What do you need to know about cholestrol

Too much cholesterol can clog and damage your arteries, increasing your risk of heart disease and stroke. But cholesterol is also vital for our body's normal functioning. It forms part of our cell membranes and nerves, and it's needed to make hormones.
For many years we were advised to avoid high-cholesterol food, such as eggs and prawns, but we now know that the cholesterol produced by our bodies plays a far more important role in determining our blood cholesterol level.
The amount of cholesterol our bodies make is affected by a variety of factors, including what we eat. So the best way to try to avoid clogged arteries is to avoid the foods that stimulate our bodies to make cholesterol.
To complicate things further, there are good and bad kinds of cholesterol. When we talk about "lowering your cholesterol levels", that's generally the total level, or alternatively the level of the "bad" form of cholesterol.

LDL (or "bad") cholesterol hangs around in the blood circulation and is taken up by the artery walls, leading to thickening known as atherosclerosis, or "furring" of the arteries. Clogged arteries restrict the blood flow, contributing to heart problems such as high blood pressure, angina and heart attacks. They also increase your risk of stroke.

HDL (or "good") cholesterol shuttles cholesterol in the blood to the liver where it can be broken down. HDL helps protect you from heart disease and strokes.