Cholesterol's Origins
Our bodies obtain cholesterol two ways. Our liver makes cholesterol out of basic building blocks, and we take in cholesterol from certain foods we eat.
Cholesterol in foods comes only from animal origins such as, meat, fish, eggs, dairy and poultry. There is no cholesterol in fruits, grains or vegetables. Sometimes, you may not think of cholesterol in some cuisine, but products baked with eggs or milk would also then have cholesterol. Daily cholesterol intake should not exceed 300 mg a day.
When talking about cholesterol absorption from the foods we eat, fat is not the same as cholesterol. This can be confusing. While the fat content of food is also critical to our heart and blood vessel health, the fat content of a food has nothing to do with how much cholesterol our bodies soak up from eating.
Too much of the wrong fats in our diet can trigger the liver to start producing more of its own cholesterol, so we want to make low-cholesterol and low-fat choices.
Breaking Down Food
You have had a meal with crab meat, turkey, an omelet or a slice of cake and a glass of milk. First the food you eat is broken down, beginning with your chewing. This tearing and chomping mashes your food into smaller pieces while saliva in your mouth already begins with digestion. The food travels to the stomach, where acids and churning further reduce the food pieces into smaller bits. Gradually, these food molecules are slowly squeezed out into the top of the intestines
Into the Small Intestine
The first part of the very long bowel tract is called the small intestine. Two of our organs, the liver and pancreas, are connected to this higher intestine. Each organ squeezes in substances which help further break down food substances, and cholesterol is slowly isolated. The part of the upper gut where cholesterol is absorbed is named the jejunum (jĕ-joo´num). Here, specialized cells lining the bowel carry a protein that lets them capture cholesterol molecules coming through the gut.
It's in the Protein
This protein is one of the keys to our body's absorption of cholesterol. Named NPC1L1, the intestinal protein was discovered only after many years of hard research and investigating thousands of genetic codes. The protein allows cholesterol to be put in a bubble and sucked up through the intestine and carried to the liver and bloodstream.
You can impact your cholesterol by making some simple changes in your diet. Decrease or cut out the most condensed sources of cholesterol in foods like whole milk, shellfish, organ meats and egg yolks. You can substitute skim milk, salmon or other fish, lean meats and egg substitutes.
Cholesterol food absorption is only part of the picture. Reducing saturated fats and trans fats will help block your body's other way of making cholesterol---at the liver itself.
