what is cholesterol, and why is it a good thing for food to be low in it?
Cholesterol (say: kuh-les-tuh-rawl) is a type of fat found in your blood. Your liver makes cholesterol for your body. You also can get cholesterol from the foods you eat. Meat, fish, eggs, butter, cheese, and whole or low-fat milk all have cholesterol in them. You need some cholesterol to help your brain, skin, and other organs grow and do their jobs in the body. But eating too much of it is a bad idea, especially for people whose bodies already make too much cholesterol. It floats around in your blood and can get into the walls of the blood vessels and stay there. If you have too much cholesterol in your bloodstream, a lot can collect in the blood vessel walls, causing these “pipes” to become narrower. This can clog the blood vessels and keep blood from moving freely the way it’s supposed to. If the clogging gets worse over many years, it can cause damage to important body parts, like the heart (heart attack) and brain (stroke). Both kids and adults can have too much cholesterol in th
