What have you heard about Cholesterols? Doctors have told you that the presence of Cholesterols in your body causes heart diseases right? Well I have heard and read about that a lot of times too. But then, as a food Science and Technologist, and also from nutrientional stand point, I will be letting you know the true position of Cholesterols and their roles in the body.
Contrary to what have become a public knowledge and/or perception about cholesterol in our body system, cholesterol plays a good number of roles in our body. Before I digress into the topic, it is important I define cholesterol.
DEFINITION OF CHOLESTEROL: cholesterol is a fatty acid based chemical compound found in the tissues of plants and animals. It is one of the major components of plants or animal lipids. It is waxy in nature and insoluble and/or immiscible in liquids such as water or blood. As a result of this, it is carried into the blood by the lipoproteins (lipids attached in one end to protein compounds in food materials). Cholesterols have overtime been regarded as very unhealthy to the body due to the fact that it causes some coronary heart diseases but this isn’t absolutely true, those who insinuates this, mostly medical practionars when giving health advice to patients fail to recognize which of the type of cholesterol that is harmful to the body especially to the heart and the arteries, hence, the generalization that cholesterols are harmful to the body system.
To avoid the needless assumption about cholesterols, I will also be outlining the two types of Cholesterol and how they affect our body system.
CLASSIFICATION OF CHOLESTEROL:
There are two types of cholesterol, namely. (1). Low Density cholesterol.( L-D-C) (2). High Density cholesterol. ( H-D-C). Having outlined the two types of cholesterol, let me then go ahead to explain the two forms. From the names above, a layman reasoning would be that “Low Density cholesterol” is the one that is good to the body while “High Density cholesterol” isn’t but it isn’t so at all. The L-D-C or steroids as it is often called in chemistry terms is very harmful to the hearth , it causes a disease called atherosclerosis, a disease condition that results from the deposition of high amount of L-D-C on the walls of the arteries thereby clogging the arteries from free flow of blood. The High Density cholesterol H-D-F or steroid is the one that is very beneficial to body in a lot of ways. From the Forgoing, I will be listing the benefits of High Density cholesterol to the body below.
ROLES OF HIGH- DENSITY- CHOLESTEROL IN THE BODY
1. It regulates membrane fluidity
2. It functions a precursor molecules in various metabolic pathways. Such as Glycolysis part way, and the creb’s cycle.
3. High Density cholesterol help in the production of some body hormones such as Oestrogens and also vitamins such as Vitamin-D in the body system.
4. It helps to filter away the low Density cholesterol in the body system.
From the above list of roles that high Density cholesterol play, it can then be seen that cholesterol is very vital in the body system, though the H-D-C. It is also pertinent to know that our body, through the liver synthesizes cholesterols on their own for it’s activities and as such, we must regulate the consumption of Food products that is high in fatty acids. Foods rich in Saturated fats such as Deep fried foods with highly saturated fats and trans-fats are major sources of Low Density cholesterol and should be avoided or minimized. It is also very important that vegetable fats and oil processors specify in the labels of their products, each amount of the two types of cholesterols instead of the ” Cholesterol free” inscriptions that they write on the label. The should target and Remove only the L-D-C in those products. Medical practionars should note the difference between the two Cholesterols and guide patients appropriately.
There are also other ways to regulate the amount of Cholesterols in our, consumption of foods rich in phytochemicals such as saponins helps to regulate the amount of Cholesterols in our blood. Example of food plants rich in saponins are bitter leave, pumpkins, etc. Having garlic more often in our foods also does the magic through the help of a compound known as Allicin, which also have anti microbial effects.
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