Milk is bad for cholesterol It is very likely that you have heard a person talk about their high cholesterol, or their cholesterol levels, etc. This compound is a substance found in blood plasma, which plays a very important role in heart health, so it is vital to learn to keep it at the most normal values.
As many will know, diet is one of the most influential factors on cholesterol. Foods that contain saturated fats, such as eggs, red meat, cheese, butter, can progressively increase cholesterol levels. Milk, specifically, can also play a role when it comes to cholesterol.
Do you have problems with your cholesterol levels and don’t know if it is wise to drink milk? In the next sections, we are going to understand how milk affects cholesterol levels in the body, and what are the best alternatives that we have at our disposal to not stop drinking milk, but also not to increase our values in a harmful way.
Milk is bad for cholesterol
HDL Cholesterol and LDL Cholesterol. Before starting, it is important to know that there are two types of cholesterol in our body. The first is HDL cholesterol, which we will call “healthy cholesterol,” and the second, LDL cholesterol, is “harmful cholesterol.”
- LDL cholesterol: It is a molecule that ends up depositing on the wall of the arteries, affecting circulation and progressively causing atherosclerosis. The function of this molecule is aimed at transporting cholesterol to cells to use them for membrane synthesis.
- HDL cholesterol: It is a small, dense and organic substance with a high protein value, which is responsible for transporting cholesterol to the liver tissues. Its function is to clean LDL cholesterol from arterial deposits, where they will later be transferred to the liver to be eliminated.
We will find that some foods increase HDL cholesterol values, and others, LDL cholesterol. The idea, with all this, is to learn to correctly balance these two variables through diet and physical activity, even. With this point clarified, it is time to move on to our main point: milk and cholesterol.
How does milk affect cholesterol levels?
The answer is not short or as simple as it seems. The first thing is to know that there is no scientific evidence that indicates that milk increases cholesterol levels. However, the most advisable thing, especially for people with high cholesterol levels, is to eat skim milk (also called skimmed), since it has a lower level of dairy fats, substances that provide saturated fats, thus increasing cholesterol. bad.
It is, essentially, more of a preventive measure than anything else, since there is no clear relationship between cholesterol levels and drinking milk at the moment. Dairy, the less fat it has, will be much better, not only for people with high cholesterol, but for the general population, since we must always work on balancing our cholesterol.
Types of milk according to their fat index
There are three types of milk according to their fat content. Namely, these are categorized as follows:
- Whole: Which contains between 3.5% and 4.0% fat.
- Semi-skimmed: With an index of 1.8% and 2.0% fat.
- Skim: With just 0.8% to 1.0% fat.
In concrete terms, these are the values that we will find in each product. As can be seen, these rates are not high enough to cause overweight, since some people believe that milk may be a factor in increasing body weight. It is due to these values that skim milk is recommended for people with high cholesterol levels.
Other contributions of milk to health
Hypotheses claim that milk can also provide great benefits for people with hypertension problems. However, as in the case of cholesterol, this has not been confirmed in the scientific community.
If a person needs to reduce the fat index in their diet, they should consider skim milk, as this will allow them to control their fat intake more. Consequently, you will be able to observe a reduction in your body fat level. However, this does not allow us to establish a direct relationship between milk and hypertension, since only the fat is being discarded from what is ingested.
Overall, it is recommended that people over 9 years old drink at least three servings of milk a day. Although the great contributions in terms of calcium that milk provides are known, there is no more certain relationship between the rest of the contributions that the body needs and dairy.
Individual nutritional needs
It is a fact that each person has their own nutritional needs. We cannot compare the case of a 5-year-old child with the case of a 15-year-old adolescent. In this way, we find that each story presents different ambitions regarding their diet, which is why the intake must primarily obey the requirements of each patient respectively.
Finally, is milk bad for cholesterol?
Milk, like any food that may contain high levels of fat, can progressively increase the value of bad cholesterol. For this reason, the best practice will be to examine the levels of fats being consumed (if it is a planned diet), and, based on the diagnosed cholesterol values, always measure what you are going to eat or drink. .
In the same way that a person can substitute whole milk for skim milk, they can find other substitutes such as whole rice for brown rice. The key leads us to, finally, knowing how to manage the foods we consume based on their levels of fat, and in this way, safeguard our health over time.
Read also: Milk is bad for gastritis; Milk is bad for the liver; Milk and uric acid
References: Wikipedia
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