Dietician Unit Manager of Bank Hospital, Ernestina Eduful has revealed that taking oils does not necessarily increase cholesterol contrary to popular belief.

Rather, overheating and overusing the oil would most likely shoot up cholesterol levels when consumed.

She explained that when oil overheats and smokes, the fatty acids are denatured and when consumed, the cholesterol levels of a person may rise.

Madam Eduful also said that irregular mode of eating especially by working-class individuals can easily shoot up their cholesterol levels.

“So when you stay hungry for very prolonged periods, you’re always in a fasting mode even when you’re not fasting because you eat breakfast and skip lunch or you don’t eat breakfast and you eat lunch very late, that practice causes your body to produce more cholesterol” Ernestina indicated.

Speaking on Prime Morning, the Dietician said that ideally breakfast should be taken within two hours after waking up, lunch could be taken 4-6 hours after breakfast and dinner could be taken at least 4-6 hours after eating lunch.

She also mentioned that diabetics must try and avoid consuming refined sugars and any other substance that has high sugar content or sweeteners. She claimed that in place of sugar, they can resort to certain fruits and nuts or vegetables to spice up their diet in a healthy way.

“Refined sugars include white sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, high fructose corn syrup, or any foods we eat that has added sugars, so whenever you’re taking these foods, you should be mindful that they’re not healthy so it should be little or without”, she advised.

However, with regard to the fruit intake, she advised that people should preferably go for fruits with low glycemic index (GI) which is, fruits that when consumed, slowly breaks down and cause a gradual rise in blood sugar levels over time and not ones that will quickly break down and cause a rapid rise in blood sugar levels (High glycemic index).

“We should be careful with the fruits and not just judge them with their sweetness, watermelon unfortunately even though it’s not sweet, it can make the blood sugars go up because it has high glycemic index”, she advised

Eating a balanced diet per meal is one great way to prevent sugar spikes in our blood. Ernestina also encouraged individuals to completely avoid smoking and reduce their alcohol intake or completely stay away from it as they are great causes of diabetes.