"Simply Lower Your
Cholesterol
Levels..."
Shelves are now laden
with cholesterol-lowering spreads. But is it an issue for the
young and healthy?
Cholesterol is a boomerang issue.
First it’s bad, then it’s no big deal, then it’s bad, bad, bad.
If you’re reading this with butter dripping off your toast,
does it matter? If you’re eating egg-mayo sandwiches, planning
bangers and mash for tea, are you in nutritional
hell?
Supermarkets’ butter and
margarine fridges would confuse even the most informed. The
choice is butter; Olivio-type products; sunflower spreads, and
there’s the cholesterol-lowering range, Food & More.
M&S endorsing the concept is like Boots doing laser
surgery; you think if they’re doing it, maybe it’s not a
fad.
In the US and Australia,
cardiologists have been giving a consistent lower-cholesterol
message to the public since the first research on it came out
in the Sixties. British experts didn’t put their weight behind
it till the Eighties, so we have remained confused. In the
Seventies, Australia, the US and the UK had comparable rates of
heart disease; we now have one of the highest rates in the
world.
What is
Cholesterol?
Cholesterol occurs naturally in the body. It
is produced by the liver and is needed in cell walls for the
production of sex hormones and bile acids that aid digestion.
But an excess of cholesterol (LDL or low-density lipoprotein in
particular) can lead to clogged arteries. Food labels often
note cholesterol content, but it's saturated fat that's
important, says Wendy Doyle from the British Dietetic
Association. Saturated fat triggers the liver to produce
cholesterol. It’s this intake that needs to be
monitored.
Two thirds of adults have blood
levels above 5.2mmol/l, the desirable cholesterol level. In
women, blood cholesterol tends to rise from the age of 20 and
goes up sharply around the menopause. ‘Cholesterol should be an
issue for all of us,’ says Gaynor Dewsnap, British Heart
Foundation spokesperson. ‘Heart disease doesn’t occur in an
instant. It’s a build-up that starts in your twenties. In
children with parents who had heart disease, you can see
hardening of the arteries and layers of oxidised cholesterol
building up as early as eight and ten years old.’
Products such as Flora Proactive
and Benecol eaten in the recommended amounts have been shown by
their controlled studies to lower blood cholesterol by an
average of 10 per cent. A reduction which, over the whole
population, would be likely to lower heart-disease deaths by 20
to 30 per cent, according to experts. No wonder these products
have been dubbed ‘the most significant development in the
dietary management of cholesterol in 30 years’.
But does that mean reasonably
healthy 20- and 30-something women should be eating them? No,
say Doyle and Dewsnap. Not unless you have raised blood
cholesterol and have implemented other lifestyle changes to
lower it (see below). Not only does the body need cholesterol
to function properly, some studies have also linked low
cholesterol levels with depression. ‘It’s not a case of the
lower blood cholesterol the better,’ says Doyle. ‘Keeping it
within recommended limits is all you need to do.
The products contain concentrated
amounts of sterols, stanols or soya protein, which work in
similar ways to stop cholesterol being absorbed in the gut.
This has no known side effects, except interfering with the
absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. The makers of
Flora ProActive say this can be compensated by having one extra
portion of coloured veg a day. But, we are hungry for more
nutrients anyway, and if your cholesterol levels are normal,
this may not be an effect you want.
So
what should you put on your toast? ‘Butter is one of the main
sources of saturated fat,’ says Doyle. ‘If you’re otherwise
healthy, I’d recommend you limit it to putting on toast when
you can taste it, and use polyunsaturates (sunflower oil and
spreads) and mono-unsaturates (olive oil) when taste is less
important.
Rules For
Keeping Cholesterol
Down!
Reduce fat. Less than 30 per cent of
daily calories should come from fat, with less than 10
per cent being saturated fat. On 2,000 calories a day,
that’s a maximum of 65g total fat and 20g saturated fat a
day.
Eat less meat, particularly liver
and kidneys. Remove chicken skin and visible fat.
Cut down on saturated fat from
eggs, sausages, coconut milk and processed foods, such as cakes
and biscuits. Also avoid trans-fats such as the hydrogenated
oils found in processed foods.
Exercise regularly. One study at
the University of Ulster claimed walking up and down stairs for
six minutes a day lowers cholesterol by 10-15 per
cent.
Eat fish twice a week, with one
serving being oily fish, such as mackerel, salmon or trout.
Oily fish provides omega-3 fatty acids, which lower cholesterol
and help reduce heartbeat irregularities.
If you’re vegetarian, up your
intake of mono-unsaturated fats such as rapeseed oil, walnut
oil, flaxseed oil and soya (in any form); the body can make
omega-3 from these.
Source:
http://www.meirafitness.com
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