REVIVE YOURSELF SHOP
“When cholesterol intake in the diet goes down, the body makes more. When cholesterol intake in the diet goes up, the body makes less.”
Most of us grew up being told that foods like red meat, eggs and bacon raise our cholesterol levels.
This notion has been spouted so often that it is deeply ingrained in our cultural psyche. So much so that few people even question it. But is it really true?
The diet-heart hypothesis – which holds that eating cholesterol and saturated fat raises cholesterol in our blood – originated with studies in both animals and humans more than half a century ago. However, more recent (and higher quality) evidence doesn’t support these findings.
On any typical day, we have between 1,100 and 1,700 milligrams of cholesterol in our body. 25% of that comes from our diet, and 75% is produced inside of our bodies by the liver.
The majority of cholesterol that is found in food cannot be absorbed by our bodies.
Most of the cholesterol in our gut was first synthesised in body cells and ended up in the gut via the liver and gall bladder.
We now know that the body closely regulates the amount of cholesterol in the blood by controlling internal production.
This means…
When cholesterol intake in the diet goes down, the body makes more. When cholesterol intake in the diet goes up, the body makes less.
This then shows us why in well designed cholesterol feeding studies (where volunteers were fed 2-4 eggs a day and their cholesterol was measured) show that dietary cholesterol has almost no impact on blood cholesterol levels in about 75% of the population.
The remaining 25% of the population are referred to as “hyper-responders”.
In this group, dietary cholesterol does modestly increase both LDL (“bad cholesterol” and HDL (“good cholesterol”) – neither of which are actually cholesterol by the way but that’s for another time – but it does not affect the ratio of LDL to HDL or increase the risk of heart disease.
In other words, eating cholesterol isn’t going to give you a heart attack! It never has and never will.
So you can ditch the egg-white omelettes and start eating yolks again.
And that’s a very good thing for two reasons.
1. Egg whites eaten in their own are one of the most allergenic foods on the planet.
2. All of the 13 essential nutrients eggs contain are found in the yolk.
In fact if you want to be healthy consuming high quality saturated fats is essential.
After the brain, the organs hungriest for cholesterol are our endocrine glands: adrenals and sex glands.
They produce steroid hormones. Steroid hormones in the body are made from cholesterol: testosterone, progesterone, pregnenolone, androsterone, estrone, estradiol, corticosterone, aldosterone and others.
These hormones accomplish a myriad of functions in the body, from regulation of our metabolism, energy production, mineral assimilation, brain, muscle and bone formation to behavior, emotions and reproduction.
In our stressful modern lives we consume a lot of these hormones, leading to a condition called “adrenal exhaustion.”
This condition is diagnosed very often by naturopaths and other health practitioners.
There are many herbal preparations on the market for adrenal exhaustion. However, the most important therapeutic measure is to provide your adrenal glands with plenty of dietary cholesterol.
Without cholesterol we would not be able to have children because every sex hormone in our bodies is made from cholesterol.
A fair percentage of our infertility epidemic can be laid at the doorstep of the diet-heart hypothesis.
The more eager we became to fight animal fats and cholesterol, the more problems with normal sexual development, fertility and reproduction we started to face.
About a third of western men and women are infertile, and increasing numbers of our youngsters are growing up with abnormalities in their sex hormones. These abnormalities lead to many physical problems.
Cholesterol is essential for our immune system to function properly.
Animal experiments and human studies have demonstrated that immune cells rely on cholesterol in fighting infections and repairing themselves after the fight.
In addition, LDL-cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol), the so-called “bad” cholesterol, directly binds and inactivates dangerous bacterial toxins, preventing them from doing any damage in the body.
One of the most lethal toxins is produced by a widely spread bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, which is the cause of MRSA (Methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a common hospital infection.
This toxin can literally dissolve red blood cells. However, it does not work in the presence of LDL-cholesterol. People who fall prey to this toxin have low blood cholesterol.
It has been recorded that people with high levels of cholesterol are protected from infections; they are four times less likely to contract AIDS, they rarely get common colds and they recover from infections more quickly than people with “normal” or low blood cholesterol.
People with low blood cholesterol are prone to various infections, suffer from them longer and are more likely to die from an infection.
Why does the liver send cholesterol to the site of the injury? Because the body cannot clear the infection, remove toxic elements or heal the wound without cholesterol and fats. Any healing involves the birth, growth and functioning of thousands of cells: immune cells, endothelial cells and many others. As these cells, to a considerable degree, are made out of cholesterol and fats, they cannot form and grow without a good supply of these substances. When the cells are damaged, they require cholesterol and fats to repair themselves. It is a scientific fact that any scar tissue in the body contains good amounts of cholesterol.
Another scientific fact is that cholesterol acts as an antioxidant in the body, dealing with free radical damage.
Any wound in the body contains plenty of free radicals because the immune cells use these highly reactive molecules for destroying microbes and toxins. Excess free radicals have to be neutralized, and cholesterol is one of the natural substances that accomplishes this function.
When we have surgery, our tissues are cut and many small arteries, veins and capillaries get damaged. The liver receives a very strong signal from this damage, so it floods the body with LDL-cholesterol to clean and heal every little wound in our blood vessels. That is why blood cholesterol goes high after any surgical procedure.
After dental treatment, in addition to the damage to the tissues, a lot of bacteria from the tooth and the gums finish up in the blood, attacking the inside walls of our blood vessels. Once again, the liver gets a strong signal from that damage and produces lots of healing cholesterol to deal with it, so the blood cholesterol goes up.
In conclusion, cholesterol is one of the most important substances in the body.
We cannot live without it, let alone function well.
The pernicious diet-heart hypothesis has vilified this essential substance. Unfortunately, this hypothesis has served many commercial and political interests far too well, so they ensure its long survival.
However, the life of the diet-heart hypothesis is coming to an end as we become aware that cholesterol has been mistakenly blamed for the crime just because it was found at the scene.
If you want a life full of vibrant health, high quality saturated fats are one thing you don’t want to cut out of your diet.
Health & Happiness
Ryan
*If you have been struggling with your own health issues and would like to see if or how we could help you then click the link here, fill out the form and Ryan or one of the team will be in touch as soon as possible.
