Cholesterol LDL and HDL

martynbrown7563

The advice is LDL = bad HDL = good, but the nutrients measure doesn’t make that distinction, just cholesterol. Can anyone tell me how to interpret the cholesterol figures?

samgettingfit25

Did your doctor or a healthcare provider give you any specific advice? Do you have high cholesterol?

I have never seen dietary cholesterol broken down into LDL and HDL. I don't think that distinction applies to diet in the way you are thinking. Your body makes cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol comes from animal fats (meat, milk, egg yolks). Vegans still have cholesterol in their bodies even though they aren't eating any dietary cholesterol. The American Heart Association has some good information (https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/cholesterol), you might notice some of the foods recommended to help increase HDL don't actually contain cholesterol (with the exception of fatty fish), but some contain oils.

I understand people with certain health issues are often advised to reduce saturated fats and dietary cholesterol. I realize there is some controversy about what causes high cholesterol since some people who eat low barbs with lots of animal products have really good cholesterol levels. That's why I ask if you were given specific advice from your doctor.

lesdarts180

The cholesterol in the food you eat has nothing to do with the cholesterol in your body as measured by a blood test.

So I suggest you ignore the nutrition labels and the MFP reported cholesterol. It's not relevant.

If you have a problem with your cholesterol you should get advice from a doctor or other medical professional. You will probably be advised to restrict your intake of saturated fats and get plenty of exercise among other things.


Here in the UK (and the wider Europe) nutrition labels do not include cholesterol.

Lietchi

HDL and LDL are blood cholesterol markers, not food properties.
Cholesterol values in food itself are pretty much irrelevant.
In food, saturated versus unsaturated is considered more important according to most mainstream health organisations: saturated being a type of fat to limit (correlated with LDL) and unsaturated being considered healthier (correlated with higher HDL and lower LDL).

Carbs can also have a significant impact on blood cholesterol by the way (triglycerides mostly, I believe, from consuming processed/ junk food)

It's more nuanced than that: polyunsaturated versus monounsaturated and the balance between the types of polyunsaturated, and there are also people who don't believe saturated fats are the cause of heart disease. But I'm not the person to go give in depth info on that - Google is your friend if you want to go down that rabbit hole 🙂 or another member here might feel inclined to give further details.