Cholesterol: Good or Bad?
In
today’s world, almost everything is free… not that
everything has no price. It just seems that we
have reached the era where we become more aware of our
health conditions. Thus, it seems to be the era of
everything that is -free. Try
scanning every available product in your local grocery
and you will see what I mean.
Your bread is bromate-free; your yoghurt is fat-free;
your cooking oil is cholesterol-free; your canned soup
is preservative-free; and the list goes on and on. Now
you are beginning to wonder about the next -free
commodity that you would encounter.
This is not exactly bad. In fact, health experts
encourage us to be more sensitive about the foods we
eat and the nutrients that we get from them. However,
not everything that is –free is healthy.
Our bodies need certain substances to be able to function
well.
What is cholesterol?
Let
us take a look at cholesterol for instance. Very
simply defined, cholesterol is a fatty substance that
occurs naturally in the blood, cell walls, and most
body tissues. Cholesterol is made by the liver, and
it enters the body via foods rich in saturated fat.
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There are two types of cholesterol; these are what they
termed as the good and bad cholesterol. Like the
literary split personality of Jekyll and Hyde, it has
a good side because it is needed for certain important
body functions. But for many people, cholesterol also
has an evil side. When present in excessive amounts,
it can injure blood vessels, cause heart attacks, and
stroke.
Negative effects
Low
Density Lipoprotein (LDL) is the "bad" cholesterol.
This is the form in which cholesterol is carried into
the blood and is the main cause of harmful fatty buildup
in arteries. The higher the LDL cholesterol levels in
the blood, the greater the heart disease risk. |
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Positive effects
On
the other hand, High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) is the
“good” cholesterol. This "good"
cholesterol carries blood cholesterol back to the liver,
where it can be eliminated. HDL helps prevent a cholesterol buildup in blood vessels. Low HDL levels increase heart
disease risk.
