This ratio, according to your age and sex, can give an indication of the risk of dying from heart disease. 23.0 or more 11.0 or more For years we've been hearing the advice to eat chicken or fish instead of beef, pork or lamb. What is hard for many people to accept is that the leaner the meat, the more cholesterol it contains. Each ounce of lean beef will have between 20 and 25 mg. of cholesterol, depending on the cut, but an ounce of lean chicken with skin removed can have more than beef, often has 25 mg. An ounce of dark turkey meat contains 32 mg. of cholesterol, and fish contains from 10 mg.
All animal products contain cholesterol but no plant foods have measurable amounts of cholesterol.
Physicians at the Weimar Institute have determined that the average American male eats foods containing about 500 milligrams of cholesterol a day, about the same amount as his body makes internally. The typical American female eats about 350 milligrams of cholesterol. Not one milligram of that is needed by the body, which makes all it needs. Vegans, strict vegetarians who eat no dairy or egg products, consume no cholesterol in their diet. Numerous studies show that vegetarians live longer and have a fewer heart attacks and less coronary artery disease, diabetes and many types of cancer than the general population, the meat eaters.