Not only does what you eat affect your blood cholesterol level, but so does how quickly your body makes LDL cholesterol and gets rid of it. In fact, your body makes all the cholesterol it needs, so you don't need to get any more from the foods you eat.
Most people who have heart disease or are at a high risk of getting it have too much LDL-cholesterol in their blood. Whether or not your LDL-cholesterol level is high or low depends on a lot of things. The most important things are the ones below.
Not only does what you eat affect your blood cholesterol level, but so does how quickly your body makes LDL cholesterol and gets rid of it. In fact, your body makes all the cholesterol it needs, so you don't need to get any more from the foods you eat. Most people who have heart disease or are at a high risk of getting it have too much LDL-cholesterol in their blood. Whether or not your LDL-cholesterol level is high or low depends on a lot of things. The most important things are the ones below.
"Heredity."
Your genes affect how quickly LDL is made and taken out of the blood, so they also affect how high your LDL cholesterol is. Familial hypercholesterolemia is a type of high cholesterol that is passed down from parent to child. It affects 1 in 500 people and often leads to early heart disease. But your LDL-cholesterol level is affected by your genes even if you don't have a specific genetic form of high cholesterol.
The food you eat.
Your LDL-cholesterol level goes up because of two main nutrients in the foods you eat: saturated fat, which is mostly found in animal products, and cholesterol, which is only found in animal products. More than anything else, saturated fat makes your LDL cholesterol level go up. High levels of cholesterol and a high number of heart attacks in the United States are mostly caused by eating too much saturated fat and cholesterol. One of the most important things you can do to lower your blood cholesterol is to eat less saturated fat and cholesterol.
Weight.
LDL cholesterol tends to go up when you have a lot of extra weight. If you are overweight and have a high LDL-cholesterol level, losing weight may help you bring it down. Triglycerides also go down when you lose weight, and HDL goes up.
Exercise or physical activity.
Regular exercise can lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol.
Age and gender. Before menopause, women tend to have lower total cholesterol levels than men their age. Cholesterol levels in women's and men's blood rise with age until they are 60 to 65 years old. Women's LDL-cholesterol often goes up during menopause, while their HDL-cholesterol often goes down. After age 50, women often have higher total cholesterol levels than men of the same age.
Alcohol.
LDL cholesterol does not go down when you drink alcohol, but HDL cholesterol goes up. Doctors aren't sure if drinking alcohol also lowers the chance of getting heart disease. If you drink too much alcohol, it can hurt your liver and heart muscle, raise your blood pressure, and make your triglycerides go up. Because of the risks, drinking alcohol is not a good way to keep your heart healthy.
Stress. Several studies have shown that stress can raise the amount of cholesterol in the blood over time. One way stress can do this is by making you change the way you do things. For example, some people feel better when they eat fatty foods when they are stressed. High blood cholesterol is caused by the saturated fat and cholesterol in these foods.
