Cholesterol - a word that strikes fear into the hearts of many. A cholesterol test comes back high and you break out in a cold sweat. Your doctor mentions it and you begin to shake. But cholesterol also is important to your health. Cholesterol is part of the digestive process, and it is an important part of the cell-indeed, cholesterol is used in building cell membranes and cell walls.
Cholesterol is found naturally in the brain, nerves, liver, blood, and bile.
As in so much of life, it is excess that causes problems. This is because the more cholesterol you have in your blood, the more likely it is that the fatty streaks along the inner walls of the arteries will harden, turn to plaque, and build up, resulting in atherosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes, and death. What to Do Health practitioners all agree that cholesterol levels should be checked and should be kept at certain levels. This means we must consider both cholesterol and other food components that influence cholesterol in our diet. Eat foods low in cholesterol.