The cholesterol myth

You know how people say that animal fat and cholesterol is dangerous to your heart and vessels? Yeah, well thats nothing but a myth!

Cholesterol is a vital substance to your cells, it’s not a poison, and there’s no such thing as “good” or “bad” cholesterol. The idea that dietary saturated fats and cholesterol clog arteries and cause atherosclerosis (arteriosclerotic vascular disease or ASVD) and heart disease is false!

Here are some facts exposing the cholesterol myth.

1. A high blood cholesterol is said to promote atherosclerosis and thus also coronary heart disease. But many studies have shown that people whose blood cholesterol is low become just as atherosclerotic as people whose cholesterol level is high.
2. Your body produces 3-4 times more cholesterol than you eat. The production of cholesterol increases when you eat a little cholesterol and decreases when you eat much. This explains why the “prudent” diet cannot lower cholesterol more than on average a few percent.
3. There is evidence that too much animal fat and cholesterol in the diet promotes atherosclerosis or heart attacks. For instence, more than 20 studies have shown that people who have had a heart attack haven’t eaten more fat of any kind than other people, and degree of atherosclerosis at autopsy is unrelated with the diet.
4. The only effective way to lower cholesterol is with drugs, but neither heart mortality or total mortality have been improved with drugs, the effect of which is cholesterol-lowering only. On the contrary, these drugs are dangerous to your health and may shorten your life.
5. The new cholesterol-lowering drugs, the statins, do prevent cardio-vascular disease, but this is due to other mechanisms than cholesterol-lowering. Unfortunately, they also stimulate cancer in rodents, disturb the functions of the muscles, the heart and the brain and pregnent women taking statins may give birth to children with malformations more severe than those seen after thalidomide.

These facts have been around in scientific journals and books for decades so why weren’t we told?

If you would like to find out more about the cholesterol myths you should read the books of Uffe Ravnskov, he really did his homework on the subject.

Your friend in the wind.

-Baily