Cholesterol

JoRosee

Hi guys!
In the nutrients section it enumerates all the types of fats saturated, trans etc... then there is cholesterol. Is that the total of good and bad cholesterols? I’m confused as to why it has it’s own section?

apullum

Cholesterol is in its own section because it is a different thing from fat.

“Good” and “bad” cholesterol usually refer to HDL and LDL cholesterol, respectively. These are substances found in your body; they don’t really translate directly to the cholesterol in your food.

The vast majority of the cholesterol in your body is made by the body. If you are concerned about your blood cholesterol, the most effective ways to lower it are to get to a healthy weight if overweight, and to exercise regularly. Dietary cholesterol has very little effect on blood cholesterol for the majority of the population, unless you have been diagnosed with a specific, genetic form of high cholesterol.

JoRosee

Thank you! Very informative!

vincentbayliss

I have been on a journey to lower my cholesterol levels for some time now. I have been able to, in the past, successfully reduce it with diet but it's a bit of a roller coaster ride. Recently, I started logging everything I consumed in the Myfitnesspal app (free version for now). A question I have on this is that I have noticed that the two measures of "Cholesterol " and "Trans Fats" in the Nutrients section for what I have eaten on a day never regester anything. So, either I'm doing really well or it's part of the paid version (and hence, I could be doing really bad and not know it). Can somebody clear this up for me?

Thanks very much,
Vincent...

ccrdragon

The problem with the food entries is that they are crowd-sourced (users enter them) , so depending on the user, the micro-nutrients may or may not have been entered - or were entered incorrectly. You can search thru the database and find different entries for the same foods that probably have the info that you are looking for.

kshama2001

vincentbayliss wrote: »

I have been on a journey to lower my cholesterol levels for some time now. I have been able to, in the past, successfully reduce it with diet but it's a bit of a roller coaster ride. Recently, I started logging everything I consumed in the Myfitnesspal app (free version for now). A question I have on this is that I have noticed that the two measures of "Cholesterol " and "Trans Fats" in the Nutrients section for what I have eaten on a day never regester anything. So, either I'm doing really well or it's part of the paid version (and hence, I could be doing really bad and not know it). Can somebody clear this up for me?

Thanks very much,
Vincent...

In addition to this great advice:

ccrdragon wrote: »

The problem with the food entries is that they are crowd-sourced (users enter them) , so depending on the user, the micro-nutrients may or may not have been entered - or were entered incorrectly. You can search thru the database and find different entries for the same foods that probably have the info that you are looking for.

The premium and free versions use the same database. Accuracy will not be improved by paying for premium.

Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.

To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP. All ADMIN entries from the USDA will have weights as an option BUT there is a glitch whereby sometimes 1g is the option but the values are actually for 100g. This is pretty easy to spot though, as when added the calories are 100x more than is reasonable.

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Use the “SR Legacy” tab - that's what MFP used to pull in entries.

Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered.

For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct. Note: scanning is mostly only available with Premium these days.)

lynn_glenmont

vincentbayliss wrote: »

I have been on a journey to lower my cholesterol levels for some time now. I have been able to, in the past, successfully reduce it with diet but it's a bit of a roller coaster ride. Recently, I started logging everything I consumed in the Myfitnesspal app (free version for now). A question I have on this is that I have noticed that the two measures of "Cholesterol " and "Trans Fats" in the Nutrients section for what I have eaten on a day never regester anything. So, either I'm doing really well or it's part of the paid version (and hence, I could be doing really bad and not know it). Can somebody clear this up for me?

Thanks very much,
Vincent...

If you don't eat animal products, or only nonfat dairy, you shouldn't have any cholesterol in the food you log. Trans fats have been largely eliminated in U.S. food products, so it's not unexpected that none is showing up in your logging. I had one gram of trans fat in the entire month of April, two in March, none in February, and one in January.