The Low Down on Cholesterol
Filed under: General Health, Nutrition
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As many of you probably read Tony Gentilcore’s scathing blog post the other day on eggs, cholesterol and why the cashier’s at Trader Joe’s suck, I am going to continue in the “cholesterol from your diet raises your blood cholesterol and causes heart disease theme.”
I just finished reading Dr. Jonny Bowden’s revised new edition of Living Low Carb. It is an excellent book that covers a lot of reasons why reducing carb intake, and improving carb sources, will go a long way to maximizing your health. He also busts some myths, gives supplement advice, and analyzes popular low-carb diets (he gave Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic, a friend and colleague of mine, the top recommendation for her wonderful book Women’s Health Perfect Body Diet).
In Living Low Carb Dr. Bowden throws out some awesome information that really helps to show why the intense focus on saturated fat, cholesterol and heart disease is misguided. Today we are going to focus more on the dietary cholesterol side of things.
He references the enormous and long-term Framingham Heart Study, one of the largest studies ever undertaken to prove the point.
|
Cholesterol Intake |
Average Cholesterol From Food |
Below Average Cholesterol From Food |
Above Average Cholesterol From Food |
|
|
|
Blood Cholesterol |
|
|
|
mg/day |
mmol/L |
mmol/L |
|
Men |
704 ± 221 |
6.16 |
6.16 |
|
Women |
492 ± 170 |
6.37 |
6.26 |
This data clearly shows, from hundreds of thousands of people, that on average, dietary cholesterol intake had no impact on blood levels of cholesterol. People who ate below the average amount of cholesterol or above it had equal blood cholesterol levels. The body has a negative feedback system. When we consume more cholesterol, we produce less (granted there are people who’s system is broken, but they are the exception, not the rule).
We also have some similar info from another large-scale long-term study, the Tecumseh study.
|
Blood Cholesterol in Thirds |
Lower |
Middle |
Upper |
|
Daily Intake of Cholesterol (mg) |
554 |
566 |
533 |
Oddly enough, or probably not so odd, people in the upper 33% of blood cholesterol levels had the lowest cholesterol intake from their diet, showing yet again that dietary cholesterol intake has little to no impact on blood cholesterol levels.
Even Ancel Keys, the misguided creator of all this saturated fat/cholesterol causes heart disease nonsense, stated, in 1991 no less, “There’s no connection whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in blood and we’ve known that all along. Cholesterol in the diet doesn’t matter unless you happen to be a chicken or a rabbit.”
Well that statement was only 40 years late and after we had become a nation obsessed with the wrong data, but we seem to finally to heading in the right direction.
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 by Brian St. Pierre
6 Comments
September 22nd, 2010 at 9:16 am
[...] I actually showed just a snippet of data that disproved the idea that dietary cholesterol contributes to blood cholesterol right here. [...]
September 22nd, 2010 at 10:43 am
[...] I actually showed just a snippet of data that disproved the idea that dietary cholesterol contributes to blood cholesterol right here. [...]
May 3rd, 2012 at 11:17 am
[...] check out this article, written by Adam Bornstein as well as the following posts (here, here, and here) by Brian St. [...]
January 26th, 2013 at 7:18 pm
[...] the / dynamite. Here are more articles regarding the function and myths regarding cholesterol: Here. And here. Now that we know a bit more background information regarding the truth about [...]
October 18th, 2017 at 1:51 pm
Simplemesmente fantástica esta dica, com certeza irei fazer aqui em casa. Muito bom o site, vocês estão de parabens!
October 18th, 2017 at 2:41 pm
Simplemesmente fantástica esta dica, com certeza irei fazer aqui em casa. Muito bom o site, vocês estão de parabens!