Cholesterol FREE peanut butter

Sounds good doesn't it? You might have seen this claim on your peanut butter jar. We've always heard fat and cholesterol is BAD for us, therefore consciously OR subconsciously when we purchase foods, snacks, drink, some of us tend to pick out the ones that are low in fat, low in cholesterol, fat free, and cholesterol free.

Food companies will try their best to advertise and to sell their products, to get your attention, to make you think you are making better choices. Let say you have two different peanut butter choices. One labeled/claimed to be cholesterol free and one didn't. Which one would you pick out from the shelf? Most of us will be drawn to the "cholesterol free" peanut butter, right? Without knowing, peanuts or any kinds of nuts has no cholesterol after all...

Story behind this post. Just a few days ago, my mother asked me if peanuts, almonds, nuts in general has cholesterol? I said no, food from plant sources do not have cholesterol. Remembered clearly one of my professors stresses this over and over again to us. She said if it's from animal YES, if it's from plant NO. But my mother said my grandpa's nutritionist advised him to cut down on nuts because nuts have cholesterol. I was like no no no, nuts came from plants, and therefore nuts are cholesterol free! Anyways, I began to doubt myself and so I decided to double check on this issue.

Lo and behold. Nuts are cholesterol free!!! Soybeans are cholesterol free. Seaweed is cholesterol free. Even coconut milk is cholesterol free. You can look em all up at the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory. Just type in the food that you want to look up, select the food group (or not) and click on submit. And then you can choose the amount of food. For example, coconut milk, you can look up the food composition in 100g of coconut milk OR a cup of coconut milk which is about 8 fl oz. Cool eh? You will find out all about coconut milk, how much fat, how much vitamin A, what's the break down on lipids and etc.

Here's something I think everyone should know. Cholesterol is actually not ALL bad, our body needs cholesterol to make steroid hormones like androgen and estrogen ; cholesterol is also a structural component of a cell membrane, amongst other functions. But too much cholesterol in the blood can cause some troubles. There are TWO sources of cholesterol. One, from dietary intake i.e. food. Two, our body makes it. Yes, our body makes cholesterol!

According to Harvard School of Public Health

While it is well known that high blood cholesterol levels are associated with an increased risk for heart disease, scientific studies have shown that there is only a weak relationship between the amount of cholesterol a person consumes and their blood cholesterol levels or risk for heart disease. For some people with high cholesterol, reducing the amount of cholesterol in the diet has a small but helpful impact on blood cholesterol levels. For others, the amount of cholesterol eaten has little impact on the amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood.

In a study of over 80,000 female nurses, Harvard researchers actually found that increasing cholesterol intake by 200 mg for every 1000 calories in the diet (about an egg a day) did not appreciably increase the risk for heart disease.

Go ahead! Read more about Fats and Cholesterol from their website. However, I am NOT saying that we should all go out and have a cholesterol fueled feast. Do keep "moderation" in mind.

PS. Whatever you do please don't EVER try fat free ice cream!!! They tasted nasty. LOL.