A conversation about cholesterol levels in shrimp sent me searching for data to support the point that I had heard before that shrimp is high in HDL cholesterol and therefore is actually good for you.
So I went looking for some site that showed cholesterol breakdowns in food, and found nothing which showed the cholesterol divided into hdl and ldl.
You are misguided if you think foods contain HDL and/or LDL. HDL is an abbreviation for high-density lipoproteins. LDL is an abbreviation for low-density lipoproteins.
Let’s start with shrimp. It was thought once that shellfood would raise your total cholesterol levels, but later studies disclosed this was an unfounded fear. The same with eggs. It is not the cholesterol in foods that raise your cholesterol level, but the saturated fats and trans fats that do. Foods that advertise no cholesterol are misleading. How much fat does it contain? That is the key question, and subsidiary key questions are the amount of sat fats and trans fats. Sat fats raise your LDL-cholesterol; trans fats both raise your LDL-cholesterol and lower your HDL-cholesterol. Many non-meat products advertise “no cholesterol.” No non-meat product contains cholesterol, but they contain fats that your body converts into cholesterol.
What does “high” or “low” density lipoprotein mean? It relates to the amount of protein that is bundled with the cholesterol. HDL is good because it has a high percentage of protein; whereas, LDL is bad because it has a low density. LDL can clog to your arteries, but HDL can actually clean them. But very low density is even worse.
Your lipid profile contains five sub-profiles: cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, VLDL cholesterol, and LDL. The LDL is calculated based upon the numbers for the other four. High triglycerides is also a problem and some people have congenital hyperlipidemia. Nothing they can do can lower their triglycerides to normal values.
So food per se does not contain any cholesterol. Your body needs some cholesterol and will synthesize some if necessary. The problem is with too much LDL, VLDL, and triglycerides. VLDL is suspected as being a main culprit in the total LDL profile because it is more easily oxidized, and it is the oxidation of the lipids that cause the problems.
Exercise and alcohol (especially red wine) have been shown to raise your HDL. Polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats also have a positive influence on your cholesterol profile.
I agree totally with barbitu8’s excellent and very informative answer. However, I think the quoted sentence above is a bit misleading, and maybe even erroneous. In particular, polyunsaturated fats (which used to be recommended as a replacement for LDL-raising saturated fats in your diet) tend to lower HDL levels, although it is also the case that they lower LDL levels as well. Bottom line is that polyunsaturated fats are pretty well neutral from an LDL and HDL perspective. In other words, they lower both LDL and HDL by around the same percentage (leaving the HDL to LDL ratio unchanged).
OTOH, monounsaturated fats (found in canola and olive oils for example), tend to lower the LDL levels but leave HDL levels alone, or even raise them.
Thanks for the correction. I think that at one time I knew that, but in my senility have forgotten it; plus the fact that I’ve used extra pure virgin olive oil for so many years, I’ve forgotten why I decided to stick to the monounsaturated oil instead of the poly.
One of the medical doctors can give you more definitive info, but with a total cholesterol of 240, you probably don’t have hypercholesterolemia, which is a genetic disease of high cholesterol levels. I mentioned in my first post hyperlipidemia, which is a genetic disease of high triglycerides. But those levels in the diseases are higher.
The greatest link to your total cholesterol from your diet is from the fats. Your body normally makes sufficient cholesterol for its needs. Dietary cholesterol’s effect on your cholesterol is minimal. But as I said, 240 total indicates a dietary problem of too much sat fats and trans fats. With a 240 total, if your HDL was 100, that would not be a big problem. You have to know your total lipid profile.
Back when I had a heart attack, my doctor specifically mentioned shrimp as a food to be avoided. I thought about it and decided that shrimp had to be very low in total fat (try to get a grease smear from a shrimp) and even if it was all cholesterol, it didn’t matter. I further decided that his knowledge of nutrition was minimal. Forty five years later I feel I have been vindicated.
You can’t blame your doctor. That was the state of our knowledge 45 years ago. Recent years have brought about a greater knowledge of nutrition and fitness issues. These are fast growing areas. What we think we know is not the same as knowing what we know. Even thinking that we know what we know is not objective knowledge.
By and large, the higher someone’s cholesterol level (i.e. LDL), the less important dietary cholesterol is. Basically that’s just another way of saying that genetic causes, not dietary causes, underlie the more severe types of hypercholesterolemia.
On average, about 25 percent of your cholesterol (LDL) comes from dietary sources whereas the majority, 75 percent, comes from your body’s production of cholesterol. People with high levels of cholesterol (LDL) are usually overproducers, not “over-ingesters”, of cholesterol. When cholesterol (LDL) is really high, it’s almost always because the body has overproduced it (as a consequence of some genetic variation).
The piece you’ve linked to contains obvious, and I fear deliberate, errors of fact. Anyone who reads it should be warned: it is not just expressing another opinion (a good thing), it contains outright fabrications and untruths (a most egregious thing).
I want to resurrect this thread. I just got my cholesterol checked for the first time in my life, and I am 39. My overall “score” was 220, but the doctor was pretty concerned with my triglycerides, which were 323. He said it needed to be about 160-ish.
He said to me that basically your triglyceride content of your blood is oil. He told me that if he took a vial of my blood that was six inches tall, over time about three quarters of an inch of oil would seperate out of it at the top of the vial.
I also recently discovered that I have high blood pressure, and have been prescribed Lisinopril for it (which works very well). When I first went to the doc, my BP was 162 over 102, which is in the “Stage II Hypertension” level.
On Lisinopril, my BP is usually around 138/80.
Problem is, I now have two very well known risk factors for heart attack. And I smoke cigarettes. And I drink about a six pack a night after work.
I think I am a walking heart attack about to happen.
The doc didn’t want to prescribe any cholesterol medication at this time. He said that at my age I can significantly reduce my triglycerides just through diet and exercise. I admitted that I have a very high fat content diet due to fast food consumption. He ordered me to avoid saturated fats and to eat a lot more veggies, salads and such.
That’s basically what he said. He wants me to quit drinking first, as ironically enough, my visit to him was prompted by a desire to quit smoking and I thought I could get a Chantix prescription from him. He says he doesn’t like that drug anyway, but definetely won’t prescribe it to me unless I quit drinking.
My brother works in the pharm industry. He called me a few years ago laughing at what they had pulled off. The pharm people had convinced the cholesterol recommendations to be lowered to a level that for almost all people, is only attainable through drugs. Very expensive drugs with a storm of rough side effects. But that change made them billions. Doctors just use the recommendations that are given them.
Fortunately my cholesterol levels are fine. But I would refuse to take them if a doc wanted me to. At least if my levels were reasonably close.
I question the first part of his statement. As a conscientious psychiatrist, (some of our meds can change lipid levels) I look at a lot of cholesterol and triglyceride results, and most fall into the recommended range, without benefit of drugs or extreme dietary or activity regimens.
Certainly many of my patients could benefit from dietary improvement and/or more activity, but their blood lipids alone are not the greatest risk they face.
Follow your doctor’s advice. In addition, try to get more fiber into your diet and limit your alcohol drinks to two a day.
The Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter, June 2009 states that new research shows that barley is better than oats for health benefits. This issue states that researchers led by Craig I. Coleman, PharmD, of the U. of Conn. (reported in the Annals of Family Medicine concluded, “Health practitioners should feel comfortable recommending barley to their patients to help reduce total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol concentrations.” In addition, barley does not reduce HDL. This was based on eight randomized, controlled studies with a total of 391 participants.
Barley, unlike many grains that contain fiber only in the outer bran layer, contains fiber throughout the entire kernel. So even barley processed by “pearling” retains plenty of fiber. A half-cup serving of cooked pearl barley contains 3 grams of total dietary fiber (about 25%-40% soluble). A comparable serving of brown rice contains 1.75 grams. One gram in cuscous and less than a gram in white rice.
In 2006, the FDA approved a health claim for the labels of barley products to the effect that soluble fiber from foods such as barley, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.
Also avoid trans fats.
That health letter is on a website, but I didn’t bother to check the website: www.tuftshealthletter.com.
