Cholesterol and Fat Myth, a thing of the past
Saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for you, is a proven myth now! New books, articles, and studies are coming out in increasing rates to prove the opposite, that saturated fat and cholesterol are good for your body. Saturated fat has been a healthy human staple for thousands of years, the overwhelming majority of human existence. The low-fat craze has pushed the public into excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates, primarily sugar which research links to increased inflammation and disease according to an article in Time, May 2014.
Cholesterol and Fat Is Not Only Beneficial, It’s Essential
Approximately 800,000 Americans die from cardiovascular disease annually. On top of that over 85 million Americans are living with some form of cardiovascular disease. About 2,200 US citizens die each day, or one every 40 seconds according to the American heart association. A quarter of these deaths (about 550 per day) could have been prevented via simple lifestyle changes. These changes include maintaining a healthy weight, managing insulin and leptin levels, exercising, and by removing nerve interference blocking brain-body communication by chiropractic adjustments.
It turns out that conventional knowledge on health was wrong. Reducing your cholesterol, you may actually be increasing your risk for cardiovascular disease. Cholesterol is vital to perform a number of critical functions, and it is an essential building block of human anatomy and physiology. There is strong evidence that people increase risk for heart attacks by having their cholesterol to inappropriately low levels, the most common culprit following conventional wisdom are statin drugs.
As we mentioned cholesterol plays important roles such as building your cell membranes, protein synthesis, cell signaling, and hormonal pathways. Having too little cholesterol has a negatively impact your hormone levels, heart disease risk, and brain health plus more. Therefore keeping cholesterol as the “bad guy” and avoiding it as if it were the Black Plague might not be the healthiest move.
Don’t Blame Cholesterol
For over 40 years fat and cholesterol has been inappropriately labeled as the culprit behind heart disease. In reality it has always been sugar. This is the most recent body of evidence and your physician might not know it.
The extremely sugar laden Standard American Diet (SAD). Americans over consume sugar and refined grains. Excessive consumption raises risk for heart disease by developing what is known as metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is an umbrella condition that includes high blood pressure, liver dysfunction, insulin and leptin resistance, inappropriate levels of visceral fat. Consuming heavily processed carbohydrates, fructose/sugars, unnatural vegetable oils, and refined flours nurture an environment to create metabolic syndrome.
Suggest that saturated fats and cholesterol are suddenly harmful doesn’t make sense, take an evolutionary perspective. Humans have been eating foods packed in saturated fats and cholesterol for most of our existence. In 2010 the recommendations from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) call for reducing saturated fat intake to 10 percent of your total calories or less. This is perplexing, and quite the contrary of the essentials for optimal health! The latest science, and up and coming research suggests healthy fats should comprise anywhere from 50 to 85% of overall energy intake. Saturated fats provide many important health benefits, including the following: satiety, optimal brain fuel, fights cancer, carries vitamins, hormone production, and mineral absorption are a few but important reasons.
To top it off and make matters worse the average American doesn’t do what is needed to promote health. Recess is a thing of the past in most schools now, adults don’t do it much either. Not exercising, having chronic stress, exposure to environmental toxins, lack of sleep and poor brain body connection (subluxation) are front and center for developing chronic disease.
Cholesterol Myth Debunked
Cholesterol being bad is a myth now, especially saturated fats being a culprit. Recent research is making it much more challenging for physicians to say saturated fats and cholesterol are bad. Processed, refined, and sugar food product manufacturers need to follow suit, because the public demands to be healthy.
Norwegian University produced a study in 2012. Lifestyle and health was examined on over 52,000 adults ranging in age from 20’s to mid 70’s. The study concluded that women cauterized as having “high cholesterol” (over 270 mg/dl) had a 28% lower mortality risk than women with “low cholesterol” (below 183 mg/dl). They also found that being a woman; the risks for heart disease, stroke, and cardiac arrest are higher with lower cholesterol levels.
Aseem Malhotra, a London cardiologist revealed in a study in the British Medical Journal that the public should ignore advice to reduce saturated fat intake, because it is actually increasing risks for heart disease and obesity.
A powerful study (meta-analysis) published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2014 blew the lid off the cover on this cholesterol / saturated fat myth. This research combined approximately 80 studies and over 500,000 people. The findings are that people who consume higher amounts of saturated fat had no more heart disease than those who consume less. Importantly the researchers did NOT find less heart disease in people eating higher amounts of unsaturated fats, including olive and corn oils.