The Cholsterol Offenders - The No Brainers

Many of you out there already take a medicine for high cholesterol or have been instructed to eat a healthier diet in order to avoid medication in the future, aka the "borderliners". Both the frankly dyslipidemic and the borderliners will see heart docs like us in the office and tell us 'my doctor told me to avoid foods high in cholesterol - but I'm not sure what those foods are.' So, for your reading pleasure, we present The Cholesterol Offenders:

THE NO-BRAINERS

1. Eggs - The yolk's on you if you didn't know this one. (Sorry, but I couldn't resist). Turns out that an egg yolk has an offensive 1234 mg per 100 gram serving of cholesterol, or 411% of the recommneded daily allowance (RDA) of cholesterol. That means that just one little yolk will give you 70% of the day's RDA and if you're lucky enough to get the double yolk - well, you can do the math. By the way, the rest of the egg only provides an addition 1% of the RDA so no need to avoid the egg whites.

2. Butter - On bread, in a pan, or used in cookies, cakes and muffins, butter is a huge offender. 1 stick has 243 mg and 1 TBS contains 30 mg, 10% of the RDA. Switch to something healthier like olive oil.

3. Fast food - There's no denying that some fast food, at the right time tastes good; and its cheap. But it is flat out unhealthy. Everdayhealth.com reports that a a McDonald's Big Mac has 85 mg of cholesterol, 33 grams of fat and 600 calories. Throw in a large fries and you add 525 more calories, 24 grams of fat and 21 mg of cholesterol for a grand total of 1125 calories, 57 grams of fat and 106 mg of cholesterol. Can you feel your arteries clogging? But the true cholesterol killers in the fast food family are the breakfast sandwiches. The classic Egg McMuffin which most adult males can take down in 5 bites has a whopping.... wait for it.....235 mg of cholesterol in one small sandwich. That is almost the entire day's tolerated cholesterol before 9 am. Ouch, my chest. Other chains are just as bad, and some are even worse so don't think that it's better at BK or Wendy's no matter what the ad campaigns tell you. Check out

4. Cheese - When you say Wisconsin, I think of 2 things: cheese and offensive linemen. Both come in large quantities and high quality in The Badger State and there's a reason for it. While cheese can be a great source of protein, it is also a hefty cholesterol load. Cheddar, gouda and of course, cream cheese, and any whole milk-based cheese are ones to avoid if possible. And by the way, this also includes Mac and Cheese, which combines whole milk and butter with cheese to make a cholesterol nightmare.

5. Ice Cream - We are taking down all the good Ol' American comfort foods. While it may seem refreshing and delicious on a hot day, it's a cold-blooded coronary assasin. One cup of the smooth dessert has more fat than a hamburger and more cholesterol than 10 glazed doughnuts. Egads, pass on the ice cream and go with yogurt or fruit.

Stay tuned for our next post when we point out 5 high cholesterol foods that will surprise you...