Cholesterol - Enemy or Friend?
All the media hype about cholesterol makes it an "enemy", which is just not so. Cholesterol is a fat that's a precursor to several hormones necessary to life. As a matter of fact, sunlight on the skin changes cholesterol into vitamin D. So, without cholesterol, we're in trouble.
As usual, Big Pharma is a major part of the problem. Their drugs (statins) that lower cholesterol are big money makers, so they have a vested intrest in "scaring" us into taking them. And they have been doing that for many years with more phony research showing that high cholesterol will kill us. The facts are the opposite. A cholesterol level above 300 is actually better than a lower one. The largely ignored research shows clearly that levels around 160 or so are more likely to have severe heart attacks.
So, if cholesterol is "good" what's all the hullabaloo about? Well, it seems that some researchers found that high levels of cholesterol in the blood correlate to high incidence of heart problems. Also, artery plaque is composed of cholesterol (and other fats) along with calcium. Many medical researchers immediately "jumped" to the (wrong) conclusion that cholesterol was "bad".
Lots of articles came out in various magazines written by so-called medical "experts". The upshot was that foods that contain cholesterol were "banned" by many MD's. These included eggs, butter, cheeses and meats. Actually, eggs are the most perfect food. In one case, kidnapped victims were fed only hard boiled eggs for a long period of captivity, and when finally released, they were in better health that before the ordeal.
Butter is much better for us than margarines. To make oils into fats, nickel is involved, and that's toxic to some extent, and the oils used are not nearly as healthy as plain old butter.
Once upon a time, there was a cardiac specialist MD who had high levels of cholesterol. He also had a family history of heart problems (a good reason to go into cardiac specialty just as some psychiatrists and psychologists go into their professions because of personal mental problems). He stopped eating any cholesterol-laden foods and continually tested his levels. He was very surprised to find that his cholesterol didn't drop. He was a bit smarter than the rest and he did more research and found that 80% of the cholesterol in the blood is manufactured in the liver and is NOT derived directly from the cholesterol in food. And, that's not a fairy story!!
So, if the liver makes it, why does it go high? To understand this, you need a bit more information. When you eat something, it is broken down into very small bits in order to pass thru the intestinal walls. (See Digestion). Protein is broken down into individual amino acids, starch is broken into various sugars and fats are broken down into various fatty acids.
Next, lets look at sugar which is the real culprit. When starches are broken down into sugars, they in turn, are changed to glucose, which the body needs for energy. Once the glucose is in the blood stream, it is literally forced into all cells in the body by insulin. If you are running a marathon, your body uses it as energy. BUT, if you are watching TV, you don't need energy, so the cell converts this into "future" energy by changing it into a fatty acid and ejects it back into the bloodstream. Depending on several factors, this fatty acid can be any combination of three types. The term "triglycerides" means 3 fatty acids.
Now, the liver "sees" this triglycerides level rising and it starts to use some of these "fats" to make cholesterol in order to "balance" these levels. This is why high cholesterol levels are linked to high triglycerides levels.
At the turn of the last century, the average person in the US ate 5-10 lbs of sugar PER YEAR. Today, it's up to over 200 lbs a year. If you want to correlate things, correlate this - in Africa among poor persons who eat a diet literally free of sugar, there is NO diabetes, NO occluded arteries, NONE of our "civilized diseases". If these "poor" persons are "Helped" to eat a modern diet full of sugar, they develop all these diseases. Now, that's a correlation.
There's another correlation that I use as an analogy. People who drive older used cars have lower cholesterol than people who drive new luxury cars. The moral - don't drive a new luxury car! Of course, it has nothing to do with the car, but the correlation is generally true simply because the people who drive a luxury car eat more sugar laden diets. It's the same thing with foods containing cholesterol. (Another might be drawn about poorer families, including blacks, that develop as better athletes!) Is sugar a real enemy? You make up your own mind. I'm addicted to it and so are most of the people I know.
Eggs are not eaten by millions of people because the medical profession in it's usual wrongheadedness (fostered by the lies and phony research spread by Big Pharma) trumpeted that correlation and the media made it worse, (also as usual). In fact, eggs are the most perfect food for humans. Measured on a scale of 100, eggs rate 100, and all other foods only reach 99 or less. Eggs actually contain lecithin, another fat that actually lowers cholesterol. (Remember the dieter who drinks a diet soda with his doughnut so it doesn't count. Not the same!)
A study in England reported in the Lancet, 30 or so years ago, found that persons who ate 6 eggs per week had lower cholesterol than persons who ate none. Several studies have also shown that persons who eat butter live longer and better than those who eat margarine. Margarine has nickel (used to make oils into fats) and it has close to the same fatty acid content as butter. (Of course US Med Journals have ignored these because their "life" depends on Big Pharma advertising).
I personally eat eggs 4-5 times per week and we use only butter in our house. Of course, I also take even more than the recommended vitamin/mineral supplements. See Vitamins/Minerals for this list and that undoubtedly helps me. From all the research I've done and read, that's one man's educated opinion, you make up your own mind.
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