Cholesterol does not cause heart disease and foods high in cholesterol does not raise your cholesterol. Do I have everyone’s attention? Good.
We have been told for FOREVER that “cholesterol” is a swear word and should be avoided at all costs. When in fact, cholesterol from food virtually has NO effect on our cholesterol levels and it is one of our body’s saviors. Per usual, our bodies are incredibly intelligent and are wired to effectively keep our cholesterol levels in balance without our help. When we eat more cholesterol, our body produces less. When we eat less cholesterol, our body produces more. So no matter how hard you avoid cholesterol in your diet, your body will still produce it in order to function.
The trend (*and encouragement) of low-fat, low-cholesterol diets hav been fueled by bias, vested interests, and institutional momentum which our media, health organizations, and pharma companies have RAN with. But on what grounds?
For my evidence based homies out there, here are a few major studies that were done on the effect of cholesterol in our diets and what was ACTUALLY concluded:
The Framingham Heart Study: the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol.
The Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT): People who ate less animal fat and cholesterol actually had more serum cholesterol. We can’t survive without cholesterol, so the body will actually produce more when we eat less.
The Women’s Health Initiative (The longest and largest trial ever conducted on the connection between fat consumption and disease): 49,000 women were put on a low-fat diet and they did not lose weight, nor did they see a significant decrease in their risk for heart disease or cancer.
Whitehall Study: Followed 18,000 men over 10 years, asking half of them to reduce consumption of saturated fats/cholesterol and consume more unsaturated fats (vegetable oil/margarine) instead. After just ONE year, participants eating a diet low in saturated fats/cholesterol and high in vegetable oils and margarine had 100% more deaths than those who ate saturated fats/cholesterol.
So why are we still being told to eat diets low in fats and low in cholesterol ON TOP OF taking cholesterol lowering drugs? Ignorance and some blind faith in our historical “research” and biased data perhaps? Seems like quite the trend lately.
So if cholesterol doesn’t cause heart disease, what does? Chronic inflammation.
And what causes chronic inflammation?
A diet high in sugars and refined carbs (metabolic syndrome)
Which causes AGE formation that leads to atherosclerosis as well as a chronic deficiency in magnesium which plays a huge role in heart function and arterial muscle function.
Toxic chemicals (personal care products, cleaning products, pesticides on foods, chlorine, fluoride, etc.)
Trans fats, hydrogenated oils, and processed seed oils (canola oil, soybean oil, corn oil, vegetable oil, etc.)
Gut dysbiosis, leaky gut, etc. (COUGH, COUGH *GUT CHECK COURSE 😊)
Deficiencies in necessary vitamins
THE LIFE WE LIVE IN. (High stress, lot of processed foods, low movement)
Cholesterol is not the cause, it’s the response. For the sake of this argument, I’m going to paint you a picture. Cholesterol is the firefighter and chronic inflammation, plaques, and all of the consequences leading up to those are the “scene” or the “fire” if you will. When we chronically consume trans fats (canola oil), refined sugars, and processed foods- this causes a fire of chronic inflammation which leads to atherosclerotic plaques in our artery walls. Who is sent to save the day? CHOLESTEROL!!!!!
““When we have a high blood cholesterol level it means that the body is dealing with some damage. The last thing we should do is interfere with this process! When the damage has been dealt with, the blood cholesterol will naturally go down. If we have an ongoing disease in the body that constantly inflicts damage, then the blood cholesterol will be permanently high. So, when a doctor finds high cholesterol in a patient, what this doctor should do is to look for the reason. The doctor should ask, ‘What is damaging the body, so the liver has to produce all that cholesterol to deal with the damage?’ Unfortunately, instead of that, our doctors are trained to attack the cholesterol.” ”
Okay so now that we’ve determined cholesterol isn’t the bad guy, let’s highlight a few reasons why it’s the GOOD guy
Without it, your cells would lack the structure needed to function properly
It’s required for proper function of serotonin receptors (explains why low levels of cholesterol can lead to depression, violent behaviors, and suicide.)
It’s necessary for optimal growth and development (no wonder mother’s breast milk is so concentrated with it.)
Without it, your liver couldn’t create bile salts which would lead to digestive dysfunction on top of the inability to absorb nutrients
It helps keep your gut walls strong. Low cholesterol can lead to leaky gut, allowing for unwanted proteins and pathogens into the bloodstream
Without it, you can’t make estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, cortisol, etc. (Bye-bye sex drive, fertility, and stress responses.)
It’s required to make hormones called corticosteroids that prevent cancer and heart disease
Without it, you wouldn’t be able to produce vitamin D
Bottom line, we need cholesterol. We have been persuaded in the opposite direction by advertisements, popular media, and fiscally driven food and pharmaceutical companies which have made it near impossible to re-invent the idea that fats are good, and cholesterol is essential.
EAT THE EGGS, MEAT, AND SEAFOOD (*properly sourced of course) AND DITCH THE LOW-FAT, PROCESSED, CANOLA OIL FILLED BS. That’s the stuff that is going to put you in the hospital.