Beware of "Unknown" Cholesterol in Fried Foods
I'm not big on cholesterol. That's why I don't eat meat and greasy foods. At this point, if I tried to, I'd probably drop dead on the spot.
Now, we all know hamburgers and steak have saturated fat and cholesterol, which leads to heart attacks, but fried and processed foods may pack another cholesterol punch.
They're calling it "unknown" cholesterol. It's created when cholesterol is exposed to heating, especially frying and high temperature cooking--makes you think twice about deep frying the Thanksgiving turkey.
Research, presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, showed hamsters fed a diet high in this hidden cholesterol had 22% more cholesterol in their blood, causing atherosclerotic plaque buildup.
Instead, experts recommend consuming phytosterols and phytostanols--nutrients found in plant foods--to reduce blood cholesterol. Good news for me!
Via Food Navigator.
10 Comments
Add Your Comment
ADVERTISING
New
- FROM DIET BLOG
- On-Off Fasting: Does It Work?
- 400 Calorie Fix
- 5 Factor World Diet
- Quick Giveaway: Powerhouse Weight Loss Game
- FORUM
- Low Carb Atkins Diet- Tips to Cut the Carbs.
- How Can I Gain a Healthy Weight and Keep it?
- How Do I Eat Healthy at University?
- Starving Myself and Exercising, But Not Losing an Ounce?
Categories
| Body Image Celebrities Diet Pills Diets Exercise |
Fast Food Funny Stuff Success Stories Teens and Kids Tips and Tools |
RSS Feed
Follow @DietBlog on Twitter
You may want to read your own linked article:
"Oxycholesterol is produced in oxidised oils, particularly in the much-maligned trans-fatty acids and partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils. Health concerns, and the subsequent consumer reaction, have led many manufacturers to begin reformulating their products and reduce the trans-fat content, or eliminate it completely."
The oxycholesterol isn't "unknown" - but is a catchy teaser title - and is due to the damaging effect of heating the oils to very high temperatures as we see with fried foods and sometimes even baked products.
Reply"Now, we all know hamburgers and steak have saturated fat and cholesterol, which leads to heart attacks"
I can't believe you can get away with writing something so blatantly false and misleading.
Dietary cholesterol only impacts blood serum cholesterol in certain individuals.
Likewise, people whose diets contain very low levels of cholesterol can still have very high blood serum cholesterol levels.
ReplyI agree -- this is a very strange article. Though the premise of foods fried in oil can be very, very, bad, the rationale is 'close but no cigar'. The oils can oxidize at high heat, So when you buy that crispy chicken at the restaurant what are the chances that you're eating oxidized fats? 100% or close to it! That oil was heated and re-heated and re-heated some more! Wowzah.
Cholesterol in your food has minimal impact on cholesterol in your blood. Otherwise we'd see some level of heart disease prior to 1920. But MDs didn't even know what heart disease was until after that time. Right about when wheat and other processed grains took a spike in our diets.
ReplyWhat can you say, most people choose to remain ignorant about saturated fat in meat. Now it is correct that oxidized fats have horrible effects on the body besides the possibility of raising serum cholesterol. But that's another story. This guy obviously buys into the dietary fat = evil meme.
ReplyBTW, we all know eating fried foods is BAD for your health. That's why I eat baked meat, not fried.
ReplyCholesterol in itself doesn't lead to elevated blood cholesterol levels (as others have said), but trans fats can cause more problems than any kind of naturally occurring fat. I'm thinking most of this oxidized cholesterol is coming from heating fats that are trans fats (like the shortening they usually use to fry chicken in), which we want to avoid anyway. Stick with naturally-occurring fats (monounsaturated ones are best, but naturally occurring saturated fats are much better for your health than man-made trans fats). I myself don't eat a lot of saturated fats or cholesterol and I have fairly ideal blood cholesterol levels (HDL of 75, LDL of 92 and triglycerides of 53...can't really complain there). Oh yeah, I avoid trans fats pretty much entirely.
ReplyGary Taubes shows in his book that consumption of saturated fats in meat by itself does not lead to heart disease. It's carbohydrates and inflammation.
ReplyHe doesn't "show" us anything. He takes a position and tries to back it up based on selective research. Nothing more. His positions are FAR from accepted by the scientific community.
ReplyWhen it comes to fried foods, I never thought there would be any health benefits in eating it. This is just another reason NOT to eat fast fried foods!
ReplyBut those fries are SO tasty, I haven't availed myself to them in several months. I am SO craving them...
Reply