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Many people often hear from their doctor about their cholesterol level either being bad or good, but many do not actually understand just exactly what cholesterol is and what its function is in the body. Many often develop a misconception as to what it really does. Cholesterol is simply a waxy substance produced by your liver that is designed to perform a number of tasks for our health.

Cholesterol has a vital function in our body because it produces vitamin D, creates bile salts to help in the digestion of unused fat, and it aids in building call walls. So, if cholesterol does all these wonderful things, why would we need to worry about having too much in our body? The answer is simply because anything in excess is bad for our bodies. If we can learn what is cholesterol, then we can avoid having too much in our system.

The Bad And Good Cholesterol.

An easy way to watch whether we eat good or bad cholesterol is understand which foods produce the cholesterol. Bad cholesterol is found in foods that have animal fats such as meats and dairy. However foods such as whole grains, vegetables, and fruits have no cholesterol.

Too much bad cholesterol in our system can lead to blocked arteries which is very bad. When our arteries are blocked it prevents our blood from flowing, which is very bad for our health.

The main goal of the good cholesterol is to keep our bodies healthy. It does this by taking the left over cholesterol within our system and carries it to the liver so it can produce bile salt which helps eject it from our body.

What Can Cause Us To Get High Cholesterol?

Many of us who go to the doctor are usually worried about having a high cholesterol level. There are several reasons that we acquire a high cholesterol level and the main reason is our age. As we age our cholesterol level goes up and we are thus more able to get high cholesterol.

There are many things that can cause us to get high cholesterol levels. One thing is we may inherit from our parents. If your parents have high cholesterol, you should ask your doctor to be tested to make sure if you have it or not. Another thing is doing physical activity. When we exercise and do any other physical activity, this causes our good cholesterol levels to rise thus keeping us healthy.

When we are determining what is cholesterol, and examining the causes and treatments, we often find that there is a direct link to our cholesterol levels and the food we eat on a daily basis. By eating foods rich in fiber, fruits, vegetables, fish and beans we can help keep the cholesterol in our body low and thus have a healthier life. By trying to avoid eating foods like meat and dairy that make our cholesterol levels high, we can also have a healthier life.