9
So the idea here is to start educating yourself about fat choices – the place to start is reading food labels. Just
as a rough guide and to give you some examples (actual values may vary between specific brands):
food fat %
saturated
fat
unstaurated
fat
trans fat
butter 66% 50% 16% 0%
"lIght" margarIne 50% 12% 87% 1%
cheddar cheese 34% 24% 9% 1%
haKe (White Fish) 1% 0.3% 0.7% 0%
hamburger patty (beef) 25% 12% 10% 3%
canola oIl 100% 7% 93% 0%
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
You can probably lower your total cholesterol level by about 10-15% through dietary changes. most experts
suggest aiming for a total cholesterol level of 5.0 mmol/l or less. So some fairly simple arithmetic will show you
that you are not likely to get your cholesterol low enough if it's over 5.5-6.0 mmol/l to start with – this is where
medications come in (we'll discuss this next week).
there's more to managing High Cholesterol than good eating habits. Besides medications, which we'll cover
next week, it is crucial to consider your overall risk profile. Weight, exercise, smoking, stress, blood pressure, and
diabetes are the biggest considerations here. We'll cover these later but what's crucial for now is that you think
about your overall risk profile.
