Although it has developed a bad reputation, cholesterol contributes to your cell structure and allows your body to synthesize certain hormones and vitamins. Problems arise when your blood cholesterol levels get too high. The main dietary factor associated with elevated blood cholesterol is fat, although that is a simplified statement. Certain types of fat cause the cholesterol increases that raise your risk of heart disease.
Saturated Fat
Saturated fat is a type of fat in which the carbon atoms are connected to, or saturated with, hydrogen atoms. Although you may automatically associate dietary cholesterol with elevated blood cholesterol, saturated fat has more of an effect on increasing your low-density lipoprotein, or bad cholesterol, levels. The American Heart Association also notes that many foods that are high in saturated fats are also high in dietary cholesterol.
Sources of Saturated Fat
Most saturated fat in your diet comes from animal foods, such as meat, cheese, butter, ice cream and poultry with the skin. Some tropical vegetable oils, like coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil also contain saturated fat.
To keep blood cholesterol in healthy ranges, keep your saturated fat intake below 10 percent of your daily calories. If you already have high cholesterol, keep saturated fat intake below 7 percent of daily calories.
Trans Fat
Because it was well known that saturated fats increase your cholesterol levels and your risk of heart disease, in the 1980s manufacturers reformulated their products to contain less saturated fat, according to "Nutrition and You" by Joan Salge Blake. To do this, a synthetic type of fat, called trans fat, was created in the laboratory and put into foods in place of saturated fat.
After further investigation of trans fats, researchers found trans fats are worse than saturated fats because they not only raise LDL cholesterol levels, but they also decrease high-density lipoprotein, or good cholesterol, levels.
Sources of Trans Fat
The major sources of trans fat in the diet are commercially prepared baked goods, fried foods, shortenings, snack foods, salad dressings and margarines. On average, trans fats provide approximately 2.5 percent of calories in Americans' diets. To prevent elevated blood cholesterol, try to keep your trans fat intake below 1 percent of your calorie intake. It is best to avoid trans fats completely.
References
- University of Illinois Extension: Dietary Factors That Increase Blood Cholesterol
- American Heart Association: Saturated Fats
- "Nutrition and You"; Joan Salge Blake; 2008
