We all sometimes tend to be curious and look at the back of products just to look at how much of what is put in the product. We point out total fat, sugar, cholesterol, etc. But do we ever think about what cholesterol really is? Cholesterol is a sterol type compound found in blood, nerves, and in most body tissues. Cholesterol has four main functions. "It helps make up digestive bile acids in the intestine, it allows the body to produce vitamin D, it contributes to the structure of cell walls, and enables the body to make certain hormones." Cholesterol has eight chiral centers making it have 256 possible stereoisomers. What is fascinating is that only one of them is naturally occurring. It is both beneficial and dangerous to our body. Cholesterol is an important substance for our body which helps it to function normally but high cholesterol can lead to risk of a heart attack. It is important for us to make sure that our cholesterol stays at normal levels, and we try to stay away from cholesterol high food such as:
1. Fries and fried chicken
2. Eggs
3. Cheeseburgers
4. Macaroni and Cheese
5. Ice Cream
There are many more but we should work to keep a balanced cholesterol level and control our eating habits.
Links:
http://www.everydayhealth.com/high-cholesterol-pictures/ten-high-cholesterol-foods-to-avoid.aspx#11
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Chemistry/Rizzo/chem220a/Ch9slides.pdf
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/9152.php
You are absolutely right that we should control what we eat in order to lower the bad cholesterol but by doing that you increase the good cholesterol as well and lower your risk of having cardiovascular disease later on in life.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually a very insightful post. we need to be very careful of what we eat and also the things we decide to intake. By maintaing a healthy cholesterol level we will be able to live a healthier life!
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