What Does the Keto Diet Do to Cholesterol
High Cholesterol Treatment
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Your health is the most important thing. It's more important than your financial situation or your career or anything that you spend time and energy chasing, but it's also something that's easy to overlook until a problem develops. Can you believe that 95 million Americans have cholesterol levels higher than 200 mg/dL, which is the maximum cholesterol level the American Heart Association recommends? Worse than that, less than 55% of individuals who need cholesterol medicine are currently taking it, so it's no wonder that 29 million American adults live with cholesterol levels exceeding 240 mg/dL.
Danger of High Cholesterol
Having high cholesterol doesn't directly lead to any health issues. However, one danger of living with elevated cholesterol levels is that you increase your chances of getting coronary heart disease and developing peripheral artery disease. You also increase the chance of having a stroke. High cholesterol levels cause plaque build-ups in the arteries that decrease your blood flow which has an adverse effect on the function of the organs that the blood supplies.
Healthy Cholesterol Levels
The problem with high cholesterol is that it has no symptoms. Healthy cholesterol levels are less than 200 mg/dL, but the only way you'll know if you're lower or higher than that threshold is to take a blood test. The American Heart Association recommends that adults over the age of 20 take a blood test for cholesterol once every four to six years. As we age, our cholesterol levels increase so older people need to be tested more frequently than younger people. In general, men are at a higher risk than women, but the risk for women goes up after menopause.
How Is Your Cholesterol Level Tracked?
If you or your doctors are concerned about your cholesterol level you will need to take a series of blood tests and maintain a log of the results. A simple cholesterol log that lists the level and the date is all you need. A more complicated diary could track the levels of triglycerides, your HDL, your LDL and the amount of cholesterol-lowering medication you took in each time period. Adding a personal goal to the chart means you'll have something to aim at.
Diet or Genetics?
The truth is that both diet and genetics play their part in an individual's cholesterol levels. Your genes may predispose you to hypercholesterolemia, which is a condition in which the number of liver receptor cells is low, but you may also be causing increased cholesterol levels thanks to a diet that's too high in saturated fats. Choosing lean meats like chicken or turkey breasts and cutting down on your butter and other dairy intake will make a big difference to your cholesterol level.
Foods to Avoid
You can control your cholesterol levels with your diet. You're probably aware that foods like butter, goose fat, full-fat cheese, milk, cream, yogurt and fatty meat and meat products such as sausages will all increase your cholesterol, but don't ignore the products made from those ingredients such as milk chocolate, pastries, pies and rich biscuits. While it's sensible to limit your intake of these types of food, you should also consider preparing them differently to lower their fat content, such as removing all of the visible fat from meat.
Foods to Enjoy
Thankfully, there's quite a long list of foods that lower your cholesterol, including porridge, oat-based breakfast cereals, baked beans and red and green lentils. You should also consider soy alternatives to milk and yogurt, and consider introducing nuts to your diet. As long as they're unsalted, nuts like almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, cashews and peanuts will help your cholesterol recover to a sensible level. Eat more fish and less meat, and if you can stomach the idea, why not introduce a meat-free night once a week?
What Does the Keto Diet Do to Cholesterol
Source: https://www.life123.com/article/are-you-living-with-high-cholesterol?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740009%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex