cholesterol diet

Cholesterol Diet : Basic principles. More on cholesterol portfolioplusdiet.com
Where does cholesterol come from?
To understand a cholesterol-lowering diet you need to know where cholesterol comes from and how it is excreted.

Most of your cholesterol you make yourself from saturated fat.
A small amount is absorbed or re-absorbed cholesterol.

What do we use it for?
Cholesterol is an important ingredient in the body. It is used among other things for hormones including sex hormones, and for structure. Brain cells are held up by a grid made partly from cholesterol.
How do we get rid of cholesterol?
Cholesterol is broken down by the liver and passed out of the body through the gall bladder in bile. Gall bladder stones are cholesterol stones. When you eat fat the gall bladder contracts, squirting out bile into the small intestine. Bile salts help break down the fat in your diet so that you can absorb that fat. If your diet contains soluble fibre the bile salts and cholesterol stick to the fibre and pass out through the bowels. If you lack soluble fibre in your diet some of the cholesterol will be re-digested and re-absorbed.
Cholesterol is transported in the bloodstream by lipoproteins - HDL - LDL - VLDL. The small lipoproteins allow some of the cholesterol to drop off in the arteries before getting to the liver for excretion. Keep your HDL high! (What the H... is HDL?)

At one time doctors advised patients to avoid eggs because egg yolks contain cholesterol. Then a study was done in Britain where a group of people were compared as to intake of eggs. Half ate at least one egg a day, the other half ate one a week. At the end of three months their blood cholesterol was measured, and there was no statistical difference between the two groups. Then they switched: the group eating an egg a day ate one a week for three months and vice versa. There was no change of statistical significance at the end of the next three months.
The cholesterol that another animal makes has only a little effect on your cholesterol: you make most of it yourself. Concentrate on reducing your home-made cholesterol.
Some meats especially inernal organs, e.g., liver and kidney contain both cholesterol and saturated fat. Seafood may contain cholesterol but minimal saturated fat.

General rule: The worse your cholesterol problem the less of these products you should include in your diet. Meats and dairy products contain nutrition that is vital for some people: if they are not sophisticated they may eliminate foods that they need and make themselves ill from malutrition. "Overfed and undernourished." A vegetarin diet can provide all the nutrients needed but vegetarians need to educate themselves in where to find complete nutrition.

The cholesterol diet has two parts:

Foods to reduce or avoid: they make cholesterol:
Foods to include: they reduce cholesterol.

Cholesterol is made in the body from saturated (hardened) fat.

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Foods to reduce or avoid:
Saturated fat comes mostly from animal sources.
Meat: including beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, mutton, goat meat and any product made from these such as sausages, bacon, pate. This also includes internal organs. Many meat producers have greatly reduced the fat content in their product and advertise the percentage of fat contained in that meat.
Dairy products: excluding skim-milk products: butter, cheese, yoghurt etc.
Trans-fats are good fats that were partially hardened to make them last longer in storage, such as in margarine and snack foods. Trans fats are gradually being eliminated from stores in the Western World.

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Foods to include or increase.
Fibre. See above - General principles.
Not all fibre is equal. oluble fibre is better at getting rid of cholesterol as explained above. However insoluble vegetable fibre is helpful for bowel cancer, diverticulitis, diverticulosis, appendicitis, and constipation.
Good oils. We need fat in our diet as a fuel, as a source of fat soluble vitamins and as a source of nutrients such as omega 3 oils. Any vegetable oil is good but olive oil seems to have an especially good combination of properties. The "Mediterranean Diet" which includes olive oil and a multitude of vegetables gives the people who live in Southern Italy, Greece, Turkey, some middle-eastern countries, and parts of France a great advantage in reduced heart disease and increased life expectancy.

Low saturated-fat protein sources:
If you cut down on meat and dairy, you have to get your protein somewhere.

Fish and seafood are good sources of protein which do not have fats that increase cholesterol. Deep sea cold water fish have an advantage from the vitamins and fish oils they contain which help with such things as aging, arthritis and cancer.
Beans and peas ("Pulses") are great sources of protein and also add soluble fibre.
Grains such as oatmeal are high in soluble fibre. The less refined your grains the better your health. Choose whole wheat bread, pasta etc. They are good sources of carbohydrates and contain some protein.
Nuts are good sources of protein and contain oils that have health advantages. Snack on wallnuts: they are good nutrition and also help bind cholesterol in the bowel so it does not get re-absorbed.