It is also a raw material for building hormones, such as estrogen and testosterone

Chickens, cows, fish, and all other animals have livers, just as you do, and they have been busily making cholesterol and packing it into their cells. It ends up where it does not belong-in plaques that look like raised bumps on the walls of your arteries, which gradually block the flow of blood.5-7; The cholesterol in foods comes from animal products. The result is that you will have too much of this "cement" in your bloodstream. Certain foods actually contain cholesterol, and others stimulate the liver to make extra cholesterol. In meat-eating cultures, this process begins during childhood and progresses slowly but surely until artery blockages bring the patient into the emergency room.

Cholesterol enters the artery wall, stimulating the overgrowth of the muscle cells that are there to strengthen it, like steel bands on a tire. There is no cholesterol in spaghetti noodles, tomatoes, baked beans, bananas, broccoli, cantaloupes, or any other plant food. On the other hand, since plants have no liver to make cholesterol, there is no cholesterol at all in any foods from plants. You will also find 100 mg of cholesterol in three cups of whole milk, or in just half an egg. But what may be more surprising is that chicken contains about the same amount of cholesterol as beef Chicken can be slightly lower in fat, depending on how it is prepared, but every four-ounce serving of chicken holds close to 100 mg of cholesterol. Four ounces of beef is a small serving, about the size of a pack of cigarettes. The fat in foods adds to this problem, and we'll see what it does shortly.

This is the effect of the cholesterol alone. Most people consume 500-600 mg of cholesterol every day, which is good for roughly 25-30 extra points (0.5-0.6 millimoles per liter) on their blood cholesterol level. And every 100 mg of cholesterol in your daily routine adds about 5 points to your blood cholesterol level (that is 5 mg per deciliter, or 0.1 millimoles per liter for those using the new international system). Here is how the cholesterol you eat affects the cholesterol in your blood: Four ounces of beef contains roughly 100 mg of cholesterol. So any animal product on your plate-meat, milk, eggs, or any other animal tissue adds some of the animal's cholesterol to your own. However, even a small increase in the number of cholesterol particles in your blood encourages the growth of plaques in the arteries. A small amount of cholesterol is normally made by your liver for use as a kind of cement that holds cell membranes together. To see the importance of this, let's take a closer look at what cholesterol and fat do in the body and why the diet change works so well.

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