The biggest deception in medical history: Cholesterol is bad for you
We’ve heard it for several decades: saturated fat and cholesterol clog your arteries, make you fat and will give you a heart attack. It’s so ingrained in our psyche that we get a bit sweaty looking at our blood results and seeing ‘elevated LDL cholesterol’ scores. We run home and throw out the butter and the eggs (if these were in the fridge in the first place!) and buy a bottle of canola oil and margarine.
Many authors like Gary Taubes and prominent doctors have looked at the research in the last few years and realised that something just doesn’t add up. As the cardiologist interviewed in Catalyst said “I was operating on people who had a heart attack and had very low cholesterol!”.
When people started to uncover the truth about the flawed research that led to the dogma about saturated fats and cholesterol a light bulb went on: we’ve been eating fats for millions of years and cholesterol has never been a problem!
Again, a case of ‘our grandmas really did know best’.
A summary of key points about fats and cholesterol, mostly direct quotes from experts.
The assertion that cholesterol causes heart disease is 100% wrong.
The evidence for the ‘cholesterol hypothesis’ is poor and virtually non-existent’.
Cholesterol is essential for life: brain and nerve tissue and production of hormones. It’s so vital that every cell in the body produces it.
Major studies actually failed to prove that lowering cholesterol reduces heart attack risk.
The Heart Foundation admits there is ‘limited’ evidence to the premise that saturated fat and cholesterol causing heart disease.
Diet has VERY little influence over body cholesterol.
In the famous Framingham study in the US, the results showed that for people over 40 years old the higher the cholesterol level, the longer the life span: people who ate the most fat weighted less and were more active.
The Framingham study author stated that people ‘have been misled by the greatest scientific deception of our times- the notion that consumption of animal fat causes heart disease’
The ‘fat is bad for you’ dogma has led to the birth of the disastrous grain based food pyramid that is still the government recommendation and the heart foundation’s. This grain heavy way of eating has contributed to the rising obesity and diabetes epidemics and has greatly supported the heavily grain skewed agricultural industry in the US and other countries.
Neither saturated fat nor cholesterol deposit on the artery walls: “blaming cholesterol for causing plaques is like blaming the firemen for causing fires!- because they are the first at the scene”- here the cardiologist is referring to the fact that cholesterol is recruited by the body when there is inflammation and it is sent to the area of inflammation to ‘fix’ the issue.
Only oxidised cholesterol is dangerous, not purely ‘LDL’ cholesterol.
The focus of diet for heart health should be to eliminate overconsumption of sugary foods and limit stress- the two biggest contributors to inflammation in the body that ultimately leads to heart disease (as well as smoking, but that’s a very obvious one).
Polyunsaturated vegetable oils are highly pro-inflammatory- they are prone to oxidation (going rancid) and are easily damaged. Many of these are hydrogenated in margarine manufacturing, making them even more harmful.
Which brings us to: safe fats that we have been eating for all of human history and which are naturally available from the planet, not a factory:
The only stable fats to cook with are saturated- because they can be safely heated to high temperatures. Cook with ghee, butter and coconut oil. You can find coconut oil (cold pressed please) in all health food shops and even some bigger supermarkets/delis. Same with ghee (if lactose intolerant or dairy allergic).
If cooking on low temp and cooking fast good quality fresh olive oil is okay.
For dressings, salads, anything raw: olive oil, nut oils (eg: walnut, macadamia, etc)- need to make sure these are as fresh as possible, in dark bottles and consume them quickly. They are highly prone to oxidation (rancidity).
NEVER eat margarine. EVER.
DO NOT cook with canola, rapeseed, cotton seed, or any other ‘vegetable’ oil. These are highly processed, rancid oils not fit for human consumption!
All processed foods use vegetable oils in one form or another. Always read the labels. Same goes for take-away chips/fries.
Coconut oil is great for baking. It tastes amazing. It has lots of health benefits
And finally, for your next doctor’s visit…..
If you have a traditionally trained older physician as your family doctor, chances are that your assertions about ‘cholesterol and butter are good for me’ will be met with ‘everybody knows that cholesterol needs to be kept low, especially LDL’ or ‘you should swap your butter for polyunsaturated fats for your heart health’.
Tell them (with all due respect:) that this is complete rubbish.
Do your research, question everything and trust your grandmas!!
To your health,
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