Cholesterol and Saturated Fats
Cholesterol and Saturated Fats: Will the Real Problem Please Stand Up?
It just figures, doesn’t it? The really good-tasting foods also seem to be the ones with the highest cholesterol content. But before you cry over that observation too much, did you know high cholesterol content doesn’t necessarily mean you have to avoid the foods you love?
No really, it’s true. It turns out the real problem isn’t a particular food’s cholesterol content as much as the amount of saturated fats a food choice contains. Saturated fats actually cause our liver to go into production mode, generating the harmful type of cholesterol you’ve probably heard so much about.
Saturated fats are primarily found in animal products and are recognized by experts as agents in the elevation of your LDL cholesterol (the “bad” kind). The saturated fats are responsible for the triggering of LDL cholesterol production by your liver.
You don’t have to worry, however, about having enough saturated fats to fuel cholesterol production (and your body does need some cholesterol for cell repair and other things). If you were to totally eliminate saturated fats from your diet, experts claim there would be absolutely no negative effect on your body; your body is able to produce all the cholesterol you will ever need without the aid of saturated fats.
In fact, the liver pumps into our blood four times the amount of cholesterol it receives from our food. Therefore, since saturated fats are responsible for stimulating cholesterol production in the liver, they are much more dangerous culprits than our poor dietary cholesterol.
