On February 10, 2015 The Washington Post published a headline that got a good amount of attention: “The U.S. government is poised to withdraw longstanding warnings about cholesterol.”
Every five years, the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Department of Agriculture, issues “Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” a federal publication that has far-reaching implications on what we eat. The 14 outside experts who made up the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee are nationally recognized in the fields of nutrition, medicine and public health. The guidelines affect everything from the way companies can advertise their products, to what’s in your child’s school lunch, to the diet advice offered up by nearly every doctor and nutritionist in the country.
“Previously, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended that cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg/day. The 2015 DGAC will not bring forward this recommendation because available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum (blood) cholesterol, consistent with the AHA/ACC (American Heart Association / American College of Cardiology) report. Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”
Most people are confused about dietary cholesterol. Here are a few things that we need to know about cholesterol:
1) Cholesterol is vital to the human body. Among cholesterol’s most essential functions, is its presence in all of the trillions of cell membranes of the human body. It aids in digestion: specifically the digestion of fats, fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, K and carotenoids. Cholesterol is also acts as a powerful anti-inflammatory agent, effectively neutralizing the catalytic conversions of arachidonic acid before the formation of pro-inflammatory lipids such as leukotrienes and certain prostaglandins.
2) Your body makes cholesterol, mainly in your liver, even without any dietary consumption of cholesterol. The body cannot risk leaving it to chance that we would get it externally from food or some other external factor – that’s how critical it is.
3) There is no such thing as good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Cholesterol is cholesterol. The chemical formula for cholesterol is C27H46O. There is no good version or bad version of this formula. HDL and LDL’s are not even cholesterol, let alone good or bad, they are lipo-proteins that transport cholesterol. HDL stands for High Density Lipoprotein. LDL stands for Low Density Lipoprotein.
4) One in 500 people may have familial hypercholesterolemia, and may have a problem clearing cholesterol in their body (rather like type 1 diabetics who can’t return their blood glucose levels to normal). These people should be monitored by their PCP to control their “blood levels” of cholesterol.
5 “Cholesterol in food has no impact on cholesterol in the blood and we’ve known that all along.” Ancel Keys.
Ancel Keys, the same man who did the brilliant Minnesota starvation experiment, spent the 1950’s trying to show that cholesterol in food was associated with cholesterol in the blood. He concluded unequivocally that there was not even an association, let alone a cause and effect. He never deviated from this view. Cholesterol is only found in animal foods (it is a vital substance for every living creature). Hence the only foods that Keys could add to human diets, to test the impact of cholesterol, were animal foods. Given that he concluded that eating animal foods had no impact on blood cholesterol levels, it follows that animal foods per se have no impact on blood cholesterol levels.
So if you have familial hypercholesterolemia you should keep that in check with your PCP, but if not, do not be overly concerned about eating foods that have cholesterol in them like shrimp, lobster or eggs. In fact I wrote a blog about the benefits of eating eggs for last March’s newsletter: EGGS -A Healthy Addition to Your Diet
Most of our patients want to improve their health and live productive, pain-free lives as they age. If it is not already, regular chiropractic treatment should be a part of your preventive health strategy to maintain a pain-free active lifestyle. If you have any questions about this blog or any other health or wellness related questions, please feel free to contact me at:
Thomas Ball, M.S., D.C.