Does alcohol raise LDL cholesterol and will quitting or cutting down alcohol reduce my LDL cholesterol? General advice given by health specialists usually includes moderating alcohol intake when trying to manage LDL levels. But how bad is alcohol for LDL levels? After all it does not have any saturated fat
This is a very common question with a fairly straightforward answer but the detail is worth digging into. Coconut as it comes, off the tree, is made up of Husk – the fibrous outer layer Shell – The hard layer under the husk Flesh – This is the white stuff that you know
SatFat
Saturated fat (SFA) is bad for you. That’s the common perception, and on the whole a safe perception. However, as ever with health, its not the full picture. SFA is not one thing, its not just one molecule (chemical structure), it doesn’t always behave the same way and
SatFat
Following my wife having blown or even discovered a gaping hole in my model I started to ask some questions, some fairly simple questions that turned out not to have simple answers. The first one I think we hit is “what types of fat do foods contain” Unsurprisingly, the answer
Before getting into various types of saturated fatty acids, its probably worthwhile talking about cholesterol, after all, the reason we are interested in fat is because of the impact it has on our cholesterol levels and ultimately our heart health. Cholesterol is a type of fatty substance called a lipid
Before getting into how some saturated fat leads to an increase in LDL levels, we need to understand what the disease is. We have all heard of heart disease, or more specifically for our purpose, coronary artery disease, so let’s dig into what that actually is. Arteries Our arteries
So to recap, high levels of LDL particles in the blood stream results in some particles entering and becoming trapped in the artery wall, the LDL particles become oxidised and then consumed by white blood cells, which die and leave behind debris. This debris is capped but can become unstable
You will recall that the higher the number of LDL particles in the bloodstream, the higher the likelihood they will end up trapped in the artery wall. We also discussed how LDL receptors in the liver collect LDL particles in the bloodstream. Well one of the core parts to this
I’m going to go through some popular foods that give examples of the composition of fats that will hopefully help you make better decisions. We won’t cover the carbohydrate or protein content here. Avocado (100g) Total Fat: 14.7g Monounsaturated: 9.8g Polyunsaturated: 1.8g Saturated: 2.1g