Could cholesterol actually be healthy?

The Cholesterol Myth

In 1953, Dr. Ancel Keys published a paper that served as the base for the “cholesterol makes you fat and causes heart disease” theory. The study was known as the Seven Countries Study and was highly publicized, even appearing on the cover of Times Magazine. A beautiful line was able to be drawn and everything correlated perfectly! It showed without a doubt that fat was causing heart disease!

Or did it? The paper failed to mention that there were actually 22 countries involved in the study. The other countries just didn't have data points that fit as nicely into the chart.

It's a lot harder to make a nice line from these data points. The red dots are additional island countries whose data was taken a few years later, and most of their diets were rich in fish, meats, and fats. 

Then a study was done using 86 different countries comparing cholesterol levels versus deaths from cardiovascular disease. We actually see a reverse in the theory. Higher cholesterol levels (between 200-220) actually resulted in fewer deaths than lower cholesterol levels (between 160-200).

Our bodies need cholesterol! It is in every cell of our body, is needed to make our different hormones, provides a lot of protection for our nervous system, and much more. So if it's not fat causing cardiovascular disease, what is?

Sugar of course!

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) concluded that there’s “a significant relationship between added sugar consumption and increased risk for cardiovascular disease mortality.” The 15-year long study, which included data for 31,000 Americans, found that those who consumed 25 percent or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as those who got less than 10 percent of their calories from sugar.

So instead of eating cereal, pancakes, and bagels for breakfast, switch over to bacon, sausage, and eggs. By consuming more of these healthy fat products and taking out carbohydrates, sugar, and some bad trans-fats like margarine, you will actually be doing your heart a favor!

-Dr. Samantha Boldt