Healthy Fats and controlling blood cholesterol

The body uses cholesterol as precursor to make oestrogen, testosterone, vitamin D, and other vital compounds.

Having high cholesterol level, low HDL and high LDL levels can increase the risk for

serious cardiovascular diseases e.g. hypertension, coronary artery disease, and ischaemia.

Dietary Factors affecting your blood cholesterol, Bad fats:

Total Fats

Total fats have a great effect on your cholesterol level, checking food labelling to know

the amount of total fats in your food. keep in mind that in low fat diet, manufactures replace fats with carbohydrates, so usually low fat diet have high carbohydrate (sugar) level, so should be avoided in cases of Diabetes.

Trans Fats

Foods high in trans fat can seriously raise blood cholesterol. “Trans” is a word that refers to the chemical structure of certain unsaturated fats when they have had hydrogen added to them to make them firm.

e.g. cakes, biscuits, fried food, margarine, pastries and pizza, etc.

Saturated Fats

Foods high in saturated fats raise blood cholesterol more than foods high in dietary cholesterol, but lesser than those having trans fats. “Saturated” is a word that refers to the chemical structure of some fats. Saturated fats are usually firm or hold their shapes at room temperature.

Animal sources; beef, beef fat, veal, lamb, pork, lard, poultry fat, butter, cream, milk, cheeses, and other dairy products made from whole milk.

Plant sources; coconut oil, palm oil, and palm kernel oil (often called tropical oils), and cocoa butter.

Dietary cholesterol

Lowering dietary cholesterol has a little effect on controlling blood cholesterol level.

food with high cholesterol, eggs, liver, organ meat, and chicken leg.

Healthy fats:

Healthy fats are of 2 types monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

Monounsaturated fats:

Researches state that these fats can lower blood LDL but there is still a debate around their ability to raise blood HDL.

Polyunsaturated fats:

They are 2 main types omega 3 and omega 6, they have a great role in lowering blood cholesterol and raising blood HDL level specially omega 3 ones.

there is a ratio that should be kept between omega6 : omega 3, which should be 1:1 but due to the high intake of western diet it may reach 15:1

Benefits of Omega 3:

Omega 3 can help in;

• Lowering blood lipids, blood pressure, heart diseases and metabolic syndrome.

• support many inflammatory diseases e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, etc

• supports mental health; Alzheimer, Dementia, anxiety sleep disorders, and depression.

• children disorders as ADHD, asthma.

• Skin health, eczema, psoriasis, and seborrhoea dermatitis.

• Mental health during pregnancy and early life of newborn.

• minimising the risk of cancer

• Autoimmune diseases, as in multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and type I diabetes.

Nutritional tips to lower cholesterol:

1) Eat Mediterranean diet, it is proved that Mediterranean diet can help in lowering blood lipids and heart diseases. the diet based on more fish, whole grains, olive oil, fruits and vegetables.

2) Limit your intake of dietary saturated fats, trans fats and cholesterol.

3) Use healthy fats instead in cooking.

4) Eat more fibres will help to lower blood cholesterol like; fruits and vegetables, oats, beans, barely.

5) Focus on plant-proteins like; legumes, beans ,nuts and seeds than animal-proteins (meat).

6) Eat more of foods that boost your metabolism and help burning more fats as cinnamon, ginger, grapefruit (not if you are on Statins), green tea, soy, chilli peppers, citrus fruits, avocado and garlic.

7) Plant sterols found in fortified foods, whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables or as a supplement, they work by blocking cholesterol absorption in the gut. An intake of 1.5-2.4g plant sterols/stanols everyday has been shown to reduce cholesterol by 7-10% over 2-3 weeks.

8) Control your weight, exercise regularly, avoid drinking alcohol and smoking.

9) Drink enough water 2 litre /day (add lemon, mint and cucumber for more burning fats effect).

10) Supplementation, plant sterols, Omega 3 and Niacin are proved to be effective in lowering blood cholesterol.

11) If you are on Statins,

• Avoid grapefruit intake.

• Check your blood cholesterol and blood glucose levels regularlly.

• Coenzyme Q10 can be helpful in cases associated with muscle pain.

Sources:

1. National Institute of Health (August 1, 2005). "Omega-3 fatty acids, fish oil, alpha-linolenic acid". Archived from the original on 3 May 2006. Retrieved 26 March 2006.

2. Willett, Walter C (September 2007). "The role of dietary n-6 fatty acids in the prevention of cardiovascular disease". Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine.

3. Siri-Tarino, P.W., et al., Saturated fatty acids and risk of coronary heart disease: modulation by replacement nutrients. Curr Atheroscler Rep, 2010. 12(6): p. 384-90.

4. www.hsph.harvard.edu

5. U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S.D.o.H.a.H.S., Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, 2010.

6. Lichtenstein, A.H., et al., Diet and lifestyle recommendations revision 2006: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee. Circulation, 2006.