Shrimp was once banned from low-cholesterol diets, based on the amount of cholesterol it contains. But cholesterol amounts aren't the whole story when it comes to making dietary choices, even if you have high cholesterol. The amount of saturated fat in foods plays a larger part in determining whether a food will raise your cholesterol levels, and shrimp contains little saturated fat. A man with high cholesterol can certainly eat shrimp in moderation.
Sources
About 75 percent of the cholesterol circulating in the body is produced within the body itself. Your liver makes most of your cholesterol, with only 25 percent coming from dietary sources, the American Heart Association explains. The liver produces around 1,000 mg of cholesterol per day, which is all the cholesterol that's needed for your body to function. The biggest dietary culprit in raising serum cholesterol levels comes from saturated fat. While one serving of four large shrimp contains 42 mg cholesterol -- a little over 10 mg per shrimp -- shrimp has a low saturated fat content, about 0.5 g per serving.
Dietary Intake
The American Heart Association guidelines for dietary cholesterol suggest limiting your intake to 300 mg per day, unless you already have heart disease. People who currently have heart disease should limit their intake to 200 mg per day. A single serving of shrimp keeps you well under your daily limits, as long as you watch your other dietary intake. Compared to beef, which contains 4.7 g of saturated fat, shrimp is a low source of saturated fat.
Study Results
In 1996, The Rockefeller University conducted a study on the effects of shrimp on lipid levels, including high-density lipoprotein, the "good" cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein, the "bad" cholesterol, as well as triglycerides. The small study of 18 adults followed three different diets for three weeks each: low-cholesterol -- containing 107 mg per day -- and two high-cholesterol diets, one containing shrimp, supplying 590 mg cholesterol per day, and the other containing eggs, supplying 580 mg cholesterol per day. The diets differed only in the amount of cholesterol they contained, otherwise following a standard diet containing 15 percent protein, 55 percent carbohydrate and 30 percent fat. While both high-cholesterol diets raised LDL levels compared to the low-fat group, shrimp raised them less, 7.1 percent compared to 10.2 percent. However, both diets raised HDL levels even more, 12.1 percent for shrimp and 7.6 for eggs. People following the shrimp diet also had lower triglyceride levels than either the low-cholesterol or the egg groups, according to lead author Professor Jan L. Breslow, M.D.
Cholesterol "Responders"
For most men with high cholesterol levels, eating shrimp in moderate amounts does not further raise cholesterol. However, some people do respond to dietary cholesterol with a rise in their own levels. If you fall into this group, limiting dietary cholesterol as much as possible is wise. There is no test to determine if you fit this group, beyond just trial and error.
