Cholesterol, Fats and Oils
Cholesterol and fatty food has been a dirty word for many of us and we try to avoid it like a plague. We avoid eggs, milk, meat, oils and other good things in life because of our fear of Cholesterol and the belief that cholesterol, fats and oils are bad for us. Well this is not true.
Our body needs fats and cholesterol to function properly. Nearly half of the dry weight of our brain is fat, and a quarter of this is cholesterol. Therefore Cholesterol and fats are an essential part of our brains and also of our sex hormones, bile acids, Vitamin D and other hormones. Before we go further let us answer the question 'What is Cholesterol?'
What is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that’s found in all cells of the body and produced in our liver and intestines. Cholesterol is something which is in everyone’s blood stream. Cholesterol in the right amount is essential for our health, since it is used by our body to produce all cell membranes, some essential hormones like the sex hormones and has several other important bodily functions.
Our body can make its own cholesterol, because the liver and intestine can manufacture cholesterol from fats. Our own bodies produce saturated fats from carbohydrates like sugar or starch from wheat, rice, etc. So even if we eat an absolutely fat free diet of just carbohydrates, our bodies can still make the required fats and cholesterol.
Cholesterol travels through our bloodstream as very small particles known as 'Lipoproteins'. Lipoproteins are made of Cholesterol on the inside and coated with proteins on the outside. Two kinds of Lipoproteins carry the cholesterol through our body: Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL) and High Density Lipoproteins (HDL).
LDL, Low Density Lipoproteins, The bad cholesterol carry cholesterol from the liver to the rest of the body. Our body extracts the required fat and cholesterol from the LDL. When there is too much LDL cholesterol in the blood, these particles deposits on the walls of the arteries or main blood vessels throughout the body. These deposits are called ‘plaque’ or Atherosclerosis, the build-up of cholesterol inside their arteries. These deposits make our arteries thinner from the inside and reduce the amount of blood flow and also increases the pressure required by the heart to pump the blood. When this plaque breaks apart, it can block the blood flow to our heart and cause a heart attack, or a stroke if blood flow to the brain is cut. Because of this, LDL cholesterol is often referred to as bad Cholesterol. LDL is mainly produced by our liver from the saturated oils digested from our food and from saturated fats made by our own body, converting excess carbohydrates in our diet.
HDL, High Density Lipoproteins, The good Cholesterol removes excess cholesterol from the bloodstream and from the artery walls and takes it back to the liver to break it down. Since HDL cholesterol cleans the blood vessels of the harmful deposits of Plaque, it is referred to as good cholesterol. HDL is mainly produced by our liver from the unsaturated vegetable oils digested from the food we eat.
What Is High Blood Cholesterol?
Our bodies can make its own cholesterol, because the liver and other tissues can manufacture cholesterol from fats. The only problem is that our bodies make saturated fats from carbohydrates and saturated fats are converted into Low density lipoproteins which are the bad cholesterol as explained.
Proper control of Cholesterol is essential to prevent High Blood Pressure and to keep our hearts and circulation systems healthy without blockages. Lower cholesterol levels are better than high cholesterol levels, but more important is the ratio between the bad and the good cholesterol.
Lower Cholesterol HDL Ratio or Total Cholesterol - HDL Cholesterol Ratio
How to lower Cholesterol should on the minds of all seniors. Cholesterol lowering diet will help in lowering the total cholesterol, but the Total Cholesterol by HDL Cholesterol Ratio is more important than the total cholesterol in our blood as per recent research. The lower the Cholesterol HDL Ratio the better. The target figure of Cholesterol HDL Ratio should be in the range of 3 to 5. The lower the better. A Higher percentage of HDL in the Total Cholesterol helps in clearing the arteries of deposits. Taking tablets like Lipitor or other Statins does control Total Cholesterol and increases HDL and thus lowers the Cholesterol HDL Ratio. Exercise is the best way to increase HDL Cholesterol in our blood.
Cutting down on all fats (saturated and unsaturated) may bring down the total cholesterol level, but the ratio between Total Cholesterol to HDL does not get lower and thus, is not beneficial to health. More important for better health is to have a lower Total Cholesterol to HDL cholesterol Ratio according to recent researches. The best way to get better cholesterol Ratio is by cutting down on saturated fats and substituting it with unsaturated vegetable oils.
Our own bodies makes about 75% of the Cholesterol and the cholesterol we digest from the food, called Dietary Cholesterol, is maximum 25%. It is still important to limit the amount of dietary cholesterol we eat, especially in diabetics. More than watching for the dietary cholesterol, look out for saturated fats in our diet. Best practice is to avoid all saturated fats like animal fats, coconut and palm oils; and substitute it with unsaturated vegetable oils like olive, canola and soybean oils.
Some important facts about Cholesterol
- Cholesterol is essential for our health. It is an essential part of our brain and all cell membranes that controls what goes into cells and what comes out. The body needs cholesterol to keep our brain healthy and to make the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone, vitamin D, and other vital hormones and vitamins required by our body.
- Most of the Cholesterol in our body, in fact about 75%, is made by our own liver using the fats and oils eaten by us. Cholesterol as cholesterol from the food we eat makes up not more than 25%. So it more important to watch out for the fats and oils in our diet than foods containing raw cholesterol, like an egg. The egg contains a lot of cholesterol, because cholesterol is essential to make a healthy new baby chick from the egg. Excessive blood cholesterol is more often caused by eating too many saturated fats than by eating cholesterol itself.
- Fat and cholesterol does not dissolve in water or blood. The body uses a type of protein called lipoproteins to make a colloid or very small particles of the fat and cholesterol which can mix with the blood and be carried around our body. The most important types of these particles circulating in our blood stream are Low-density lipoproteins (LDL), High-density lipoproteins (HDL), and triglycerides.
- There are two types of Cholesterol, one called the High Density Lipoprotein – HDL or the Good Cholesterol and the Low Density Lipoprotein - LDL, or the bad Cholesterol. Our body uses saturated fats like animal fats, coconut and palm oils to make the bad Cholesterol and it uses mono or poly unsaturated oils like olive, sunflower and other vegetable oils to make good Cholesterol.
- Saturated vegetable oil fats like Coconut and Palm oils and animal fats are bad for us since they make the Bad Low Density cholesterol in our body. Mono and Poly unsaturated oils like olive oil, sunflower oil, etc. are good for us, of course in limited quantities, because they make the Good High density cholesterol in our body.
- There is a type of fat called ‘Trans-fats’ which is even worse than saturated fats, we can call it ‘Very bad Fats’. Trans-fats occur when vegetable oils are processed, like hydrogenation to make semi solid fats like vegetable shortenings or ‘Vanaspathi’. Be careful when substituting Butter with Margarine. Be sure that the Margarine pack says “No Trans Fats”. If not, it can be even more harmful than natural butter. Foods with the words "partially hydrogenated" on the label is a sure giveaway that it contains trans fatty acids.
- Triglycerides are the fat that we have eaten being circulated in the bloodstream. Since our body does require a certain amount of circulating fat for good health, triglycerides are important. But an excess of triglyceride is unhealthy.
- Remember that our body makes its own saturated fat by converting carbohydrates like starch and sugar into fat. So a diet in excess carbohydrates can also lead to high cholesterol, even if we are on a fat and cholesterol free diet.
Meat Cholesterol removing trick
A simple method of getting the cholesterol and saturated fats out of meat without losing its taste.
Boil the meat (steaks, cubes, etc) in a covered pan, or preferably in a pressure cooker, with about 2 cups of water to a kilogram (2.2lbs) of meat. Let it boil till the meat is cooked. Off the fire, and pour the meat and gravy, while it is still hot, into a large sieve kept over another pan. This is to separate out the stock/gravy from the meat. The stock is collected in a vessel below the sieve. Then use less than a cup of boiling water from a kettle to rinse away any remaining fat stuck to the meat.
The meat now is fat free. Store this meat in a fridge in convenient portions for making dishes for the next few days.
All the fat of the meat is now in the separated stock of the meat. Pour this gravy into a vessel which is taller than it is wide. Let the stock cool at room temperature for about one hour. After it has cooled, keep the vessel with the stock overnight in the fridge (not in the freezer compartment). Next day remove all the fat that has solidified as a crust on top of the stock. This crust of fat will contain almost all the saturated fat and cholesterol that was there in the meat. The remaining stock may be jelly like, but do not worry, this is caused by the gelatin from the meat, an essential protein.
Now the stock and the meat can be recombined to make a dish we like. The meat can be grilled or baked and the stock thickened to make a good gravy. If we must use oil, use olive or any other vegetable oil.
Note: Grilling the meat straight, without using the Papa Fit's fat removing process, does remove most of the fat. But a good portion of the fat is actually frying the meat at a high temperature. So you can say about 30 percent of the original meat fat still remains in a grilled steak, for example.
If you use PapaFit's fat free boiled meat for the grilling and then pour a spoon full of vegetable oil like, Olive oil on the grilled meat, it tastes about the same but will be much healthier. You can add the spoon full vegetable oil before grilling if prefer that fried taste.