Cholesterol facts for kids

Cholesterol is a type of fat, also called a lipid, that is super important for your body! You can find it in the outer layer (called the cell membrane) of almost every cell in your body. It's also carried around in your blood. Animals, including humans, have cholesterol, and even plants have tiny amounts.

The word "cholesterol" comes from ancient Greek. Chole means "bile" (a liquid made in your liver), and stereos means "solid." The ending -ol means it's an alcohol. Scientists first found cholesterol as a solid in gallstones way back in 1784!

Your body makes most of the cholesterol it needs. You also get some from the foods you eat. For a long time, people thought that eating more cholesterol would always raise the cholesterol levels in your blood. But now we know it's a bit more complicated than that!

Cholesterol can't dissolve in your blood by itself. So, it travels around in special packages called lipoproteins. These are like tiny balls with a watery outside and a fatty inside.

You might have heard about "good cholesterol" and "bad cholesterol." These are actually types of lipoproteins. "Bad cholesterol" usually refers to LDL. Too much LDL can be harmful. "Good cholesterol" refers to HDL, which is thought to be helpful for your body.

Where Does Cholesterol Come From?

Cholesterol is found in foods that come from animals. So, if a food has animal fats, it has cholesterol! Foods that don't have animal fats, like most plant-based foods, have very little or no cholesterol.

Common Food Sources

Some common foods that have cholesterol include:

• Eggs
• Beef
• Poultry (like chicken or turkey)

Even if someone eats a vegan diet, which means no animal products at all, they might still get tiny, tiny traces of cholesterol from plants. But these amounts are super small. For example, the amount of cholesterol in one egg is about the same as what you'd find in almost 10 liters of pure peanut oil!

Images for kids

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  The chemical structure of cholesterol.

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  A 3D model showing the shape of a cholesterol molecule.

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  How fats (lipids) and cholesterol travel in your body using lipoproteins like VLDL, LDL, and HDL.

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  This chart shows how cholesterol levels might relate to health for men and women around 60 years old.

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  This chart shows normal and healthy levels of HDL, LDL, and total cholesterol found in blood tests.

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  A guide to converting cholesterol units.

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  A space-filling model of the cholesterol molecule, showing how much space each atom takes up.