Cholesterol (was: LBC radio phone-in)

[Guest guest]

On 17/6/08 12:24, " Lesley Dove " <Lesley wrote:

 

> The nutritionist who gave a talk yesterday evening at the Kingston

> Arnica group meeting ... believes cholesterol is not necessarily

> an unhealthy thing!!!

 

Well, er ... it's not. Cholesterol is essential for healthy cell

function. Without it, we¹d die! But that¹s OK, because we synthesise it

ourselves, in places like the liver and the intestines, and we don¹t need to

eat it. But if we do, it isn¹t necessarily unhealthy. Problems occur when

you have abnormally high levels of blood cholesterol in the form of

low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and/or _low_ levels of blood cholesterol in

the form of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), which is good because it helps

to stop LDL from clogging the arteries. Dietary cholesterol is always in the

LDL form, so when people talk about having too much cholesterol in the diet,

that¹s what they mean. But actually, it¹s now thought not to be dietary

cholesterol itself so much that¹s the problem, but saturated fat, which

increases levels of blood cholesterol in the form of LDL. So even if you

have moderately high levels of dietary cholesterol, you should be able to

remain perfectly healthy as long as you don¹t have too much saturated fat,

and you have plenty of foods containing soluble fibre (found in oats,

barley, pulses, and various fruit and veg), and plant sterols (found in

avocado, walnuts, almonds, soya beans, olive oil, peanuts, sunflower seeds,

sesame seeds ...), and other goodies thought to help lower LDL blood

cholesterol and raise HDL blood cholesterol, and you get plenty of exercise

and you¹re not overweight and you don¹t smoke and don¹t drink too much

alcohol.

 

That¹s my understanding, anyway. I had my cholesterol levels tested for free

at Sainsbury¹s a couple of months ago, and found that, while my LDL was,

unsurprisingly, well within the normal range (as were my triglycerides), my

HDL was below desirable levels. I doubt that this has much to do with my

diet, as I eat plenty of nuts, seeds, beans, olive oil, oats, avocados, etc.

I think it¹s more likely to be related to the fact that I don¹t get enough

exercise and I¹m overweight. Obviously, I should get more exercise and

lose weight anyway, for various reasons. But what I¹m not clear about is

whether it matters that I have low HDL when my LDL is also low. In fact, it

seems that no one¹s clear about that:

 

³The significance of low HDL levels in vegetarians and in people consuming

low-fat diets continues to be a subject of debate. On the one hand, it has

been suggested that low HDL does not matter when total cholesterol is low

(4). However, some research suggests that the TC:HDL ratio is predictive of

heart disease risk at all levels of total cholesterol (5).²

<http://www.vegetarian-nutrition.info/vn/optimal_fat_intake.htm>

 

Has anyone else here had their cholesterol tested? And if so, what were the

results?

 

Emma