Your cholesterol count is one of the metrics doctors look at hardest when gauging your personal health. This is in part because of its strong effect on your circulatory health and in part because it's easy to read and understand. If you want to improve your cholesterol numbers, the best thing you can do is to know how different foods, for example dates, interact with your levels of blood serum cholesterol.
About Cholesterol
Nutritionists identify three different kinds of blood serum cholesterol in humans. LDL cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein, clumps in your bloodstream and restricts blood flow. Your body produces LDL in response to saturated fats in your diet. Triglycerides, another bad cholesterol, forms in response to high levels of blood glucose.. A third cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein -- or HDL -- is actually good for your circulatory health. It cleans harmful substances from your bloodstream, including the harmful kinds of cholesterol. Your body produces it when you take in unsaturated fats.
About Dates
Dates are a walnut-sized fruit that grows on palm trees. Originally from the Middle East and Mediterranean, date plantations are found in temperate and tropical zones throughout the world. Dates come in many species, including barhee, halawy, kadrawy and medjool. Despite different color and taste, there is little difference between the species in terms of their effect on your cholesterol level.
Dates and Nutrition
The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides nutrition information for thousands of kinds of foods, including dates. According to the USDA, 1 cup of chopped dates contains less than 1 g of total fat, mostly unsaturated fats. It contains 93 g of sugar and about 12 g of dietary fiber.
Dates and Cholesterol
The low fat content in dates means that they won't have much effect on how much LDL or HDL your body produces. However, the high sugar content will cause your body to produce more triglycerides -- which, though moderately harmful, are not as bad for you as LDL. The dietary fiber content of dates means that they will contribute strongly to your body's ability to cleanse itself of harmful cholesterols.
