In the West, cholesterol is a huge problem, affecting the wellbeing of millions of people. You may look at a greasy burger and think ‘Well, there’s your answer!’ but there are actually seven causes of cholesterol.
OK, let’s start with the obvious one: eating too much saturated fat can cause high cholesterol. This is basically the kind of fat that come from animal sources, or anything you find in a fry-up. Therefore, beef, pork, veal, milk, eggs, butter, and cheese are all a no-go zone if you want to avoid high cholesterol, as are packaged foods that contain coconut oil, palm oil, or cocoa butter as these too may have a lot of saturated fat. Also, don’t shoot the messenger, but you will also find saturated fat in stick margarine, vegetable shortening, and most cookies, crackers, chips, and other snacks.
Being overweight is another cause of high cholesterol levels, as it decreases your ‘good’ HDL cholesterol and increases your ‘bad’ triglycerides. The same goes for a lack of exercise, which also throws your cholesterol balance off, but at least improving your activity efforts will reduce your weight too – two birds, one stone. Throw in your new saturated-fat-free diet and you’re really cooking with gas (or extra virgin olive oil!)
Unfortunately, not all of the causes of cholesterol are in your control; age and gender are factors that you cannot escape. Your cholesterol levels will naturally begin to rise from the age of 20, levelling off in men after the age of 50, and staying fairly low in women until menopause, when they catch up with the boys. Also, as much as you’d like to, you can’t escape your genes so if someone in your family has high cholesterol, chances are that you have it too.
Let’s look at other aspects of your health. If you have certain diseases, such as diabetes or hypothyroidism, your risk for high cholesterol is higher, so make sure you don’t skip your annual physical, and get your doctor to explain your heart health and heart disease risk. Finally, another obvious one: smoking can lower your good cholesterol, and, if you hadn’t heard, it can kill you, so maybe it’s time to quit.
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