When it comes to counting calories, I'm good at it; I've done it, off and on, for so many years. And of course, everything that comes pre-packaged has the calorie count right on the label (although you have to watch the serving size, making sure your idea of a serving is the same as the company's that processed the food). I learned long ago that you can consider most any piece of fruit to be 100 calories, on average.
Cholesterol was something new to be learned, because it really had nothing to do with weight loss; but it isn't too hard to figure out: If it comes from an animal in any way, it'll have cholesterol... i.e. milk, eggs, meat, poultry. The more animal fat in a food, the higher the cholesterol content. Poultry is preferable to red meat; fish is preferable to poultry. I might add that, in this house, we lean toward skinless poultry simply because of the high price of fish.
I found some good resources here and here. Thank God for the Internet; I can't imagine trying to make all these lifestyle changes without being able to Google up the information I need.
To see how cholesterol affects the arteries, click here. Here's a quote from this site: "Typically the body makes all the cholesterol it needs, so people don't need to consume it. Saturated fatty acids are the main culprit in raising blood cholesterol, which increases your risk of heart disease."
Well, that's just dandy. Now I have to attend "saturated fatty acids 101" and learn how to limit those.
3 comments:
The biggest one you need to watch for is transfat!
Hydrogenated or Trans Fats: Hydrogenated fats are created from unsaturated vegetable fats through a process that adds hydrogen. The process creates trans fatty acids, which are more like saturated fats; they last longer and remain solid at room temperature. Trans fatty acids are found in margarine, doughnuts and pastries, deep-fried foods and chips, and microwave popcorn. All the bad stuff we love to eat.
Trans fatty acids raise blood cholesterol, though not as much as saturated fats. They do, however, raise LDL or "bad" cholesterol while lowering HDL or "good" cholesterol. Watch for trans fatty acids on package labels, and where they are not listed watch for ingredients containing partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated oils.
A food containing no animal products and labeled "cholesterol free" would look like a healthy food to anyone. But look closely. If it contains trans fatty acids, it could be unhealthy for everyone.
One thing we learned after my husbands surgery is that smoking increases your bodies making of its own cholestrol!
Did you know that pork is so lean these days that chicken often has more fat/cholesterol. Mrs. L
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