Stay away from eggs! Stay away from seafood! Stay away from red meat! In fact, stay away from any food which contain cholesterol. It will kill you and give you heart attack, remember? Oh wait, really? Isn't it considered the villain in our diet? The latest breaking news from USA dietary guidelines have now removed the warning of this 'deadly substance' from our diet. For the 1st time in the last 60 years or so, dietary cholesterol is no longer a bad nor deadly substance. I know how this sound, and almost everyone is confused! Is it bad? Or is it harmless? Or is it a vital nutrient for our body? Many years ago, our great grand parents used to consume tons of saturated fats and cholesterol in their diet for generations. Then approximately 60 years ago, major shift in dietary guidelines made us all think that cholesterol is bad and evil. And now it's considered harmless? That sounds like "We were damn wrong for more then 60 years!".
For years people have been led to believe that cholesterol is some kind of evil substance that somehow gets into the blood stream where it doesn't belong. Since everyone is being taught to fear cholesterol, we ought to know something about it. Today's post will therefore describe what it is, what it does in the body and the many factors which cause it to increase or decrease in the blood. I know for some of you readers out there, you have read my previous posts about cholesterol and heart disease, but let's say recap some of the 'in a nutshell' and fundamentals of this vital nutrient. Besides, it's a great day today with blue sky and lot's of sun!
Now, let's talk a little bit about biology of this substance. Cholesterol, is actually a crystal of solid alcohol known as a steroid. It is absolutely essential to health and is located in every cell of the body, especially the brain. The body contains about 5 oz of cholesterol and only about 7% (one-third oz) circulates in the blood. Cholesterol is necessary in the membranes of cells where it regulates the exchange of nutrients and waste products. It is necessary in the growth and development of the brain and nervous system and acts as a conductor of nerve impulses. It is a necessary component in bile acids which promote the digestion of foods. Without cholesterol, complex fats could not be absorbed into the blood stream. And without complex fats, vitamins A, D, E and K, which are soluble only in fats, also could not be absorbed.
Cholesterol is a necessary substance for the manufacture of adrenal, sex and pituitary hormones. And it is a necessary substance in the skin which is converted to vitamin D by sunlight and which produces a barrier in the skin, preventing water and other fluids from entering the body through the skin. By far, the major producer of cholesterol is the body itself. It is mainly manufactured in the liver and intestinal wall but it is also synthesized, when necessary, in every cell of the body except nerve tissue.
If you consume cholesterol in your diet, your body reduces its manufacture, if you don't consume dietary cholesterol, your body increases its manufacture. In other words, one's blood cholesterol level remains almost constant, whether one eats a little or a lot of dietary cholesterol. Bear in mind, your body will know how much of cholesterol to produce by the liver or gut, and day to day total cholesterol serum varies from time to time. As I mentioned earlier, doesn't matter if you eat 6 whole eggs a day, or lots of seafood, your body knows how much it need for cellular repair, brain functions, production of sex and stress hormones, conversion of Vitamin D, and other important bodily functions. Well, if you are concern about mood and sex, ensure you are you eating your fats and cholesterol regularly. And yes, drop the refined carbs and sugars.
Cholesterol and fat travel together in tiny little "taxis" composed of protein. Since cholesterol and fat are two types of "lipids," the little "taxis" are called lipoproteins. There are five kinds of lipoproteins. When a sample of blood is drawn and the cholesterol content of all lipoproteins is measured, the value is known as total cholesterol. It is this total cholesterol that the public has heard about over the years. However, in recent years, the media have been emphasizing two specific lipoproteins, namely, "good" cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, HDL) and "bad" cholesterol (lowdensity lipoprotein, LDL). But "good" and "bad" are improper descriptors because all cholesterol is exactly the same. There is no such thing as good or bad cholesterol.
When a person consumes food, the liver secretes bile acids into the intestine. These bile acids have heavy concentrations of cholesterol. About 50% of this cholesterol combines with ingested fats and the two are absorbed into the intestinal wall where they are loaded onto the largest of all lipoprotein particles. This lipoprotein delivers the fat to cells of the body and then heads for the liver where it is dismantled and its cholesterol is deposited. In the meantime, the remaining 50% of the bile acid cholesterol travels through the intestine and is excreted in the feces. Therefore, the body loses cholesterol several times a day through the digestive process.
When a person consumes food containing cholesterol, that cholesterol's fate is identical to the cholesterol in the bile acids. Some of it enters the blood as a lipoprotein and the rest is excreted in the feces. Because cholesterol is used by all cells of the body and also is continuously lost in the feces, the body continuously manufactures it. Whether or not a person consumes cholesterol, the liver manufactures it, loads it and also some fats onto an LDL particle and sends the latter into the blood stream. When muscle or fat cells are in need of cholesterol, those cells completely absorb the LDL particles. When cells are not in need of cholesterol, the LDL particles return to the liver where they are dismantled. The above process occurs no matter what kind of food is consumed.
And now, check out what Steve Nissen said in USAToday.
Steve Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, told USA Today:5 “It’s the right decision. We got the dietary guidelines wrong. They’ve been wrong for decades.” This message was echoed in Time Magazine, which recently reported that:
“[I]n the latest review6 of studies that investigated the link between dietary fat and causes of death, researchers say the guidelines got it all wrong. In fact, recommendations to reduce the amount of fat we eat every day should never have been made.”
Low-fat diets saw a real upswing in 1977, but according to research published in the Open Heart journal,7 led by Zoe Harcombe, PhD, there was no scientific basis for the recommendations to cut fat from our diet in the first place.
What’s worse, the processed food industry replaced fat with large amounts of sugar, While Dr. Harcombe shies away from making any recommendation about how much dietary fat might be ideal, she suggests that the take-home message here is to simply “eat real food.”
I have to say, it’s refreshing to finally see that message being repeated in the mainstream media. As reported by Time Magazine:8
“The less adulterated and processed your diet is, the more nutrients and healthy fats, proteins and carbohydrates your body will get, and the less you’ll have to worry about meeting specific guidelines or advice that may or may not be based on a solid body of evidence.”
abstract article : mercola.com
On 28th February 2015, marked an important day in the history of diet and health. The premier of Statin Nation II, to be screened in Central London, kudos to Justin Smith and his team for successfully completing this movie. There will surely be loads of truth bombs in this documentary. Be sure to watch part 1 prior to this new release, and I'm very happy as a fitness coach and health mentor, to celebrate the recent news about removal of cholesterol from dietary guidelines and released of Statin Nation II.
EMBRACE CHOLESTEROL, IT IS OUR FRIEND, NOT FOE
References:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/10/new-dietary-cholesterol-advice/23174871/
http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-BINDER/meeting7/docs/DGAC-Meeting-7-SC-1.pdf
http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015.asp#overview
http://time.com/3702058/dietary-guidelines-fat-wrong/#3702058/dietary-guidelines-fat-wrong/
http://www.statinnation.net/statin-nation-ii/
Journals:
Seelig, R.A. Cholesterol, a brief review, Part I. United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable
Association Monthly Supply Letter, Washington, D.C., February 1977, 7
Miller, R.W. On being too rich, too thin, too cholesterol laden. FDA Consumer,
July/August 1981,1
Brown,M.&Goldstein,J.L. Lowering pi asm a cholesterol by raising LDL receptors.
New England journal of Medicine, 1981, 305,515
People with normal LDL receptor genes can acquire defect similar
to familial hypercholesterolemia. Internal Medicine News, 1987, January 15, 38
Glomset,J.A. Cholesterol metabolism. In The Heart Arteries and Veins. (Hurst, J. W.,
Ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1982,951
Peters, W.L. &Goroll, A.H. Theevaluation and treatment of hypercholesterolemia
in primary care practice. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 1986,1,183
Pinckney, C. & Pinckney, E.R. The Encyclopedia of Medical Tests. New York:
Facts on File, Inc.* 1982, 53
Vitale,J.J.&Ross, R.N. Critique of NIH report on lipid research. Consultant, March
15,1985,141
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