Controlling our Cholesterol

Cholesterol

With the increasing age i.e. when one crosses 40 years, the blood cholesterol level may increase depending upon the diet intake. When the blood cholesterol increases the normal level, it clogs arteries resulting in heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke. It is found in foods of meat, eggs, etc.

If we want to live a healthy life, we should keep our total fats intake at moderate level. Specially, the saturated fat intake should be least. Too much fat causes weight gain and leads to many disease mentioned above. We should take steps to determine how much fat we should eat and decide accordingly our target daily fat intake.

One teaspoon of fat = 45 calories

One teaspoon of carbohydrates = 20 calories

One teaspoon of protein = 20 calories

Keeping this in mind, we can easily calculate the calorie intake through fats and can easily prevent many diseases. Though a moderate amount of fat make us feel fuller after a meal and many fats have health benefits, all fats are loaded with calories. In between meals if we feel hungry then instead of jumping to the junk food it is better to snack on nuts like walnuts, almonds, etc. as a healthier option

Points helpful in selecting the best oil

i). Oils which are high in healthy polyunsaturated fats. E.g.: Corn oil, cotton seed oil, grape seed oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil serves as a better option for cooking oil.

ii). Some oils are high in unhealthy saturated fats. E.g.: Coconut oil, palm-kernel oil, palm oil which may be cut down in diet.

One more easy way to cut down calorie intake is by writing down what  we eat. 35-55% people who keep their food record make positive changes in healthy eating habits.

After eating a high fat meal our blood vessels are unable to expand or contract properly to regulate normal blood pressure for up to 6 hours. So a walk or an exercise within two hours of eating the high fat diet may help.

Some very important points which may help us in healthy fat intake are as follows:

1. Omega 3 fatty acids are abundantly found in fish oil but vegetarians too may have foods which are rich in omega 3 fatty acids such as flax seeds, walnut, soybean etc.
2. Foods fried in refined oils is considered a healthy option but the reality is different as the process of frying itself is health hazard. It causes loss of nutrients in food due to very high temperature of oil. Frying causes the production of harmful chemicals in food which increases blood cholesterol and may cause cancer. Fried food also takes long time to get digested which may cause toxic residue formation in the stomach and the intestine.
3. Low fat diets are considered healthy but actually they are more harmful as the essential fatty acids are absent in them which leads to auto-immune disorders, frequent infections and poor mental functioning. The fat soluble vitamins, i.e A,D,E,K, need the fatty mediums for absorption in the body which may not get absorbed in the presence of zero-fat diet.