Cholesteral & Other Things

42679
42679 Posts: 2 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Is cholesterol important? I just checked my diary and according to the goals mfp tells me I don't consume a lot of cholesterol. Do people need a certain amount of cholesterol? It also says I shouldn't eat any unsaturated fat. I thought unsaturated fat was better than saturated fat. I'm I just misinformed? I also go over my sugar goal all the time. Should I even worry about any of this or just focus on overall Carb/Fat/Protien levels?

Replies

  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I suspect the food entries for cholesterol are incomplete. Self entered foods for instance, may only list calories. Too little cholesterol won't be a problem either.

    How's your overall fat numbers? Unsaturated fat is the better fat. Want to avoid the trans fats, which is a lot easier to do these days as manufacturers have been switching out.

    The sugar goal is based on the WHO recommendation for "free sugars", but MFP can't distinguish between free sugar and naturally occurring sugar, say, in fruit. That's because current nutrition labels don't distinguish between "free sugars" and naturally occurring sugars.

    If you are generally in line with the proportion of Carb/Fat/Protein, you're fine.
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,641 Member
    Unsaturated fats are set to zero because there isn't currently an accepted recommendation on how much we should get every day, even though we know they're "better" for you. I know the red print makes it look like you did a bad thing, but it's best to just disregard it.
  • 42679
    42679 Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks for letting me know about the unsaturated fat thing! It really had me confused.

    I think the cholesterol in my diary is accurate because I scan or look up everything, but if too little cholesterol won't hurt me then I'll just ignore it.

    I don't have a problem avoiding trans fats, but I usually go over my fat and carb goals and don't meat my protein goal. Does anyone have any advice on how to add more protein to my diet?
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    42679 wrote: »
    Thanks for letting me know about the unsaturated fat thing! It really had me confused.

    I think the cholesterol in my diary is accurate because I scan or look up everything, but if too little cholesterol won't hurt me then I'll just ignore it.

    I don't have a problem avoiding trans fats, but I usually go over my fat and carb goals and don't meat my protein goal. Does anyone have any advice on how to add more protein to my diet?
    Cut a little of the fat or carbs in order to fit in the protein: nuts, peanut butter, eggs, tofu, soy milk, chicken, pork, beef, tuna, salmon, other seafood, milk, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, beans, kale, broccoli.


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  • Sandcastles61
    Sandcastles61 Posts: 506 Member
    Here's a link my doctor gave me this week:

    http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/fat/art-20045550?pg=2

    The first page talks about cholesterol, and the 2nd has more of the skew between the various fats you should focus on. Hope it helps :)
  • jagjava
    jagjava Posts: 6
    I don't mean to be a jerk or anything but the above link contains misinformation ^^^ you should avoid processed vegetable oils like canola, and eating cholesterol or saturated animal fat doesn't make your serum cholesterol go up. This is old information that the science has now proved wrong. Try googling "The Cholesterol Myth."
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
    MFP is a great tool, but it's not perfect. If you want to worry about macro goals (i.e., protein, total fat, carbs) and micro's (i.e., potassium, cholesterol, etc), then you need to do your own research and set your own goals for those numbers.

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