What is Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a substance that is produced from the liver and found in certain foods. It is specifically needed to make vitamin D along with some other important hormones, as well as to build cell walls, and creating a specific type of salt, bile salt, which helps in digesting fat. Our bodies can produce enough to keep us from digesting our food okay, but it is hard to avoid it since many foods readily available today contain it. One thing that psychology and science has taught us is that too much of anything is a bad thing, and that applies with cholesterol as well.

It can be a negative thing if too much is absorbed that it can circulate in the blood stream. If the cholesterol level in the blood gets high, they tend to clog the blood stream which increases risks and sometimes is the reason behind heart disease and strokes. We make too much cholesterol if we eat too much saturated fat, the fats found in animal based foods as well as diary products. Along with the intake, we produce a good sum of cholesterol from our own liver.

There are a total of two different types of cholesterol, and unlike what we may normally think, not all cholesterol is harmful to our bodies. Low-density lipoprotein is the bad type of cholesterol which may clog up blood vessels which in return increases your risk for heart diseases. The second type of cholesterol is high-density lipoprotein which is a good type of cholesterol since it clears the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol out of the blood stream and reduces the overall risk for strokes and heart diseases.

Cholesterol is a type of a lipid which is commonly found in many food sources, especially animal sources. Our bodies produce nearly 1,000 milligrams a day, and we consume many milligrams from the foods we eat daily. It had to be combined with specific proteins in order to be transferred throughout the body, which in return starts blocking those blood streams. Nearly a quarter to a third of the amount of cholesterol is high-density, which also carries cholesterol straight back to the liver so that it can be processed again and sent back out.

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