Lipids & Phospholipids

Lipids and phospholipids swim about your blood and enrich the foods you eat as fats and cholesterol. They are helpful in moderation and harmful in excess. You would have to use plenty of elbow grease to suffer from low blood cholesterol and low blood fat, but one egg and a half is all it takes to go over the top with cholesterol. While food is enjoyable, tasty and comforting, be mindful of your lipids and phospholipids, improving your health.

Types

Lipids are a group of molecules including triglycerides or fats, cholesterol, lipoproteins and phospholipids. Such molecules are found in your body and in your food. They are essential components of your cells, having a similar atomic makeup as carbohydrates and including carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. While fats contain three fatty acid chains, phospholipids are missing one fatty acid chain. The phospholipid you are most likely familiar with is lecithin, a molecule that mixes well in oil and water. Egg yolks and soybeans contain plenty of lecithin.

Diseases

Excessive consumption of foods high in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol increases your risk of many lipid health conditions, ultimately predisposing you to heart disease. Such conditions are collectively labeled as dyslipidemia. The various forms of dyslipidemia are hypercholesterolemia, or high blood cholesterol; hypertriglyceridemia, or high blood triglycerides; and hyperlipidemia, or a combination of high cholesterol and high triglycerides. Oxidized phospholipids in your blood, having lost an electron, may also increase the likelihood of high blood cholesterol, according to a 2005 press release by the University of California San Diego Health System. The release cites a study published by UCSD researchers in the July 2005 issue of the "New England Journal of Medicine."

Genetics

Genetics plays a role in the likelihood you will have a lipid disease. There may or may not be physical symptoms alerting you to the onset of the disease. If you have a family history of such diseases, you and your children should get a genetic lipid test and a blood lipid test. Hyperlipidemia is the most common type of genetic lipid disorder. You may develop heart disease at a very early age if you have any of these genetic disorders.

Physical Activity and Food

Increased physical activity and a heart-healthy diet are the basis of preventing and treating lipid disorders. Regular aerobic exercise and unsaturated fats improve your good cholesterol or high-density lipoprotein, and decrease your bad cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein. Engage in your favorite heart rate-raising activity, building up to 40 to 60 minutes a day, five or more days of the week. Select unsalted almonds, walnuts, salmon and mackerel because they are rich in unsaturated fats. Limit your intake of egg yolks, full-fat dairy, shrimp, butter and fatty meats, as they are high in either fat or cholesterol.