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Cholesterol Common Sense
 Elizabeth Petrey
If you are the primary grocery shopper in your family, you can probably get an idea of what cholesterol is by looking in the baking aisle.
Good cholesterol is like the cooking oil in the baking aisle of your supermarket. It's liquid and it moves easily. Bad cholesterol is like the shortening and lard. It's much more solid. It's harder to clean up. You don't want it to get trapped in your pipes.
Bad "LDL cholesterol can slowly build up in your body, mixing with other substances and forming a hard deposit in your arteries leading to your heart and brain. Now, bad cholesterol is not completely the fault of your favorite pork sausage or hamburger. 75% of our cholesterol is manufactured by our own bodies. The other 25% comes from what we consume. Don't blame it all on the pigs and cows yet. Our bodies convert excess calories, sugar and alcohol into fats called triglycerides. The higher your triglycerides, the higher your bad cholesterol will be. Triglycerides should be kept low, but they are necessary for life, so SOME is needed. "Some does not mean binging in the snack food aisle, or hiding in your house binging on cookies.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Eat lots of fiber-filled foods. Fiber is like a scrub brush on the inside. Avoid high-carb foods. Cut out unnecessary fats from meats and milk products. Consume small amounts of good fats, like olive oil and avocadoes.
You don't have to become a vegetarian to avoid a potential stroke or heart attack. You just need to make good choices in what you eat, as well as get adequate exercise, rest, and deal with life's stresses in a healthy manner.
For further reading, go to the American Heart Association's website, located at www.heart.org. Another good source of information is www.webmd.com.
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