How much can pork increase blood lipids? Doctor’s interpretation: the effect of cholesterol in food on blood lipids

“Dr. Zhang, I usually like to eat pork head meat, and I also like to eat pork. How much does this affect blood lipids?” Uncle Liu, who had a direct heart, asked straight to the point when he met him. I.

I gave Uncle Liu a detailed answer to this question, and today I will tell you my answer to this question.

In fact, this question boils down to the question of “how much does cholesterol in food affect blood cholesterol?” And in our daily life, after the cholesterol in food is eaten into the body by humans, to what extent can it affect the level of blood lipids in the blood, especially the level of cholesterol in the blood? This is indeed the concern of many friends who are concerned about blood lipid health, especially a topic that patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases like Uncle Liu pay special attention to. Today, Dr. Zhang will give you a detailed answer on this topic, hoping to help more people. #yao zero zero plan#

Does Cholesterol in Food Matter?

Generally speaking, a healthy adult of 70kg contains about 140g of cholesterol in the body, and about 1g of cholesterol needs to be updated every day. And this 1 gram of cholesterol, of which 70-80% is synthesized by itself, and 20%-30% is absorbed from food. After a full calculation, human beings can meet the body’s needs by ingesting 200mg-300mg of cholesterol through food every day. The modern way of eating does make us eat more cholesterol in our body every day, which is a very common cause of elevated cholesterol.

Cholesterol-rich foods

So, how much does food cholesterol affect blood cholesterol? How should we pay attention to the intake of cholesterol when we usually eat? Is it okay to eat eggs with high cholesterol? After reading these questions, let’s read below:

One, cholesterol and diet, previous knowledge

For a long time, when it comes to cholesterol, people with a little medical knowledge know that if cholesterol is elevated, it is easy to cause atherosclerotic plaque in the arteries, and further development may lead to myocardial infarction , cerebral infarction and other serious cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, cholesterol will be described as a bad person in various medical science popularization, because it will lead to the occurrence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. It should be said that this is not a big problem, and there is no principle error.

Based on these understandings, many people also preconceived that we should pay special attention to controlling the cholesterol in food, because a high cholesterol diet can significantly increase the cholesterol in our body’s blood. High, and then increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, then we should eat less cholesterol-rich foods. Therefore, in this context, there is a saying that “eat no more than 1 egg a day”, because the egg yolk is rich in cholesterol, many people mistakenly believe that eating less of these foods can reduce cholesterol. Even in the United States, where medicine and nutrition are developed, from 1977 to 2015, it has been recommending that the daily intake of cholesterol should not exceed 300mg, and the reason behind this is also.

It is wrong to reduce blood lipids by not eating meat

Two, cholesterol and diet, is the latest knowledge

However, with the deepening of more and more medical research, the human medical community realizes that dietary cholesterol cannot form an equivalent relationship with blood cholesterol, or that cholesterol in food cannot Equals blood cholesterol. More and more medical studies have shown that the level of cholesterol in the blood is more complicated than people think, and it is not as simple as eating less high-cholesterol foods. It is also seen that dietary cholesterol does affect blood cholesterol levels, but the effect is limited and not a decisive factor. Therefore, the perception that many people mistakenly believe that elevated cholesterol is “eaten” is biased. Especially for those middle-aged and elderly people, elevated cholesterol is more often the result of abnormal metabolism, or the result of aging, not just a problem of diet.

Then what is the truth of the matter? In fact, only 20-30% of cholesterol in human blood comes from exogenous food intake, and more 70%-80% comes from endogenous body synthesis. In other words, many people have elevated cholesterol in their blood lipids, not only because they eat too much cholesterol, but also because the body’s ability to metabolize cholesterol is abnormal, such as too much synthesis and reduced consumption.

Cholesterol in lipids

3. What should an ordinary healthy person eat?

How should the average person eat cholesterol-rich foods? There are two sources of cholesterol in the human body, one of which is endogenous synthesis by the body, and the other is absorbed from exogenous food. Normal healthy adults, the cholesterol contained in the daily diet is about 300-500mg, mainly from egg yolk, fish roe, meat, cream and so on. Most plant foods do not contain cholesterol, but contain plant sterols, that is, beta sitosterol, ergosterol, etc. These substances are not easily absorbed by the body and can inhibit the absorption of cholesterol. So, we can eat more of plant-based foods in moderation.

As mentioned at the beginning, an average healthy adult can meet the needs of the human body with a daily intake of 200mg-300mg of cholesterol. The absorption rate of cholesterol is only about 30%. Take 1 egg yolk containing 200mg of cholesterol as an example, about 2-3 eggs can guarantee the body’s daily requirement for cholesterol. However, in addition to eggs, modern humans also consume many other cholesterol-rich foods every day, such as meat, cheese and other foods, including the “pig head meat” mentioned at the beginning, which are also cholesterol-rich foods. So we don’t ask everyone to eat 3 eggs a day, but eat 1-2 eggs a day, and the remaining cholesterol intake is reserved for other foods.

Healthy ingredients are important

4. How should patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases eat?

Although as mentioned above, dietary cholesterol has a relatively small effect on blood cholesterol and is not a major factor. However, it should be noted that different people and individuals have different ability to regulate cholesterol homeostasis, and it can even be said that there is huge variability. Studies have shown that on average one in four people is sensitive to cholesterol in food. Therefore, for the overall cardiovascular and cerebrovascular patients and patients with hypercholesterolemia, because most of them need to strictly control their cholesterol to meet the standard, the intake of cholesterol still needs to be controlled.

As for the specific intake, the “Chinese Guidelines for Healthy Lifestyle Prevention of Cardiometabolic Diseases” and “Chinese Adult Dyslipidemia Prevention and Control Guidelines 2016” both recommend that the daily intake of cholesterol should be controlled at 300mg within. The guide Zhonghai specifically proposes that if you usually eat animal offal, red meat, shrimp and other foods with high cholesterol, you should reduce the intake of eggs, and the daily intake of eggs is best controlled at 1 per day. Egg level, or say 3-6 per week. The specific amount of eggs and meat foods to eat is best if it does not affect personal blood lipids, especially low-density lipoprotein. Of course, as in the case of Uncle Liu at the beginning, he likes to eat pork head meat, and he needs to control cholesterol after heart surgery. At this time, it is best to eat a little to relieve cravings, but it is better not to overdo it. Don’t let eating pig head meat affect the low-density lipoprotein. Cholesterol control.

Healthy Eating

The above is Dr. Zhang’s interpretation of the correlation between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. I hope it can help everyone. In fact, I just want to tell everyone, don’t leave the responsibility of lowering cholesterol to control. Diet, sometimes high cholesterol in middle-aged and elderly people is more caused by the lack of ability to metabolize cholesterol. At this time, it is necessary to find a professional doctor for professional treatment.

I hope this article can help everyone. If you think this article is good, you can forward it to your relatives and friends, so that more people can benefit.