We know that Cholesterol is bad from countless pieces of dieting advice – but what actually is cholesterol? Is there any way to save ourselves from it? What are the foundations of cholesterol management? With all these pressing questions, Cholesterol can seem like a real nutritional boogeyman. Chef V is here to help give a simple explanation of what Cholesterol is, and how you can deal with it.
What Is Cholesterol?
Here’s a fact. You have cholesterol right now in your body – and that’s not something you should be panicking over. Everyone has cholesterol and it’s an important substance (if you want to get technical, a “lipid”) inside your body. In fact, all animals have cholesterol, and it’s important in helping your cells make hormones, vitamin D, and substances that help you digest food. So why all the worry?
As is usual, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. In particular, cholesterol can be dangerous if too much of it ends up in your blood. Cholesterol can start to combine with other substances in arteries, creating a plaque-like substance. This can end up making your arteries difficult for your blood to get through. At worst, it can cause heart attacks, heart disease, and stroke.
Maybe a bit confusingly, not all cholesterol has this effect. “Good Cholesterol” (also known as HDL Cholesterol) is referred to as the kind of cholesterol that helps move other cholesterol through to your liver (where it can be safely filtered). Bad cholesterol is the kind that hangs around in your arteries instead of moving on its way. You can consider it somewhat like an unwanted houseguest.
What Makes Bad Cholesterol Hang Around?
There are a few things that can cause that bad cholesterol to start to build up. Lack of exercise and smoking, for example, will lower the “good cholesterol” that is supposed to shuffle that bad cholesterol off to your liver. This makes it harder to get rid of that bad cholesterol.
However, the real key factor in the buildup of bad cholesterol is certainly diet, particularly saturated and trans fats. Eating foods high in these kinds of fats will start to cause a buildup in cholesterol. High-fat foods can include meats and chocolates, as well as foods that are heavily deep-fried or processed. What’s worse is that these high-fat foods tend to make you put on weight – which also increases the dangers of bad cholesterol.
There are, of course, some other risk factors at play here. Men tend to have a more difficult time handling their bad cholesterol than pre-menopause women do. Your genetics can also have an effect on how well your body manifests bad cholesterol. Regardless, making sure to monitor your fat intake is one of the most impactful ways that you can get a handle on cholesterol management.
Fight Bad Cholesterol With a Detox Juice Diet
Diet and weight management are the keys to managing your cholesterol levels in the long term. You want to make sure that you are getting plenty of fruits and veggies, watching your calorie intake, and doing your best to lose weight. Especially useful to look out for are antioxidants, foods that help boost heart health.
If you are looking to kickstart your blood cholesterol management, Chef V’s detox juice diet is here to help. Undergoing blended juice cleanses is a great way to improve your health, and manage high blood pressure. Firstly, our green juice recipe is great for encouraging weight loss, which helps lower your risk of building up high cholesterol.
Secondly, our fresh juices are filled with great antioxidant substances, such as our black and green kale. Our detox juice recipes move you out of the cholesterol risk zone of higher weight and boost your heart health with their great and nutritional ingredients. Want proof of this weight loss? Check out some of our success stories here!