HDL Cholesterol

HDL Cholesterol is the ”good” cholesterol, which helps clean your arteries by carrying away excess cholesterol. Healthy levels of cholesterol are needed to produce cell membrane and certain hormones. It also plays an important part in other bodily functions. There are two types of cholesterol, LDL (bad cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol).

LDL Cholesterol can be very harmful to your body and cause a number of illnesses like heart disease and stroke. HDL cholesterols main purpose is to keep the bad cholesterol in your body under control. Cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance found in fats circulating in your blood stream in all of your body’s cells. You can get cholesterol two ways.

Your body naturally makes some and you can also get it from meat, poultry, fish, eggs, butter, cheese, and whole and 2% milk. Cholesterol is not found in foods from plants. When HDL cholesterol levels decrease, the bad cholesterol can get out of control and cause illness, diseases and even death. You must maintain a healthy balance of bad (LDL) and good (HDL cholesterol).

Many people have problems controlling their cholesterol and it is very hard, due to the busy lifestyle we all have, to get HDL cholesterol from eating and drinking enough of the products that contain it. There are many ways to increase the HDL cholesterol in your body.

Any exercise that increases you heart rate (20 to 30 beats per minute), losing weight (if your overweight), stop smoking cigarettes, cut out the trans fatty acids (such as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils), alcohol (only one or two drinks a day), increase the monounsaturated fats in your diet (such as canola oil, avocado oil, or olive oil) and adding soluble fiber to your diet are all ways of increasing HDL cholesterol in your body.