Bread Bad Cholesterol?
QUESTION: Is bread high in bad cholesterol?
ANSWER: Hi there,
Bread is the most common and most lovely food we (Europeans) eat. In contrary, East people do prefer eating rice.
However, only few people know what exactly the bread contains. In addition, different types of bread are containing different proportions of the main substances.
The good thing is that bread contains small amount of cholesterol, fat acids and triglycerides; meanwhile ti has lots of proteins and vitamins.
At a first look, everyone thinks that bread is something good for people with problems in the lipid metabolism as it is low in fats.
However, this is not true. Bread contains high concentration of glucose. So, when you are eating bread, of a lot of glucose is coming inside your organism, which is used for energy.
If the amount of bread eaten is exceeded (for example around 1 kg of bread per day), your organism is not able to transform all the glucose it contains into energy.
Because of this, the organism is transforming some of the glucose into cholesterol and fat acids. These molecules are transported by bloodstream towards the fat cells, where they are stored. In addition, blood cholesterol is raised.
The more bread you eat, the more cholesterol and fatty acids are stored, and more weight your are gaining.
This is not good for you, especially if you already have cholesterol problems.
Remember that, this is happening when you are eating too much bread. In contrary, when you are consuming normal amount of bread, a blood cholesterol elevation is not going to be observed, because your organism is using all the glucose acquired. Subsequently, you won’t gain weight too.
Hope it helped!
Dr.Alba
Are sweet potatoes bad for high cholesterol?
QUESTION: are sweet potatoes bad for high cholesterol? How much can one eat?
ANSWER: Hi,
Regarding the last studies, sweet potatoes are considered as a very healthful food. Some doctors are encouraging their patients to eat sweet potatoes to reduce the amount of cholesterol in their organism.
There is a scientific proof of this. Potatoes contain about 8% dietary fiber. These fibers are helping you to discharge the excessive amount of cholesterol taken with the food.
The explanation of this is hidden in the way of cholesterol absorption. These fibers are blocking the channels thru which, the cholesterol and triglycerides are moving from the intestines to the bloodstream.
As a consequence, the only possible option for the cholesterol is to be excreted from your gastrointestinal system.
Furthermore, these fibers are entering in your system and they are inhibiting the synthesis of cholesterol.
In other words, fibers inhibit the new creation and entry of cholesterol in your organism.
Keep in mind that when you are frying something, you are elevating the amount of cholesterol contained in this particular food, and you are destroying the important substances.
For that reason, people with high cholesterol are supposed not to eat fried foods, especially when we are talking about sweet potatoes.
All the best!
Dr.Alba
Is peanut oil good for cholesterol problems?
QUESTION: Is peanut oil good for cholesterol problems?
ANSWER: Hi,
Peanut oil is a product rich in monounsaturated fat acids. According to the last studies, these types of fatty acids are quite important in helping people with elevation in the cholesterol level.
This is because they do enhance the synthesis of HDL (good cholesterol) and reduce the synthesis of LDL (bad cholesterol). In this way, they help in lowering the risk for cardio-vascular diseases.
Therefore, doctors do encourage their patients with with problems related to high cholesterol levels to eat foods reach in monounsaturated fatty acids.
In addition, canola and sunflower oil are also rich in these fatty acids together with peanut butter.
For your information, HDL is transporting cholesterol from the tissues to the liver and it is taking the cholesterol and fat acids accumulated in the wall of the blood vessels.
In this way, those lipoproteins are protecting your organism from atherosclerosis and reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Besides this, when there is a reduction of the LDL synthesis there is lower risk for the accumulation of cholesterol and fat acids in the wall of the blood vessels.
In general, increasing the amount of monounsaturated fatty acids is one way to lower cholesterol levels. Meanwhile, reducing the amount of saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are responsible for the LDL synthesis, is another way to reduce high cholesterol.
Hope it helped!
Dr.Alba
