Can you eat pork when you have cholesterol?

To maintain good cardiovascular health and in particular good cholesterol levels, you must pay attention to your diet.. Particularly for people withhypercholesterolemia. We often hear, for example, that these people should avoid red meats, including pork. What is it really?

Rightly or wrongly, “pork can have a bad reputation,” explains dietician Corinne Fernandez. We think of fatty piecesor even to processed meat. As the dietitian explains, it is a meat “rich in saturated fatsof the lipids which cause bad cholesterol (LDL) to rise in the metabolism. »

It is therefore legitimate to think that pork should be limited in cases of cholesterol. But the answer needs to be qualified. “The effect depends on the pieces consumed », specifies the dietitian.

Sausage, bacon, ham, do they have the same benefits as a filet mignon or roast pork? For Corinne Fernandez, it is necessary differentiate pork-based cold cuts from pork meat in itself.

For some time now, nutritionists have advised avoiding cold meats as much as possible, whether they are pork-based or not, because of their nitrite contentfood additives recognized as carcinogenic. But these foods should also be avoided “because of their salt content, which is harmful to cardiovascular health”.

Contrary to what one might believe, “the pork baconit’s the loin, a piece that is not fatty. We can therefore eat it when we have cholesterol,” says Corinne Fernandez.

The bacon or the sausage are in comparison much more harmful for cardiovascular health because of their saturated fat content which can cause cholesterol.

Be careful, however, if you order your bacon from the butcher, “make sure that the latter does not choose the chesta fattier piece of the animal.”

Bacon, even if it has no impact on cholesterol, is also “quite rich in salt, which can affect hypertension, and therefore cardiovascular health,” recalls the nutritionist. It should not be abused.

If the breeding conditions obviously have a role to play, the changes in the lipid composition of the pig are not that important. However, “it is always recommended to turn to a free-range pig », assure Corinne Fernandez.

A person with hypercholesterolemia should then look for:

For cooking, “oven, roast or steam do the job perfectly”. The whole point is to avoid “frying, barbecue cooking, and prioritize gentle cooking instead.”

Namely, it is also not advisable to remove all the fat from the dish. “Fat, in small quantities, is not serious,” says Corinne Fernandez. And if we choose good fatsit’s even better! “Olive oil, walnut oil, can be used.” Be careful, however, not to bathe the meat in oil.

For Corinne Fernandez, we should eat pork meat “ two to three times a weekwith a maximum of 150 g per serving. These recommendations obviously depend on the size of the person, their age and their needs.

An elderly person will especially need to pay attention to their consumption. “With age, fat metabolism changes. Elderly people may experience digestion problems when eating certain parts of pork.

And finally, people presenting digestive disorders must also pay attention to their consumption of pork, “since a greater quantity of fat accentuates digestive problems”.