Healthy Living - Eating and Drinking

Fats and Cholesterol

Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a fatty substance produced naturally by the body and found in our blood. It has many good uses, but can become a problem where there is too much of it in the blood.

There are two types of cholesterol - 'good' (HDL) cholesterol and 'bad' (LDL) cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is the type of cholesterol that clogs blood vessels and HDL is the type of cholesterol that helps unclog blood vessels.

If you have a high level of cholesterol, you can reduce it by medication and/or changes to your lifestyle (especially changing your eating habits). Talk to your doctor about what will be most effective for your situation.

We produce several brochures on how to manage your cholesterol level. Email us or phone 1300 36 27 87 for further details.

Fats
Just like cholesterol, all fat is not bad! It is beneficial to your health to have a certain level of fat.

Fats in food are a mixture of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, saturated and trans fats. These different types of fats have different effects on your cholesterol level.

Polyunsaturated fats
Polyunsaturated fats help lower blood cholesterol if your meals are low in saturated fat. Some examples of foods that contain polyunsaturated fats are fish, plain nuts (e.g. walnuts, hazelnuts and brazil nuts) and polyunsaturated margarines and oils.

Monounsaturated fats
Monounsaturated fats can help lower blood cholesterol if your meals are low in saturated fat. Foods that include monounsaturated fats include avocado, plain nuts (e.g. peanuts, cashews and almonds) and monounsaturated margarine and oils.

Saturated fats
Saturated fats raise blood cholesterol. Foods that are high in saturated fats include many take-away meals, potato chips, commercial cakes, biscuits and pastries, butter and dairy products (full fat milk, cream, cheese, etc)

Trans fats
Trans fats raise total and LDL (bad) blood cholesterol and also reduce the HDL (good) component of blood cholesterol. Foods high in trans fats include those which use hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable fats such as baked products like pies, pastries, cakes, biscuits and buns.