4 useful tips about shrimps and cholesterol

Do you ever feel guilty when you have a delicious dish of shrimp waiting in front of you? They’re full of cholesterol, right? But the facts tells a different story. These 4 tips will help you decide how often to indulge in this tasty seafood.

Contrary to popular belief, shrimp is almost completely devoid of saturated fat. This seafood does have a high cholesterol content but, when you eat this dish, your blood cholesterol becomes healthier.

You can count shrimp as a health food as it is low in fat and calories and rich in protein, iron and vitamin B12. Not only that, it even has a respectable dose of healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

This may not make sense as gram for gram, shrimp has more cholesterol than just about any other common food, including the fattiest meats and richest dairy products. It’s no wonder that people worry about heart heath and their arteries tend to avoid it but there is no need.

But a study showed that there's no reason to avoid this shellfish. Researchers asked 18 men and women to eat large servings of steamed shrimp every day. To be precise, the sturdy participant ate more than 275 grams, or 30 to 40 shrimp, which was enough to give them nearly 600 milligrams of dietary cholesterol. This is double the daily limit recommended by the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

This might surprise you. Three weeks later, researchers took  blood samples from the volunteers and discoveries that their levels of low-density lipoprotein or LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol had jumped 7.1 percent, on average. While that may not sound like such great news, all that shrimp had an important benefit: the volunteers' levels of high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, which is good artery-clearing cholesterol, rose 12.1 percent.

In other words, eating shrimp actually improved the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol. Many cardiologists believe that this ratio is a better indicator of cardiovascular health than total cholesterol levels.

There are so many theories about health and cholesterol out there that it’s always reassuring when you find out some facts. If you enjoy shrimps you don’t have to feel bad when you enjoy a dish featuring this sea food; the cholesterol they contain actually promotes your health. These tips will provide you with useful knowledge for healthy - and tasty -  choices.