Polyunsaturated oils that are hydrogenated can contain some trans fat, but it depends on the hydrogenation process that was used. Trans fat results when polyunsaturated oil (soybean) is partially hydrogenated in order to make it into stick margarine or solid shortening in a can. One polyunsaturated margarine though is now claiming to be trans fatty acid free. The FDA is considering requiring trans fatty acid levels to be listed on food labels, but currently does not require trans fat amounts. You can only tell if a margarine is trans fat free if the margarine has a claim on the label that says "trans fatty acid free".

Research has found that trans fatty acids increases the bad cholesterol and decreases the good cholesterol even though it started out as a good polyunsaturated fat before hydrogenation. One alternative is butter. but it is a saturated fat which increases the bad cholesterol in your blood.

If you are just concerned about eating mushrooms, they will not increase your cholesterol level unless you add fat, especially saturated fat like butter. Any vegetables or fruit other than avocado are very low in fat if boiled, baked or steamed without adding fat.

300 mg of cholesterol per day is the recommendation even for persons with elevated cholesterol. Just because the cholesterol in your diet contains 300 mg per day, does not correlate that 300 mg will end up in your blood. Your body uses cholesterol to make bile that breaks down fats, seeds and skins as well as make some hormones you need.

Not all the cholesterol in your blood comes from the cholesterol you eat. In fact, your liver knows how to make cholesterol and does so depending on your body's need for cholesterol based substances like hormones and bile. Some researchers have proven that blood cholesterol is fueled more by liver produced cholesterol than cholesterol from food.

If your LDL is high, then I would recommend that you exercise and substitute monounsaturated fats like olive oil and peanut oil for the fats you currently use. Your weight is appropriate for your height and you have a healthy BMI so you don't need to adjust your calorie intake, just the kind of fats you eat.

If you are unsure contact your local Registered Dietitian. If you don't have a dietitian, please call your doctor, local hospital or medical clinic and ask for a referral.

Actually, underweight is an asset to longer life, but your healthy weight is 139 - 169. When you add your data to the Healthy Body Calculator, select to gain 1 pound per week.

Since you are underweight, use mono- and polyunsaturated fats, limit egg yolks. Your elevated cholesterol must be genetic. You also need to keep your fat calories to less than 30% of all the calories you eat. More lean poultry and fish, starches, breads, low fat or non-fat dairy products, fruits and vegetables should help you gain weight. Maybe you need larger portions or snacks between meals.

Do you exercise? A regular program of 30 minutes of exercise 5 times per week may help lower your cholesterol and raise your HDL cholesterol (good kind). Also, exercise, especially weight lifting would push the weight gain toward muscle instead of body fat. Lastly, exercise stresses bones and helps keep them strong, dense and less likely to break.

Peanuts contain mono-unsaturated fats, which in addition to olive oil are considered the best fats to eat. The question is how does the peanut butter sandwich effect your calories intake which is reflected in your weight? If your weight is in a healthy range, no problem with the peanut butter sandwich. If you are overweight, then you should take a look at all the foods you eat.

Rice pudding made with 1% milk is OK, but evaporated skim would be better. When you say custard, I assume that eggs are added to the milk and sugar to make the custard. Whether you use eggs or egg substitutes depends on your cholesterol. If it is below 200 and you limit your egg yolks to less than 4 per week, then the pudding and custard is OK. If your cholesterol is above 200 and you eat more than 4 egg yolks per week, then I would change the custard recipe to an egg substitute.

Again, how does your eating rice pudding effect your calorie intake and body weight? Answer is the same as peanut butter sandwich above. Just remember that anything eaten to excess can be "fattening" even if it is a healthy food.

Actually, now that you are older than 60 and a male, your risk of a heart attack is lower. Generally, cholesterol levels are less important for persons 60 and older. Though, you could still follow a healthy diet of sufficient calories to maintain a healthy weight and limit fat to less than 30% of calories.

Have you tried the Healthy Body Calculator to find out how many calories, grams of fat and cholesterol you should eat? You can also choose to lose 1 or 2 pounds per week to get to a healthy weight and adjust the percent fat. Don't forget to exercise.

Both drugs are effective at reducing blood cholesterol levels and work similarly.

Current recommendations are for cholesterol levels to be below 200 in the US. Exercise and weight loss seem to help reduce blood cholesterol levels. You didn't say if you are eating a low saturated fat diet (less than 10% of calories or 11 grams saturated fat per 1,000 calories) as this is the preferred diet to reduce cholesterol.

There are many low fat cookbooks out there. Look for one that gives you the calories, grams of fat and saturated fat per serving and is written by a person with professional cooking education or experience. Otherwise, you are taking a gamble as to whether the recipes taste good or not. Some food companies like Pillsbury and General Mills also have low fat cookbooks too.

I don't know of any sources that provide menus. But you could use nutritional analysis software to track your food intake, analyze your recipes and create menus with foods you like.

There is no rule of thumb for calculating saturated fat as a percent of total fat as the food source determines saturated fat content. Saturated fat is found mostly in animal foodstuffs, but it is also found in tropical oils like palm kernel and coconut oil.

I checked a nutrition analysis software and found that 1/2 broiled chicken breast with skin had 157 calories with 2 gm saturated fat and without the skin, 115 calories with 1 gm saturated fat. Interestingly, chicken has almost as much monounsaturated fat as saturated fat whether you eat the skin or not!

As to your high triglycerides, you should eliminate alcohol and simple sugars to get your triglycerides down. The fat content of your diet should be less than 30% of your total calories. If you are overweight, you should lose weight. Saturated fat, total fat and weight loss need to be controlled to lower your cholesterol. Look for nutrition analysis software that will track your calories, saturated fat, percent fat and alcohol.

As to sources of saturated fat info. on the net, most are government databases in 100-gram portions (3 1/2 ounces) and I am not aware of any look up nutritional tables with edible portions of foods.

Blood cholesterol level norms are less than 200 milligrams per deciliter. Norms for HDL are greater than 35 milligrams per deciliter (30 to 75 for males and 40 to 90 for females). HDL is the good cholesterol. Norms for LDL are less than 130 milligrams per deciliter, 130 to 150 is considered borderline elevated and greater than 160 high risk. LDL is the bad cholesterol that sticks to arterial walls and narrows the artery (like a clogged drainpipe).

At 43, your HDL's are good.

I cannot recommend a specific brand to you. However, look for a margarine with a liquid oil as the first ingredient on the food label. Oils that are high in polyunsaturated fat are safflower, sunflower, soybean, corn and cottonseed. Polyunsaturated fats help lower blood cholesterol levels. The margarine will also contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (usually soybean) to harden the margarine and keep it in a stick form. Look at the ingredients of the margarine you are using.

A new controversy for margarine brands is trans fatty acids which are formed when liquid oils are hydrogenated to make stick margarine and shortening. The shape of the fat molecules gets twisted into a trans shape. Research has found that trans fatty acids increase LDL (bad cholesterol) and decrease HDL (good cholesterol). If you quit using stick margarine and solid shortening, the effect of the trans fatty acids on cholesterol will leave after 6 months according to Dr. Kritchevsky. By the way, the new food label does list saturated fats, but only one brand (Promise stick margarine) lists trans fatty acid content as it is not required on the current food label.

Polyunsaturated margarine, if left at room temperature, will usually melt in the summer. Polyunsaturated fats are usually liquid at room temperature. Whereas, cholesterol and saturated fat are usually solid at room temperature.

You should be able to find several good low cholesterol, low saturated fat margarine in your grocery store. Take a look at the ingredients in your store's brand. You don't have to buy nationally advertised brands to find one low in cholesterol and saturated fat.

Eggs are not bad for you, but egg yolks are high in cholesterol. The latest nutritional analysis by the USDA shows that an egg yolk actually has about 213 milligrams of cholesterol which is much lower than the previous value of 274 milligrams in USDA's Agriculture Handbook 8-1 from 1976. This is interesting since we use to advise people to keep their blood cholesterol under 250. Now we recommend that persons keep their blood cholesterol under 200. The American Heart Association recommends low cholesterol, low saturated fat diet to prevent heart disease.

Persons on a low cholesterol diet are limited to four egg yolks per week. However, just limiting egg yolks does not prevent heart attacks or cause weight loss.

You should be more afraid of any diet that tells you to eat one food for the diet to succeed in weight loss. There is no one magic food that causes weight loss or burns fat more efficiently. There have been grapefruit diets, vinegar and lecithin diets, fruit diets and egg diets. The list goes on and on. Any diet will achieve weight loss if the diet is lower in calories than how much you currently eat. However, the diet that succeeds in the long term is a weight loss diet that teaches you to permanently change your eating habits by eating less and exercising more.

Since I cannot recommend specific brands to you, I will tell you which margarine to look for in the grocery store.

The cholesterol is lowest in margarine made with liquid oil from safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, soybean or corn. Read the label and look for one of these oils listed as the first ingredient.

If the label says hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, it contains some saturated fat. Sometimes, margarine is hydrogenated for convenience to make them stay in a convenient stick form. This process of hydrogenation makes the margarine higher in saturated fat. People who eat diets higher in saturated fats and cholesterol tend to have higher blood cholesterol levels and an increased chance of having a heart attack.

To answer your second question, yes it is important for you to use low cholesterol margarine especially considering your family history. You should also drink only skim milk, cut all fat off your meat, limit meat to 6 ounces per day and limit egg yolks to four per week. Because some of our diets are high in animal fats, we need polyunsaturated margarine, oils and salad dressings made with polyunsaturates to help offset the negative effects of saturated fats found in animal fats. But all fat from all sources should be limited to less than 8 teaspoons per day. Try limiting added fats and dressings to 2 teaspoons per meal for four meals per day.

Even though you don't think you use much butter, most people do not count how many sticks of butter they use per week. Divide the number of sticks you use per week by how many people ate that week. This might surprise you especially if you do a lot of cooking or baking. Butter contains saturated fat. Also, you haven't considered the invisible cholesterol (marbling in meats, egg yolks, liver, ice cream, lunchmeats and sausages) that contribute a significant amount of cholesterol to your diet. You would do better to eliminate the visible cholesterol in butter and limit your intake of the invisible cholesterol found in fatty meats, whole, 2 percent and 1 percent milk.

A heart attack doesn't just happen one day because of what you ate. It is the result of your life long eating habits, weight control and exercise. It's not too late for you to work to prevent a heart attack. Start today because you didn't get to choose parents who had a low risk of heart disease.