cholesterol myths

8/13/2019 Cholesterol Myths

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The Effect of Natural Fats and Bad Carbs on Cholesterol

Youve probably heard many times that eating a fatty steak is bad, and that LDL, or bad cholesterol,

is the ultimate target to decrease your risk for heart disease. Let me explain how this information

was twisted by the food industry to make us believe sugary cereals were good and porterhouse

steaks were bad.

Consider a porterhouse steak, which many Americans view as poison after decades of

recommendations that meat should be as lean as possible. Fifty percent of a porterhouses total fat

is monounsaturated fat, which has a beneficial influence on good cholesterol (HDL) and lowers the

bad cholesterol (LDL). Saturated fat constitutes another 45 percent of its total fat, which also has apositive influence on HDL. Any rise in LDL is due to the large type of LDL, which does not clog the

arteries. The remaining 5 percent of the fat in the steak is polyunsaturated, which lowers LDL but

has no meaningful effect on HDL.

All these effects on cholesterol subdivisions are good. But no medical authority is willing to admit

that eating steak has a positive influence on cholesterol. On the other hand, consider a sugary

cereal, which most would view as a fairly healthy breakfast choice. After such a dense refined

carbohydrate meal, triglyceride levels go up as your body converts the sugary cereal into fat. Then

the smaller subdivision of bad cholesterol (LDL), the one that causes the arterial clogging, also goes

up, while good cholesterol (HDL) plummets. Thats all bad. But the food industry twisted the facts, and somehow a low-fat diet of cereals and fat-free milk became good for us.

The medical establishments message for decreasing heart disease should have been to follow a

high-fat/low-carb diet, not a low-fat/high-carb diet, but many official recommendations didnt want to

contradict the USDAs food pyramid or the food industry claims. The food industry is big business.

The triglyceride level, the most important part of the cholesterol equation, was left behind, and when

the pharmaceutical industry jumped on the bandwagon, the total LDL, the weaker risk, became the

main culprit. The latest cardiology literature is on my side.

Dont just take my word for it. Next time you watch TV, note the fine print in cholesterol drug

commercials that clearly states, This drug has not been shown to reduce the risk for heart attacks or

stroke. Big Pharma isnt lying to you. The benefits of lowering LDL are minuscule, and two large

clinical trials in 2008 found that lowering LDL to very low levels did not translate into measurable

benefits that reduced the incidence of heart disease. But that doesnt mean theyre going to dial

back their nonstop commercials that reinforce the need for you to reduce your LDL. Despite the

recent research that has shown LDL to be a weaker risk factor in heart disease, LDL remains the

ultimate target to boost the profits of pharmaceutical industry.


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The Exploitation of the Cholesterol Theory

With this radical shift in what is considered healthy, it was not long before the food industry began

condemning cholesterol-rich foods. The experts labeled eggs and shellfish as bad for cholesterol,

while they glorified cereals and pasta. If you think eating cereal instead of eggs is really good for

your cholesterol, think again.In the latter part of the 20th century, doctors learned that total cholesterol alone had no relationship

to heart disease. Cholesterol subdivisionsthe bad cholesterol (LDL), good cholesterol (HDL),

and triglyceridesemerged as more important risk factors. In particular, triglycerides, which are

greatly affected by eating sugar and refined carbohydrates, showed a strong relationship.

Triglyceride levels go up when you eat too many carbohydrates; the hormone insulin works hard to

store all those carbs as fat. This means the best way to lower your risk for a heart attack is to follow

a Paleolithic diet, with no sugar or refined carbohydrates. The good cholesterol (HDL), another risk,

appears to be protective at higher levels, and the best way to increase your HDL is to eat saturated

fats, such as butter, eggs, and animal products, and to avoid sugar.When it came to the bad cholesterol, or LDL, research showed it as a weak risk for heart

disease. Many people who have heart attacks have normal LDL levels, while many people who do

not develop heart disease have high levels of it. Its confusing, but it can be explained. You see, LDL

is affected by both sugar and saturated fats. The French, for example, have higher LDL levels

compared to Americans, but heart disease is much less common among the French.

Additional research concluded that LDL cholesterol has further subdivisions wrapped around

proteins. The smaller subdivision of LDL is greatly affected by sugar and refined carbohydrates, and

can clog the arteries (Fig. 2.6). The larger subdivision of LDL, which is affected by saturated fats

(like whole-fat dairy), is fluffy and does not clog the arteries because it is too big to go below the

arterial walls.Aha, it all makes sense now. Heres the summation:

A higher triglyceride level is bad.

A higher HDL level is good.

A higher small LDL level is bad.

A higher large LDL level is harmless.

Figure 2.6: LDL Flow in the Arteries

A healthy endothelium (arterial wall) acts as a barrier to LDL. When the endothelium is damaged by cardiac risk factors

(high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking), it becomes porous. Small LDL particles penetrate the endothelial wall, and this

leads to cholesterol buildup Large LDL particles float freely in the bloodstream and are less likely to be deposited in the

arterial wall.

Mary Kate Wright, MS, CMI


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Origin of the Low-Fat Diets

The steps to high-carb eating in this country were just the beginning of a radical change to eating

more and more carbs with the advent of low-fat diets. In the 1950s, Nathan Pritikin, an engineer in

his 40s, became interested in nutrition after he was diagnosed with heart disease. Believing that his

own heart disease was caused by consuming too much fat, he devised an eating plan that consisted

of a whopping 75 percent of total calories from carbohydrates. Pritikinsapproach greatly influenced

Senator George McGovern, who was interested in addressing the burgeoning obesity epidemic in

this country.

This diet enjoyed immense popularity in its time, and its dominance led to the creation of the

original United States Department of Agriculture food pyramid (Fig. 2.5), which featured grains

(bread, pasta, and cereals) as its base. Furthermore, the pyramid didnt specify whether or not the

grains should be whole or refined. These dietary guidelines were written by a reporter with no

scientific background, and based solely on a single nutritionists opinion. They were designed to

make it simpler for the public to condemn all fats, placing them at the apex of the pyramid (which

meant they were to be eaten only sparingly). The preferred diet was suddenly high in sugar, low in

fiber, and low in all fats, whether they were good or bad.

Once the USDA made the low-fat dogma official, the food industry quickly began producing

thousands of reduced-fat food products to meet the new recommendations. Fat was removed from

foods like milk, crackers, and cookies, and replaced with something just as pleasurable to the

palate. This meant added sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. These deadly foods were labeled and

marketed as low-fat or fat-free. To make matters worse, much of this processed junk food receivedthe approval of the American Heart Association (for a fee) since it met their criteria for a diet low in

saturated fat and cholesterol. This disturbing new low-fat movement led to the rise of a new breed of

doctors who took low-fat diets to low-fat extremes, such as Dr. Dean Ornish, who advocated no fish,

nuts, or even olive oil in his original diet.

As people began to fear all fatsincluding healthy fatsthey began to

Figure 2.5: The Original USDA Food Pyramid

USDA website

gain weight at an alarming pace. In the 1970s, the percentage of fat in the American diet was about

42 percent, and carbohydrates made up another 40 percent. By the 1990s, the percentage of fat in

the average American diet had decreased to about 30 percent, and consumption of carbohydrates

had increased to about 50 percent. Because of this shift, people are experiencing epidemics ofdiet-related illnesses, such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Many health experts now

acknowledge that the low-fat message is radically oversimplified, and that it totally ignores the fact

that some fats, such as olive oil and avocados, are good for us. Even saturated fatsalso known as

bad fatsare not deleterious at all. They are neutral to your cholesterol.


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Piramid Makanan

Malaysia

5

4-8 sajian

2 sajian

3 sajian

1-3 sajian

Ikan: 1 sajianAyam/ daging/ telur: - 2 sajian

Kekacang: - 1 sajian


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The Seven Countries Study

After a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting in 1955, Dr. Keys introduced The Seven

Countries Study, a 13-year comparative study of cardiac disease. The study included people in

Greece (including Crete and Corfu), Finland, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, former Yugoslavia, and

the United States, and the studys findings showed that the lowest incidence of heart disease

occurred in Greece, with Japan at a close second. There was a higher incidence of heart disease in

all the other countries. An analysis of the countries diets implicated saturated fat as the cause, and

the misinformation began.The advantages of the Mediterranean and Japanese diets should have been credited to the diets

relative absence of sugar, hydrogenated fats, and trans fats. Instead, it was wrongly credited to low

consumption of natural saturated fats and animal products. Dr. Keys erroneously concluded that as

people ate more and more saturated fat and animal products their cholesterol and their likelihood of

heart disease would rise.

In retrospect, one can see that Dr. Keys carefully chose these seven countries to validate his faulty

theory. Data were available for 22 countries. When researchers plotted other countries with a highsaturated fat intake on the same graph, Dr. Keysscorrelation simply vanished into thin air. For

example, the raw data included Switzerland, a country with a high level of saturated fat intake from

animal products and a relatively low incidence of heart disease, but Dr. Keys decided not to include

it.

The edible oil industry, the beneficiary of these flawed findings, began funding further research

designed to support this saturated-fat theory. Some of this funding came from Procter & Gamble

(makers of Crisco), Mazola (makers of corn oil), and Fleischmanns (makers of margarine).

Manufactured oils like margarine suddenly became good for our health, and natural fats like butterbecame dangerous.

After the dietary cholesterol theory of heart disease took center stage, it was not long before the

American Medical Association, American Dietetic Association, and the National Academy of

Sciences followed suit and began promoting manufactured vegetable oils over natural saturated fat.

It is interesting to note that, at that time, Dr. Keys was on the nutrition advisory committee of the

powerful American Heart Association (AHA). As a result, his biased research became the official

basis for the AHA dietary guidelines published in 1961.Although the relationships among refined polyunsaturated oils, trans fats, and cancer were

emerging, endorsement by the medical establishment made us believe these manufactured fats


7/12

Keys most famous study (the one still cited today) was called the 7 Countries Study. Keys plotted the rate of

heart disease against the percentage of calories consumed as fat for Japan, Italy, England, Wales, Australia,

Canada, and the United States. Looking at this graph you would definitely think that dietary fat intake was

linked to increased heart disease risk.

What most people dont know (and what doctors their doctors dont tell them) is that the study actuallygathered data from 22 countries.
http://innatebodybootcamp.com/myths-about-saturated-fat/keys1-2/http://innatebodybootcamp.com/myths-about-saturated-fat/keys1-2/


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When all the countries were added to the graph it looked like buckshot hitting a page instead of a

straight line, in the words of one of Keyss fellow researchers. While there is a significant relationship

between fat intake and heart disease (at least as presented), the graph GREATLY over-exaggerates its

importance. Here is the buckshot.

It looks even less convincing when you add in isolated outliers like the Masai, the Inuit, the Rendile, and

the Tokelau, shown in red below (these groups really mess with Keys beliefs).
http://innatebodybootcamp.com/myths-about-saturated-fat/keysbuckshot/http://innatebodybootcamp.com/myths-about-saturated-fat/keysbuckshot/


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