Six of the most common myths about cholesterol. By James Colquhoun (Filmmaker Food Matters & Hungry For Change)
Myth Number 1: Cholesterol Will Kill You
This is simply not true. Cholesterol is your friend, not your enemy. Essential to good health, especially women’s wellness, cholesterol should not be something that is feared and revered when eating a nutritious diet.
It is a naturally occurring product found in the body which is made by the liver. It is vital to normal cell function and is the parent molecule for such major hormones as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. It is critical to the immune system and the brain.
For example, even if you did not consume any cholesterol at all, you would still find it present in your body. Your diet is actually secondary when it comes to looking at cholesterol levels, but this is often ignored by the doctors.
Myth Number 2: High Cholesterol Causes Coronary Heart Disease
There is NO proven link between dietary cholesterol and coronary heart disease.
Numerous studies have been done which claim to show a link, but all have been flawed and NONE have been conclusive. This, we now know.
The most influential study of all – the Seven Countries Study done in 1953 by Dr. Ancel Keys – involved a highly suspicious model of analysis in itself, with Dr. Keys removing statistics which did not ‘agree’ with his ideology. Having taken data from 22 countries, he only took note of the seven countries whose evidence supported his views, discounting the rest. Incredibly, it is this paper upon which the whole cholesterol theory is based. Can you believe it?
“If all 22 countries had been analyzed, there would have been no correlation found whatsoever,” confirms leading physician, Dr. Joseph Mercola.
As a result of the study, everyone was told to cut out butter, red meat, animal fats, eggs and dairy from their diet. This approach is mistakenly still in force around the world today, which brings me to my next point.
Myth Number 3: Saturated Fat Is Dangerous
There is absolutely no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease, as two major studies have recently confirmed.
The biggest issue for the body in terms of fats is WHERE THEY ARE FROM.
Raw fats from a healthy natural diet are GOOD! Your body NEEDS these in order to thrive. They even help REDUCE heart disease.
Artificial and chemically induced fats from processed food are to be avoided at all times.
Great sources of healthy fats include nuts, wild fish, wild and grass-fed meats, seeds (such as chia and flaxseeds), avocados, organic free-range eggs, olive oil and coconut oil.
Myth Number 4: The Higher Your cholesterol, The Shorter Your Lifespan
In a major inquiry into cholesterol known as the Framington Study, those who actually lived the longest had the highest cholesterol. Fact.
Myth Number 5: High Cholesterol Is A Good Predictor Of Heart Attacks
Statistics actually show that more than 50 percent of people admitted to hospitals with cardiovascular disease have NORMAL cholesterol, where those with high cholesterol are seen to have HEALTHY hearts.
Myth Number 6: Lowering Cholesterol With Statin Drugs Will Prolong Life
Research shows no difference in death rates between patients who take statins and those who don’t. In fact, statin medication can cause major negative side effects on the body, such as loss of memory, loss of libido, muscle pain and fatigue.
Heart disease is more likely to be a result of stress and the consumption of processed foods, especially refined sugar. When you have stress in the body, it causes a spike in cortisol, which breaks down vitamin C. When you have a long-term subtle deficiency of vitamin C, this causes a weakening of the arterial walls and then in your body’s natural intelligence it uses readily available cholesterol in the bloodstream to patch up the weakening arterial walls.
This is your body trying to protect itself from arterial wall damage. We call this healing process atherosclerotic plaques or heart disease. We then prescribe statins to reduce cholesterol and try and ‘fix’ the problem. The underlying cause, stress and vitamin C deficiency is rarely addressed.