Since the creation of the National Cholesterol Education Program in 1985, the media has hounded the public to lower their cholesterol numbers. Because high cholesterol can lead to heart disease, you should monitor your cholesterol level at least every five years and take steps to lower it if it becomes high. Lifestyle changes such as changing to a vegetarian diet can help lower cholesterol.
What is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a lipid, more commonly known as a fat. The body needs some cholesterol to build cell membranes, produce hormones and help the liver produce bile acids vital to the digestion of fats. Liver cells produce approximately 75 percent of the cholesterol in your body, while dietary cholesterol found in food contributes the remaining amount. Too much cholesterol in the blood allows it to accumulate along the walls of the blood vessels, most commonly in the arteries leading to the heart. This can lead to coronary artery disease, the most common form of heart disease.
Vegan Diet
The portion of cholesterol produced within the body provides enough to support the necessary body functions. That means that dietary cholesterol is not necessary and only contributes to increased blood cholesterol levels. Only animals produce cholesterol, so only animal food products contain dietary cholesterol. A vegan diet, also known as a total vegetarian diet, consists of only foods from plants and removes all animal food products. Those who switch to a vegan diet can lower their cholesterol because they consume no dietary cholesterol.
Other Vegetarian Diets
Not all vegetarian diets exclude all types of animal foods from the diet. Some people follow a lactovegetarian diet. This type of diet focuses on food from plants but also includes milk and other dairy products such as cheese. Milk produced by cows contains cholesterol, but the amount varies based on the type of milk. An 8 ounce serving of whole milk contains 35 mg of cholesterol, while the same size serving of fat-free milk contains only 8 mg of cholesterol, according to the Dairy Council of California. Another type of vegetarian diet, known as an ovo-lactovegetarian diet, includes plant foods, dairy products and eggs. The average egg with the white and the yolk intact contains 185 mg of cholesterol, according to the American Egg Board. Although vegetarians who follow one of these diets consume less cholesterol than the typical American diet, depending on the type of dairy products and number of eggs they consume determines the effectiveness to lower cholesterol.
Healthy Cholesterol Intake
Doctors recommend that you keep your total blood cholesterol at less than 200 mg/dL, your LDL cholesterol at less than 100 mg/dL and your HDL cholesterol at no lower than 40 mg/dL for men and 50 mg/dL for women. To reach these goals, The American Heart Association recommends healthy adults limit their dietary cholesterol intake to 300 mg per day. Those with borderline high or high cholesterol levels, or with other risk factors for heart disease such as high blood pressure or diabetes, should consume no more than 200 mg per day. Following a vegetarian diet can help meet these cholesterol limitations.
References
- American Heart Association: Vegetarian Diets
- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute: National Cholesterol Education Program
- American Heart Association: Two Sources of Cholesterol; April 2008
- Dairy Council of California: Milk; February 2011
- American Egg Board: Cracking the Cholesterol Myth
- American Heart Association: Cholesterol
