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T07:38:06","slug":"medical-views-on-cholesterol-in-food-are-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/medical-views-on-cholesterol-in-food-are-changing\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical views on cholesterol in food are changing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>While high levels of \u201cbad\u201d cholesterol in the blood, which have been linked to heart disease,\u00a0remain\u00a0an important\u00a0health concern,\u00a0evidence shows people\u00a0should no longer be overly\u00a0concerned about eating foods that are high in cholesterol.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steven Nissen, MD,\u00a0a\u00a0cardiologist from a top American hospital, Cleveland Clinic, explains that what\u00a0has changed is that many researchers and physicians believe that eating cholesterol-rich foods such as eggs may not\u00a0have a very big effect on\u00a0blood\u00a0cholesterol\u00a0levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHowever, people with certain health problems, such as diabetes, should continue to avoid cholesterol-rich foods,\u201d says&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Nissen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He adds that the issue of whether<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>cholesterol&nbsp;is&nbsp;harmful&nbsp;is&nbsp;complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cholesterol is a waxy substance that ultimately ends up in the walls of arteries. It causes the plaque that leads&nbsp;to heart attacks and strokes. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines call for a daily cholesterol limit of 300 milligrams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Nissen explains that the relationship between cholesterol&nbsp;in the diet&nbsp;and the body is&nbsp;complicated&nbsp;for various reasons including:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The body&nbsp;largely&nbsp;regulates how much cholesterol is in your blood.<\/li><li>There&nbsp;are&nbsp;different kinds of cholesterol. Low-density lipoprotein or LDL (bad) cholesterol contributes to plaque buildup along with triglycerides, another lipid. High-density lipoprotein or HDL (good) cholesterol&nbsp;is not linked to&nbsp;plaque buildup.<\/li><li>LDL is the bad cholesterol that can increase your risk of heart disease.<\/li><li>The way people process cholesterol differs. Some people appear to be more vulnerable to cholesterol-rich diets.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYour genetic makeup \u2013 not diet \u2013 is the&nbsp;most important&nbsp;driving force behind&nbsp;blood&nbsp;cholesterol levels, says Dr. Nissen. \u201cThe body creates cholesterol in amounts much larger than what you can eat, so avoiding foods that are high in cholesterol won\u2019t affect your blood cholesterol levels very much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About 85% of the cholesterol in the circulation is manufactured by the body in the liver. In other words, it&nbsp;does&nbsp;not&nbsp;come&nbsp;directly from the cholesterol that you eat, according to Dr. Nissen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&nbsp;is&nbsp;also likely that people with&nbsp;a&nbsp;family history of heart disease share common environments that may increase their risk, according to the&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;(CDC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The greater danger for everyone is in foods that are high in trans fats, explains Dr. Nissen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThose often appear on food labels as hydrogenated oils or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil,\u201d he says. \u201cThose types of fats do tend to raise cholesterol and do tend to increase the risk of heart disease.\u201d&nbsp;The issue of saturated fat is more complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All in all,&nbsp;he recommends that people&nbsp;look for&nbsp;the words \u201ctrans fat\u201d&nbsp;and&nbsp;\u201chydrogenated&nbsp;fat\u201d&nbsp;on labels at the grocery store. The American Heart Association&nbsp;does&nbsp;recommend&nbsp;limiting dietary saturated fat intake and focusing more on eating fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean animal protein or plant-protein&nbsp;sources.\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While high levels of \u201cbad\u201d cholesterol in the blood, which have been linked to heart disease, remain an important health concern, evidence shows people should no longer be overly concerned about eating foods that are high in cholesterol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[919,20],"class_list":["post-6526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsmakers","tag-healthcare","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6527,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6526\/revisions\/6527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}