Is Cholesterol Bad?
Is Cholesterol Bad?
Myth: Cholesterol is bad.
Fact: Every cell in our body is formed with lipids (fat) around the outside wall. Your brain is made up of fatty matter.
“Numerous reports and studies indicate that LOW levels of blood cholesterol are associated with increased rates of depression mood disorders, aggressive or disorganized behavior, violence, stroke, and suicide. People with chronically low cholesterol levels often show decreased serotonin levels. Cholesterol serves as a precursor for most all steroid hormones such as pregnenolone, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, and cortisol–all of which can affect mood and behavior.”
Myth: LDL is the bad cholesterol.
Fact: Low Density Lipids primarily carry cholesterol from the liver (where most of the body’s cholesterol is synthesized) to the peripheral tissues including the blood vessel walls. They are the repair lipids sent to repair inflammation and damage. They aren’t inherently bad, but the inflammation they are repairing is.
Myth: Fat and cholesterol clog your heart.
Fact: A complex combination of scar tissue, cholesterol, platelets, calcium, triglycerides, and white blood cells are attracted to the site in order to attempt to repair injured or deteriorating vessels. Cholesterol is one substance in the plaques used to patch or repair damages or fragile areas of arterial walls. Blood vessels are in trouble BEFORE cholesterol-containing plaques appear. The plaques are the means by which the body is attempting to prevent leakage and death. Where there is damage or deterioration of arterial walls, the inflammatory response is a protective and proactive attempt by the body to strengthen and repair tissues. As one pathologist put it, cholesterol does not cause plaqueing any more than the white blood cells cause an abcess.
*****What IS causing damage to the arteries?
Sugar and seed oils. Sugar and seed oils combine forces to destroy lipoproteins. Seed oils, when they are cooked turn into mega trans fats which are free radicals in the body. Free radicals are high-energy electrons that cause damage to every tissue they come in contact with. These oils are causing deterioration of the blood vessels and arteries. That’s when the cholesterol sweeps in to repair the tissues. Sugar encrusts the delicate equipment responsible for getting the lipoproteins into hungry cells. “These damaged sputniks falling out of orbit, crash land on the inside of your arteries.” (b)
What does HDL do?
“The primary role Of HDL is to pick up used or unneeded cholesterol molecules and cholesterol esters from all peripheral tissues, including artery walls, and transport or return them to the liver as part of a recycling process. In the liver, cholesterol is excreted with the bile or used for other purposes. When cholesterol needs to be removed from cells, it is HDL that usually does the job. HDL is believed to be protective, preventing buildup of cholesterol and lowering the wrist of chronic heart disease by removing and using cholesterol from the blood. It is also thought the HDL may be able to collect cholesterol from artery plaque, reversing the artherosclerotic process leading to heart attacks.”
What does LDL do?
“ The LDL particles primarily carry cholesterol from the liver (where most of the body's cholesterol is synthesized) to the peripheral tissues including the blood vessel walls. When cells need extra cholesterol, it is commonly the LDL vehicles that deliver cholesterol into the cellular interiors. In most people LDL contains a higher percentage of cholesterol, so it has been dubbed “bad.” When a cell needs more cholesterol, it produces more LDL receptors on his plasma membrane. This allows the cell to bind more LDL, ingest it, and obtain it's cholesterol-- a process the cell prefers over making cholesterol itself generally, when cells need cholesterol, LDL's come to the rescue.”
It's not that LDL is inherently bad, it plays a significant role in our bodies. The problem with LDL cholesterol is not so much its presence or its quantity in the blood, but that it is easily oxidized or made rancid. This rancidity may contribute to tissue insult or injury. What causes LDL to become oxidized? For one thing, consumption of damaged or altered fats in the diet introduces unstable, rancid, unnatural fat to the tissues that can be poisonous and harmful. Most commercial vegetable oils fit into this category. So do partially hydrogenated fats ---containing trans fatty acids--- found in most processed foods which have been shown to significantly increase the risk of chronic heart disease. Refined sugars increase oxidation damage, cross-link proteins, inhibit immune functions, and interfere with the transport of vitamin C complex (essential to the integrity of blood vessel walls). Deficiencies of nutrients that protect LDL--- including the antioxidant portions of the nutrient complexes contribute to the problem.
“In multiple studies, dietary cholesterol was not a predictor of plasma total or LDL cholesterol levels." But a high intake of calories, primarily from non-foods containing a little or nutritional value, has been associated with elevated cholesterol levels. A high intake of refined carbohydrates (refined sugars and flours, etc.), for example, can result in elevated insulin levels which may increase cholesterol levels. A diet low in refined carbohydrates lowers elevated total and LDL cholesterol.
On the contrary, “removing dietary sources of fat and cholesterol After 12 weeks or so may result in lower sexual activity, importance, dry skin, fatigue, lots of energy and motivation, premature aging and wrinkling, nervousness, irritability, depression, leg/muscle pain and other consequences that are not normal.”
What should we eat?
“ Real foods and herbs such as onions, garlic, cruciferous vegetables, green leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, berries, peppers, turmeric, ginger, ginkgo, lagoon, apples, whole grains, and others two numerous to list here have been shown to protect issues and help repair. Cardiovascular diseases are halved, for instance, in people with a high intake of fruits and vegetables.”
“Processed, denatured, refined non-foods have replaced many nutrient dense real foods. The Content of minerals and other valuable substances have declined in soils. Manufactured, maimed, mutated, and embalmed Fabrications are consumed with relish while real foods containing falsely accused fats are neglected.”
“The key is the quality and form of the fat such as how the oil or fat is extracted in process, whether or not it is rancid or contains toxins, if it has been altered in some way. Any fat the body does not recognize as real and beneficial food will stress the liver in other areas of the body, nudging extra production of cholesterol.”
Changing Reputations:
So eat your eggs, dry roasted or raw nuts, and shellfish. :)
Resources:
Judith DeCava, CNC, LNC, Cholesterol Facts and Fantasies
(b) Dr. Cate Shanahan, Deep Nutrition
*I am not a medical doctor or registered dietician. Please seek medical advice before making any changes to your diet.