An increase in body weight tends to increase blood cholesterol, blood pressure, and in general the risk of adverse effects on heart health. In addition to maintaining body weight in balance, physical activity can help lower blood pressure and increase the health and general welfare.

Things can change to lower cholesterol:

• Maintain a healthy weight (a weight gain tends to increase cholesterol levels)
• Make physical activity (reduce LDL cholesterol)
• Lower stress
• A healthy diet (elimiinar especially saturated fats that raise cholesterol levels)
• Limit alcohol consumption
• Stop smoking

Things we can not change:

• Sex (men tend to have higher cholesterol levels than women until menopause, when men and women are at equal risk)
• The age (cholesterol levels increase with age)

• Our ethnicity (ethnic groups are at higher risk than others)
• Our family history (if the family is affected by cholesterol, then it is likely to be affected by it).

Fact # 5: Reduce cholesterol through Healthy Food sources.

Our food choices can affect cholesterol levels, especially if the diet consists mainly of saturated fat. The butter and milk mixture (made from a mixture of butter and vegetable oils) are high in saturated fat, which is the type of fat that adversely affects cholesterol levels. The limitation of these foods in our diet will help to reduce cholesterol levels in the blood.

A healthier choice in our food consumption and an active lifestyle helps to keep cholesterol within recommended levels.

A healthy meal should include the following:

• Lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs or vegetarian meat alternative such as legumes, beans, lentils or nuts
• Pasta, rice, noodles, potatoes or bread
• Plenty of vegetables and salads

As a general guide, the meal should consist of: half vegetables, a quarter of the plate should be rice, pasta, noodles, potatoes or bread and one quarter of the plate of lean meat or vegetarian meat alternative and salad. Experiment with methods of low-fat cooking and grilling, boiling, steaming or using the microwave.

Following a balanced diet combined with physical activity and healthy habits, we will keep cholesterol at a level recommended.

Basically, cholesterol is a lipid, which is broadly defined as any fat-soluble, naturally occurring molecule, such as fats and oils. Cholesterol originates naturally in the body through the liver, but can be created in small quantities through our diet.

Cholesterol plays an important role in the body as a building block for cell walls and bile acids and is necessary to make hormones and vitamin D. A low level of blood cholesterol is natural and healthy.

Cholesterol only becomes a problem when more cholesterol in the blood than the body needs. Can cause the buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries, reducing blood flow in the arteries and then can become a problem for heart health.

Fact # 2: There are two types of blood cholesterol (good and bad) that are transported in special packages, namely:

Low density lipoprotein (LDL) transports cholesterol from the liver to body tissues. If there is a high level of bad cholesterol (LDL) levels can accumulate in the walls of blood vessels and lead to narrowing.

Your total cholesterol is made up of LDL and HDL. Therefore, the total cholesterol level recommended for heart health should be below 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg / dl).

To help keep our heart healthy and lead a healthy life is important to keep the bad cholesterol (LDL) and lower good cholesterol (HDL) high.

Fact # 3: Eating too much saturated fat makes you raise cholesterol levels, although there are many factors that can cause cholesterol levels exceeded the recommended level, the most common dietary cause is eating too much fat and in particular Too much saturated fat.

High consumption of saturated fats can increase bad cholesterol (LDL) and jeopardize the health of our heart. In general, saturated fats found in fatty meats and dairy products, butter, cheese, chips and other snacks.

We can reduce consumption of saturated fat by eating less food rich in saturated fats such as margarine, fish oil, walnuts and pumpkin seeds.