What You Can Do To Your Blood Cholesterol Level

We now know that saturated fats such as butter tend to raise blood cholesterol levels by serving as the starting material from which cholesterol can be sythesized in the body.

Polyunsaturated fats such as corn oil, however, tend to lower blood cholesterol. Such knowledge makes it possible to reduce the amounts of fats and cholesterol you take into your body by adjusting your choice of foods.

1. Use leaner cuts of meat ; trim off all visible fat.

2. Eat chicken and fish more frequently and beef, lamb, and pork, which are high in fat-less often.

3. Drink skim milk instead of whole milk.

4. Eat more vegetables and fruits and fewer fatty foods such as french fries and ice cream.

5. Swith from butter to margarine.

It is specially important to choose foods that are low in cholesterol and fats if you know you are at increased risk of heart disease because, foe example, you have relatives with heart disorders.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a fatlike substance that has great physiological importance. It is one of the nonessential nutrients-that is, it is found in all foods from animal source, and our bodies can also manufacture it.

Scientists have found that there is a relationship between high levels of cholesterol in the blood and increased risk of heart disease. Cholesterol is a major component of the plaque that can build up on the walls of blood vessels, including the vessels that supply the heart muscle, so that the blood vessels become narrowed and may eventually close off completely.

What is not precisely understood, however, is how much cholesterol in the diet (consumed, in eggs and meat, for example) raises the level of blood cholesterol, and whether reducing dietary cholesterol significantly reduces the risk of heart disease.

It is not as if the cholesterol in our breakfast eggs and bacon immediately migrates to our arteries and begins to clog them up. Other factors in our diet or body metabolism, including exercise, may affect how much of the cholesterol we eat ultimately becomes part of our bodies and subjects us to increased risk of heeart disease.  

How is Sugar Related to Diabetes ?

Many of us know that the level of sugar in the bloodstream is somehow related to the disease known as diabetes mellitus (or "sugar diabetes").

Beyond that, our understanding of this condition may be hazy and that`s not surprising, since medical researchers are still debating about the disease.

There are two major types of diabetes, both characterized by abnormal processing of carbohydrates. In juvenile-onset diabetes, the body somehow fails to produce enough of a substance known as insulin, which helps the cells of the body take sugar (in the form of glucose) from the bloodstream and use it. In adult-onset diabetes, the body manufactures insulin, but somehow it cannot use this insulin properly.

Relatively high levels of sugar in the bloodstream, then, are the result, not the cause, of these problems with insulin-the body is not able to remove this sugar from the bloodstream and use it at the same rate a normal person`s body would. But there is a further difficulty.

Diabetes has very dangerous complications, including degeneration of the large and small blood vessels and high blood pressure. Some scientists think that relatively high levels of sugar in the bloodstream may help bring on these complications. And that`s why some physicians teach their patients to monitor their blood sugar levels carefully and take steps to prevent wide swings in the level. Other physicians, however, don`t agree that the high blood sugar levels are the cause of the complications; they think some other relationship may be involved.

Types of Fats

Fat has gotten a bad reputation recentl, yet fat in the diet is essential to good health. Besides severing as an additional energy source, fats also known as lipids, give flavor to many of the foods we eat.

Fats also insulate the body ; cushion vital organs, protecting them from injury ; serve as carriers for the four fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) ; and contribute to hormone systhesis and the blood clotting mechanism.

Unused fats, like extra carbohydrates, are stored as "fat tissue" and draws on by the body when they are needed for energy. Stored fats are the greatest nutritional reservoir in the body.

Fatty acids are the building blocks of fats. They are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and small amounts of oxygen. The terms "saturated" and "unsaturated" are used to describe the hydrogen component of fats. 

Saturated fats, found in meats, butter, coconut oil, and palm oil, have all the hydrogen atoms they are capable of holding. A saturated fat is usually solid at room temperature.

An unsaturated fat is capable of holding more hydrogen atoms than it does. Polyunsaturated fats (such as corn, soya, sunflower, and cottonseed oil) and monounsaturated fats (such as olive oil) are two classes of unsaturated fats.

Polyunsaturated fats tend to lower blood cholesterol; monounsaturated fats do, too, but to a lesser degree. Unsaturated fats are usually liquid at room temperature. They can be changed to solids by hydrogenation, which involves bubbling hydrogen gas through the liquid oil. Some experts think people who eat high proportions of saturated fats may have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates, found in spaghetti, bread, cereal, rice, potaoes, doughnuts, candy, most fruits and vegetables, and other foods, are our source of ready energy : They contribute approximately 50 percent of the body`s energy needs and are its most economical energy source.

They include two major types : sugars and starches. (Cellulose is also a carbohydrate, but since it is a nonnutrient, it will not be considered here).

Carbohydrates are less complex compounds than proteins, and they can be burned (oxidized) in the body much more efficiently than either proteins or fats.

They are broken down in digestion into chemicals known as simple sugars, which are then further converted by the liver into glucose.

Some of this glucose gose right into the bloodstream and is directly used by all the cells in the body for energy. Some glucose remains stored in the liver and muscles as a substance called glycogen, ready for immediate release into the bloodstream should blood glucose levels fall too low.

Excess glucose - that which is neither burned as energy nor stored as glycogen - is converted to substances known as fatty acids, such as triglycerides, which are then stored in fat tissue.

In addition to fulfilling our energy requirements, our bodies also need carbohydrates to utilize fat efficiently. If an individual consumes less than 125 milligrams of carbohydrate per day, the body will not be able to burn fat from fat stores completely.

How Much Protein Do You Need Each Day ?

Clearly, it is vital consume adequate amounts of protein each day. 

Most Americans, however, take in far more than is needed : Most young men need about 56 grams and most young women need about 45 grams, but our average daily consumption is about 100 grams.

One quick way to get a rough estimate of your protein need is to divide your weight in pounds by 3. Thus, if you weigh 150 pounds and divide this by 3, your approximate daily protein need is 50 grams.

That`s roughly the amount of protein found in two servings, each 2 to 3 ounces, of lean cooked meat, poultry, or fish.

The body converts any excess protein to glucose, a type of sugar, which is then either burned as energy of stored as fat-a very expensive source of calories for such usage.

Getting too little protein can be dangerous. Low-protein fat diets can only have undesirable results. The dieter can become seriously ill (though this is rare).

But even minor protein deficiencies over a period of time will cause fatigue and irritability, and they will reduce the body`s production of antibodies, so that the individual becomes more susceptible to infection and recovers more slowly.

And continued protein deficiency may eventually lead to anemia and liver disorders.