Cholesterol and Diet

[Joe]

I had dinner with a friend last night, a retired chemist. The topic turned to cholesterol, especially as might show up in a blood test. She told me that it is a myth that your dietary intake of fats or cholesterol determines your blood cholesterol. Even if you consume no fat or cholesterol, your body might make some from the other ingredients in your diet or materials in your body (fat stores?).

Does anyone know anything ab out this? What does the latest research say?

 

[yakherder]

It is at this point highly debated so you're not gonna find a consensus, but what your friend says is not baseless. I don't have any sources on hand, but from what I've read over the past few years I've come to believe the following:

° Dietary cholesterol does have some effect on cholesterol overall, but not much of an effect on bad cholesterol.
° Sugar, or any fructose based sweetener, has more to do with increasing bad cholesterol than dietary fat or cholesterol.
° Cholesterol lowering meds are linked to lower heart disease rates, but not necessarily because they lower cholesterol.

Wish I could give you more, but again it's highly debated. I will say this, however. Attempts to reduce bad cholesterol through decreased intake of dietary fats and cholesterol have generally been a dismal failure, and people who have nearly eliminated cholesterol and saturated fats from their diets often still suffer from bad cholesterol levels.

 

[flyingsnail]

Not everyone's cholesterol levels respond the same to fats and dietary cholesterol which complications matters, but the idea that how much and what types of fat you eat and dietary cholesterol have no impact on your cholesterol levels is entirely baseless. There are numerous studies that demonstrate how dietary cholesterol and dietary fats impact, in general, one's cholesterol levels. Despite an active campaign by the meat and dairy industry to distort the science, how much saturated fat you eat (especially animal based) is one of the biggest dietary factors that impact your cholesterol levels.'

But with cholesterol, its not just that some types of food tend to raise cholesterol but also that others tend to lower it. For example cholesterol is eliminated in the digestive track and as a result foods with compounds that bind with cholesterol and/or speed up the transit time in your digestive track tend to reduce cholesterol.....whole grains and legumes seem to be particularly effective at this.