What is Cholesterol and Should You Worry About It?
Red meat, like this steak, is high in dietary cholesterol.
If you've ever had your cholesterol checked, you may wonder if this lab result is something you should worry about. The short answer is yes, you should be thinking about it, but the answer isn't as clear as you might have been told in the past.
What Is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a nonessential nutrient that helps with nutrient and hormone management. It's called non-essential because we don't need to get it from our diet — we make all the cholesterol we need in our liver. However, it is essential for our body to function properly.
There are two main types of cholesterol: LDL and HDL. LDL cholesterol is known as "bad" cholesterol. It's the harmful cholesterol that builds up in our arteries and increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.
HDL cholesterol is the "good" kind that grabs onto the LDL and directs it to be removed from the body.
A third kind of fat circulating in your blood, called triglycerides, can also contribute to cholesterol buildup in your arteries.
What Do the Cholesterol Numbers Mean?
If you have your cholesterol checked, you will always have to fast first to get an accurate test result. This helps ensure that eating a meal too close to having your labs drawn doesn't interfere with the test.
When you get your results, you will receive four numbers: total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides.
See the optimal levels below.
Total Cholesterol: Less than 200 mg/dL
LDL: Less than 100 mg/dL
HDL: Higher than 40 mg/dL for men, higher than 50 mg/dL for women
Triglycerides: Less than 150 mg/dL
The following equation determines your total cholesterol:
LDL + HDL + 20% triglycerides = total cholesterol
What Contributes to High Cholesterol?
In early nutrition research, it was thought that eating foods high in dietary cholesterol raised blood cholesterol. You may have even been taught to limit your egg consumption if you have high blood cholesterol because eggs are considered high in dietary cholesterol.
An arbitrary limit of 300 mg/day of dietary cholesterol was added to nutrition recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Americans listened, and for those concerned with their heart health, they limited eggs and other foods high in cholesterol, such as shrimp.
In 2015, the recommendation to limit dietary cholesterol to 300 mg/day was removed. Current research does not support the direct connection between eating dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. It is now believed that saturated fat stimulates the liver to make more cholesterol, raising the amount circulating in the body.
How to Lower Cholesterol Levels
If you have high cholesterol, it's important to talk with your doctor about the treatment plan that might be best for you. Your treatment plan may or may not include medication depending on your numbers.
Lowering cholesterol takes some time, but it's worth it and it will benefit your overall health.
Diet: Increasing your fiber intake is the best way to start moving cholesterol out of your body. Fiber binds to LDL cholesterol before it can be absorbed and helps excrete it. The fiber found in oats, fruits and beans is ideal to add to your diet when looking to lower LDL and total cholesterol.
Exercise: Aerobic exercise has been found to increase HDL cholesterol, and it also increases an enzyme that degrades triglycerides.
You should also limit the amount of saturated fat in your diet, which can come from foods like beef fat, chicken skin and butter.
BLUF
High cholesterol can be caused by various factors, including being genetically predisposed. This doesn't mean you can't take steps to work toward healthier numbers. Currently, there is no recommendation to limit dietary cholesterol but to choose an overall healthy eating pattern that is rich in fiber, lower in saturated fat, and contains a variety of heart-healthy foods, such as olive oil, fatty fish, nuts, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and yes, eggs!
