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The Diet-Heart Myth: Cholesterol and Saturated Fat Are Not the Enemy

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To read more about heart disease and cholesterol, check out this eBook on the Diet–Heart Myth.

It’s hard to overstate the impact that cardiovascular disease (CVD) has in the U.S.. Consider the following:

  • Cardiovascular disease affects 65 million Americans.
  • Close to one million Americans have a heart attack each year.
  • In the U.S., one person dies every 39 seconds of cardiovascular disease.
  • 1 of 3 deaths that occurs in the U.S. is caused by cardiovascular disease.
  • 1 in 3 Americans have metabolic syndrome, a cluster of major cardiovascular risk factors related to overweight/obesity and insulin resistance.
  • The total cost of cardiovascular disease in 2008 was estimated at $300 billion.

To put that last statistic in perspective, the World Health Organization has estimated that ending world hunger would cost approximately $195 billion. One might argue that the $300 billion we spend on treating cardiovascular disease in the U.S. is a necessary expenditure; however, a recent study which looked at the relationship between heart disease and lifestyle suggested that 90% of CVD is caused by modifiable diet and lifestyle factors. (1)

Unfortunately, cardiovascular disease is one of the most misdiagnosed and mistreated conditions in medicine. We’ve learned a tremendous amount about what causes heart disease over the past decade, but the medical establishment is still operating on outdated science from 40-50 years ago.

In this 4-part series, I’m going to debunk 3 common myths about heart disease:

  1. Eating cholesterol and saturated fat raises cholesterol levels in the blood.
  2. High cholesterol in the blood is the cause of heart disease.
  3. Statins save lives in healthy people without heart disease.

In the fourth and final article in the series, I’ll discuss strategies for naturally protecting yourself against heart disease and improving your heart health.

Myth #1: Eating Cholesterol and Saturated Fat Raises Cholesterol Levels in the Blood.

Most of us grew up being told that foods like red meat, eggs and bacon raise our cholesterol levels. This idea is so deeply ingrained in our cultural psyche that few people even question it. But is it really true?

The diet-heart hypothesis—which holds that eating cholesterol and saturated fat raises cholesterol in our blood—originated with studies in both animals and humans more than half a century ago. However, more recent (and higher quality) evidence doesn’t support it.

Cholesterol and saturated fat: dietary enemies or innocent victims of bad science?Tweet This

On any given day, we have between 1,100 and 1,700 milligrams of cholesterol in our body. 25% of that comes from our diet, and 75% is produced inside of our bodies by the liver. Much of the cholesterol that’s found in food can’t be absorbed by our bodies, and most of the cholesterol in our gut was first synthesized in body cells and ended up in the gut via the liver and gall bladder. The body tightly regulates the amount of cholesterol in the blood by controlling internal production; when cholesterol intake in the diet goes down, the body makes more. When cholesterol intake in the diet goes up, the body makes less.

This explains why well-designed cholesterol feeding studies (where they feed volunteers 2-4 eggs a day and measure their cholesterol) show that dietary cholesterol has very little impact on blood cholesterol levels in about 75% of the population. The remaining 25% of the population are referred to as “hyper-responders”. In this group, dietary cholesterol does modestly increase both LDL (“bad cholesterol” and HDL (“good cholesterol”), but it does not affect the ratio of LDL to HDL or increase the risk of heart disease. (2)

In other words, eating cholesterol isn’t going to give you a heart attack. You can ditch the egg-white omelettes and start eating yolks again. That’s a good thing, since all of the 13 essential nutrients eggs contain are found in the yolk. Egg yolks are an especially good source of choline, a B-vitamin that plays important roles in everything from neurotransmitter production to detoxification to maintenance of healthy cells. (3) Studies show that up to 90% of Americans don’t get enough choline, which can lead to fatigue, insomnia, poor kidney function, memory problems and nerve-muscle imbalances. (4)

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What about saturated fat? It’s true that some studies show that saturated fat intake raises blood cholesterol levels. But these studies are almost always short-term, lasting only a few weeks. (5) Longer-term studies have not shown an association between saturated fat intake and blood cholesterol levels. In fact, of all of the long-term studies examining this issue, only one of them showed a clear association between saturated fat intake and cholesterol levels, and even that association was weak. (6)

Moreover, studies on low-carbohydrate diets (which tend to be high in saturated fat) suggest that they not only don’t raise blood cholesterol, they have several beneficial impacts on cardiovascular disease risk markers. For example, a meta-analysis of 17 low-carb diet trials covering 1,140 obese patients published in the journal Obesity Reviews found that low-carb diets neither increased nor decreased LDL cholesterol. However, they did find that low-carb diets were associated with significant decreases is body weight as well as improvements in several CV risk factors, including decreases in triglycerides, fasting glucose, blood pressure, body mass index, abdominal circumference, plasma insulin and c-reactive protein, as well as an increase in HDL cholesterol. (7)

If you’re wondering whether saturated fat may contribute to heart disease in some way that isn’t related to cholesterol, a large meta-analysis of prospective studies involving close to 350,000 participants found no association between saturated fat and heart disease. (8) A Japanese prospective study that followed 58,000 men for an average of 14 years found no association between saturated fat intake and heart disease, and an inverse association between saturated fat and stroke (i.e. those who ate more saturated fat had a lower risk of stroke). (9)

That said, just as not everyone responds to dietary cholesterol in the same manner, there’s some variation in how individuals respond to dietary saturated fat. If we took ten people, fed them a diet high in saturated fat, and measured their cholesterol levels, we’d see a range of responses that averages out to no net increase or decrease. (If dietary saturated fat does increase your total or LDL cholesterol, the more important question is whether that’s a problem. I’ll address that in the next article in this series.)

Another strike against the diet-heart hypothesis is that many of its original proponents haven’t believed it for at least two decades. In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1991, Ancel Keys, the founder of the diet-heart hypothesis said (10):

Dietary cholesterol has an important effect on the cholesterol level in the blood of chickens and rabbits, but many controlled experiments have shown that dietary cholesterol has a limited effect in humans. Adding cholesterol to a cholesterol-free diet raises the blood level in humans, but when added to an unrestricted diet, it has a minimal effect.

In a 2004 editorial in the Journal of American College of Cardiology, Sylvan Lee Weinberg, former president of the American College of Cardiology and outspoken proponent of the diet-heart hypothesis, said (11):

The low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet… may well have played an unintended role in the current epidemics of obesity, lipid abnormalities, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndromes. This diet can no longer be defended by appeal to the authority of prestigious medical organizations.

We’ve now established that eating cholesterol and saturated fat does not increase cholesterol levels in the blood for most people. In the next article, I’ll debunk the myth that high cholesterol in the blood is the cause of heart disease.

Cholesterol is just one of many factors that determine our cardiovascular health. Many studies suggest that inflammation, oxidative stress, and endothelial function play an even greater role in the pathogenesis of heart disease.

To protect our heart and live a long, healthy life, we need to give our body all of the nutrients it needs for optimal function. That’s exactly why I created the Adapt Naturals Core Plus bundle.It’s a daily stack of 5 products designed to restore optimal nutrient levels so your body can function as it was intended to, and you can feel and perform your best.

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546 Comments

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    • This is a great way to not have too many people at once eat healthy Paleo-style diet because it is pretty misinformed. For one, paleo is not generally a high protein diet. All the recommendations I’ve seen suggest to have extra vegetables and not to limit the serving sizes. Second, dairy is off limits for strict paleo. Third, unless they break down the meat eaters to those eating grass fed, pastured animals and animal products, it is very difficult to correlate the results to a paleo template. Why? Because generally people that eat a standard diet are not as concerned about their health. They don’t eat enough vegetables, consume too much sugar, and consume too many processed meats.

      People that eat paleo tend to consume low animal protein (10% or less of calories). In fact, keto dieters are probably in this group because it is higher fat. People on paleo tend to do a better job of managing stress and exercising regularly as well – something someone eating a standard diet is less likely to follow.

      Finally, this particular thread is concerning cholesterol and CVD and not cancer. Nice try at trolling.

      • Typing on my phone and not reviewing…sorry about that confusion on serving size wording. The word ‘not’ shouldn’t be in the part about limiting serving size on meat.

  1. Myth #1: Eating cholesterol and saturated fat raises cholesterol levels in the blood.
    Isn’t it possible that some people do raise their cholesterol levels by what they eat? For example. I had lower (meaning slightly over dr. recommendations) cholesterol before starting a GAPS/Paleo diet. Ever since I changed my eating, my cholesterol total and LDL (as well has HDL) has only increased.
    Another example is my mother. She tends to have “higher” cholesterol, but when she goes on a low cholesterol diet, her lipid levels drop.
    It seems to me that in least some people (like our family) what eat really does have an affect on our levels.

  2. Wow. Thanks. So my big question is: Does this mean that arterial plaque and arterial sclerosis are not caused by cholesterol too? (Because I’m really missing bacon right now!) 🙂

  3. Okay, I’m really tired of the run-around. How much cholesterol and saturated fat is safe or good for the body daily? I eat anywhere between 1-4 tablespoons of coconut oil; and 4-6 eggs daily? Organic, wild harvested, and natural foods are the answer to a nutrient dense diet.

  4. Hi all. I have familial hypercholesterolemia. Both parents and 4 siblings. All are in great shape. All are on lipitor. All have a super reaction to the lipitor of Cholesterol going from above 300 to mid 100 with only 5 or 10mg of lipitor/day.
    All of us want to free ourselves of stain usage, especially since there is quite a bit of dementia and alizimers in our family.
    I have agreed to be the ginny pig. I am 55, weigh 135, low body fat, exercise often. I am one year Paleo. My Cholesterol is 323, Tri 76, HDL 73 and LDL 234. My entire family has cholesterol above 300 when not on statins.
    I like my ratio between HDL and Trig but obviously the LDL is scary.
    My primary dr is ok with thought that I have the lg fluffy LDL. My cardiologist (very old school) is pushing hard for the statins again.
    Thoughts?

    • Your cholesterol numbers are just a small bit higher than my mom’s numbers after 6 months after stopping using lipitor. Her cholesterol numbers were all normal before a part of her left thyroid was taken. Thyroid hormonal activity regulates ldl-receptor activity and her free T3 and free T4 levels were just above the lower end of normal ranges, so I think we will increase her levothyroxine dose from 100 mcg to 125 mcg a day for now. Chris Masterjohn is generally the one to follow and I do not know anyone else that can give more info about it.

  5. Do people with Familial Hypercholesterolemia necessarily have poor LDL/HDL ratios? What role does the LDL/HDL ratio have here?

    I have a 7.1mmol/l (274mg/dl) reading, but my LDL/HDL ratio is usually around 3.2-3.4. Nothing I seem to do with diet (I’ve even tried 6 months on a virtually zero fat diet) seems to have much of an impact on my cholesterol reading…or my my ratio.

  6. Hi, i have a question which I hope you will be able to answer for me.
    My Cholesterol readings have increased from 175 to 250 in 6 months. I have serious back problems and take Tramadol for pain and quite a few natural remedies. Could any of this have caused this problem. My diet has not changed a great deal. My age is 59.
    Thank you
    Mike Zelley

    • I’ve heard of statins causing muscle pain but never have I encountered any information that would link pain medication to increases in cholesterol. Maybe your body is trying to tell you that its time to decrease the fat in your diet because it can’t metabolise it like it has in the past.

  7. … then, ¿what’s the cause for cardiovascular disease?, I just had a open heart bypass surgery. I don’t smoke, drink and
    140 pounds. Thanks
    JEY

  8. The amount of confusion here is extremely discouraging. Let me set some things straight:

    First, eggs. Eggs should not be consumed for their choline. I have no idea where Chris got his “90% of people are choline deficient” line, because it is completely untrue. (the referenced study doesn’t support this) The recommended daily choline intake is around 420 mg, while the average westerner gets around 1,100 mg, more than double what is required. Men in the highest quintile of choline intake were shown to have a 70% increased risk of lethal prostate cancer.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22952174

    What foods are highest in choline? Eggs, fish, chicken and turkey.

    The quote by Ancel Keys says it all: “Adding cholesterol to a cholesterol-free diet raises the blood level in humans, but when added to an unrestricted diet, it has a minimal effect.”

    The reason these cholesterol and saturated fat studies find no association is that the control groups they are comparing to do not actually have ideal levels of fat/cholesterol. Try studying the health effects of cigars by giving some to one group of smokers, and then compare that to another group of smokers – you won’t find a difference, but this doesn’t mean cigars are healthy. Similarly with saturated fat, many studies consider 30% of calories from fat to be a low-fat control group, which is patently absurd. When I look at these types of studies, I can predict their conclusions just by looking at their methods sections.

    The Paleo supporters take all of these studies and throw them around as if they are gold when in fact, any researcher in the field knows about all of these issues. Just ask David Spence, the head of the Atherosclerosis and Stroke Research Centre in Canada.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21076725

    Of course, any time a solid meta-analysis comes out vilifying saturated fat or cholesterol, Paleo people are quick to point out any flaw they possibly can about observational studies.

    Many of the people on here are posting dangerously high cholesterol levels. It is very sad that high saturated fat sources like bacon and eggs are being promoted here – this is going to harm a lot of people, whether they believe it or not.

    I love eating meat, butter, and eggs as much as the next guy, but the bulk of the evidence doesn’t lie, and no amount of quoting flawed studies will change that.

    • Agree completely. I predict many here posting these high numbers will, unless they change their thinking, will be candidates for CVD events over the next 15 years or so. The preponderance of evidence does not support a diet high in saturated fat.

      • As stated earlier, I’m a 55 year old male with an 7.1mmol/l (274mg/dl) reading. My ratio is about 3.4 so I’m equally high on HDL & LDL. My Trigylcerides are 0.1mmol/l (8mg/dl). I am 180cm (5’11″), weigh 68kgs (150lbs), have 9% bodyfat. I exercise very regularly. Eat a very normal…but low GI…diet. My BP is 95/45. My resting pulse is 48bpm. I have no family history of heart attacks, hypertension or strokes. My still very fit and active 85 year old mother was diagnosed with similar levels 40 years ago and has never taken a statin in her life. Are you suggesting I’m about to have a heart attack?

        • My wife’s aunt Hilda smoked well into her 70s but lived to 99. I wouldn’t recommend people smoke nor would I recommend a high fat diet to anyone. Especially someone with numbers like yours. Your situation is irrelevant to everyone but yourself. Please remember that!

          • I tried a virtually no-fat diet and it barely made any difference to my readings (perhaps a 5% drop) and little difference to my (already low) body fat composition. After eating tasteless food for 6 months for almost no effect, I decided there and then to completely ignore my cholesterol readings, go back to eating a normal healthy diet, going to the gym 4 days a week and running 2 mornings a week.

            My doctor says that he’d like my readings to be lower, but that he is more concerned about all of his other 50+ patients having a heart attack than me, and he feels that putting me on statins, in view of no other discernable risk factors, would be a mistake. I am happy to take his advice.

            • YMMV. A low fat vegetarian diet dropped my TC from 6.12mmol/L to 4.81mmol/L – a drop of 21.4%. Who knows what a low fat vegan diet would have done. I also find it easier to maintain a healthy weight with a lower fat diet.

              • I don’t have any problem maintaining a healthy weight….I never have. I’ve maintained a BMI of 21 all of my adult life.

                As for me becoming a vegan? LOL I’d rather have a heart attack.

              • Well done, Rob. A low fat vegan diet will rapidly get it below 3.8 mmol p/dl (150mg/dL). And that’s within 6 weeks. That’s in the field where no one ever has a heart event of any type.

      • Okay Rob, I’ll bite; answer me this: – our physiology has NOT altered – at least not in a way that would suddenly cause previously healthy foods to become lethal – for 2.5 MILLION YEARS. Maybe you could enlighten the assembled masses to the reason you are now so sure the opposite to be true.

        Our diet has been primarily animal fat and meat all that time; IF saturated fat, eggs, red meat, etc., caused CVD then there’s one truism: – WE’D NOT BE HERE NOW! IF they did – which they don’t – then they’d have wiped out our species MILLENNIA ago.

        Disease is a result of turning our backs on our genetic dietary blueprint; we didn’t begin cultivating grains until after the last Ice Age – how on EARTH could our bodies adapt in such a short evolutionary period…?! Answer…? They didn’t. I like to think of obesity as a food intolerance; just like a coeliac eating bread, or someone who’s lactose-intolerant suffering gastric distress, obesity is the result of eating foods which disagree with our genetic makeup. The answer to obesity is no different to the answer to eliminating any other allergy or intolerance: – stop eating the foods which cause the problem and, in the case of obesity, that’s carbs.

        If people’s cholesterol is still too high, that’s got NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with saturated fat; if they’ve not DRASTICALLY REDUCED their carb intake (this is something I CANNOT make my father understand; he’s on 80mg Lipitor and he read something about eating more fat to reduce CVD risk – so he now has BUTTER on his WHITE BAGUETTE at lunchtime, instead of Benecol or Flora Pro-Activ (these are margarines made with a blend of sunflower, vegetable and canola oils, with added plant stanols which have been “scientifically and clinically proven to DRAMATICALLY lower cholesterol”. On top of a thick layer of butter, he adds a thick layer of cheese (usually Cambozola or some kind of Brie). His cholesterol is STILL skyrocketing and it’s MY FAULT because I must have directed him to the article! I told him he can have the cheese, but he MUST lose the bread, because the carbs would ‘override’ any benefit the butter/chess would have. He doesn’t get it; I bought him Malcolm Kendrick’s ‘The Great Cholesterol Con’, but he refuses to read it (I thought that, because he’d not believe me, because I’ve no medical training, he might heed the words of a well-respected GP. Evidently, I was wrong…).

        Finally, there was a study conducted on the Inuit, a tribe who eat virtually NO vegetation at all; they also don’t suffer from CVD – or any Western diseases for that matter. A group were taken from the High Arctic and moved to Fairbanks where they were forced to adopt a LFHC Western diet. With a year ALL had developed the beginnings of CVD; they’d also lost muscle and gained fat.

        The fact is we CAN live perfectly healthily without eating ANY plant matter at all, but we CANNOT live healthily without animal foods; Campbell and McScrewball are blowing smoke rings (and, if you want proof that McScrewball’s ‘starchivorous’ (his word) approach is dangerously unhealthy, simply visit his website; he and Mark Sisson are of similar age – does McScrewball look healthy to you…?!

        He also killed Steve Jobs; Jobs had been a strict adherent to McScrewball’s ‘Starchivore Solution’ as long as it had been around. I’m of the firm belief – and I’m NOT the only one – that not only did Screwball’s diet KILL Jobs (he had him so brainwashed that Jobs refused to see real doctors; told him that his plan had been proven to cure cancer – of course it hadn’t) I believe it probably caused his cancer, too (Screwball published several ‘peer-reviewed’ studies which claimed to prove that a high intake of animal products caused ALL cancers (the ‘peers’ were Campbell and Ornish using pseudonyms).

        Campbell, Screwball and Ornish are DANGEROUS (particularly Campbell and Screwball because they claim to be real doctors).

        If people are ‘healthier’ after being brainwashed by those quacks, the reason is simple: – THEY WERE NO LONGER CONSUMING TRANS FATS; trans fats are a major contributor to CVD, saturated fat IS NOT.

        Jobs was 56 when he died, not all that old really, is it…? Are you SERIOUSLY going to sit there and tell me that adhering to a strict vegan diet made him HEALTHIER…?! That, had he been eating a LCHF diet he’d have gone at 46…?! Do me a FAVOUR! Screwball killed Steve Jobs. Long-term veganism is DANGEROUS; I know of several people who died in their 40s from the long-term complications of a vegan diet. Almost ALL our nutrition comes from animal foods, we’re no more designed to live on plants than a rabbit is to eat meat.

        If you want to be vegan because you believe you’re saving the planet, fine, just know that you’re doing so at the expense of you’re own health…

        • guys its inflammation of the arteries we need to be concerned about. in any instance changing diet will affect 20% of total cholest- your body simply makes up the stuff that you deprive it of. Its more of a genetic predisposition. Would like to hear more from Chris on hypercholestoralemia with familial origin. I worry that I am downing fats like something out of a cartoon and am really risking my health … are the long term effects that safe for us that have inherited cv risk

        • Sarah why do people who go on a plant based low fat diet reverse their angina and unblock their coronary arteries. just ask Bill Clinton

          • Bill Clinton and his hamburgers again. It wasn’t the fat in the hamburger that gave Bill heart issues. It was all the sugars and starches in that ‘burger’ that did. Between the big white bread bun, the starchy fries, and the 32oz soft drink, 90% of his “hamburgers” was pure sugar. When he quit eating the “hamburgers” he avoided the 10% protein and saturated fat, and the 90% sugar he’d been filling up on. It’s the refined carbohydrates that create the artery-clogging LDL-B, not protein and fat.

        • Sarah, you’re argument in the 2nd paragraph is completely illogical. Throughout evolution, people have been able to have multiple offspring by the time they’re in their 20’s, long before CVD would wipe them out. Today we are worried about living past 60, not 30.

          Also, you are definitely smarter than Steve Jobs for sure.

        • Just looked at a photo of Dr McDougall on Wikipedia. The man in one year older than my husband, but looks at least ten years older. My husband tried a predominantly vegetable side dish diet about ten years ago and felt it did nothing for him. He’s since returned to eating high amounts of fat, and looks quite healthy for his age. Not as slim as McDougall appears, but certainly healthier and more youthful in the face. Not sure McDougall’s official photo of 2013 speaks all that highly for his dietary recommendation. I would’t be very pleased if my husband looked as bad as McDougall does.

        • Name three. Really name them and prove it was a “vegan diet” itself, and not poor eating. That’s the key. ANY diet has to be properly planned.

    • where are the large studies following people on a strict low carb, high fat (moderate protein) diet? i’d like to see a large cohort study. until then, the jury is still out. and with that said, if something seems to be working for an individual they should stick to it, despite other’s interpretations.

      • Yes absolutely. Just look at Bill clinton. h reversed his angina on a plant based low fat diet

  9. If you don’t feel right moving off a high carb diet, to a high fat diet, just think of what someone addicted to drugs feels when going through withdrawals.

  10. You guys are insane. The cholesterol numbers I see people posting here are dangerously high! And you still believe that your high fat intake isn’t responsible? Hard to believe anyone is that oblivious to what is staring you in the face. I can see many of you having a cardiac event over the next 10-15 years. Hope you can come to your senses before its too late.

    • Rob, I highly recommend you check out a copy of The Great Cholesterol Myth and watch the aforementioned episode of catalyst. Also check out the Hunt2 study. Since being enlightened by that book, my life has changed remarkably. I started out by cutting out sugar, flour, and processed lunch meat from my diet and immediately discontinuing use of statins.

      3 months in, my triglycerides, a measure of fat in your blood, were already down to 118 from 245. My HDL even was up from 32 to 39. Total cholesterol was relatively unchanged and LDL was down. In November, 9 months after changing my lifestyle to what amounted to a LCHF paleo approach, my HDL was 72 and my triglycerides were down to 45. The ratio of trig to HDL is an important marker of inflammation, which is the root cause of heart disease, not the LDL that is present to help fight the inflammation. My CRP was measured at 0.27, my LDL pattern was A and I was shown to be insulin sensitive.

      One reason the numbers were so good was the fact that my weight loss had finally leveled off. If someone is reading this that is still losing fat, don’t freak out if your numbers aren’t where you’d like just yet. As your body releases those stored fat cells, with all their stored toxins, your numbers will be off.

      I digress… The group that has kept lowering what the LDL recommendation should be has always been heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry with generally bad correlation science. They never could actually prove that high cholesterol was the source of cvd.

      When my doctor listened to my heart and saw the numbers, he said, “usually my patients don’t get healthier as they age. What you are doing is clearly working. See you in a year.”

      Because of this change in diet, I no longer need any bp meds to keep my bp normal and my resting heart rate is around 47.

      My LDL-C level? 143, total cholesterol at 224.

      LDL is, contrary to popular sentiment, good cholesterol in the absence of oxidative stress and is essential for the production of vitamin D and hormones. If too low, you won’t live long. One final note: only half of those suffering heart attacks have high cholesterol. So anyone can really say regarding the people that report “dangerously high” cholesterol levels is that they have a 50/50 chance of experiencing a heart attack. 🙂

  11. I’m 34 year old male. Fit, strong and still exercise and get my workouts around the hobby farm and coaching. Yet by standard BMI protocols, I’m considered obese at 5’9 and 220lbs! I’ve been very involved in strength training (and took up a career in coaching it) since I was 14. I grew up on 2% milk and for the last 6+ years have drank exclusively whole milk–and I believe I drink more than my fair share. Even with high milk/dairy consumption I am not congested, very rarely have a cold, have no known allergies. We raise egg laying hens and I eat on average 2-4 whole eggs a day. I’m not a soda drinker but do selectively eat grains and bread. I haven’t had blood work done since playing college soccer but I’d be interested to see where I’m at. I still play soccer and workout and I know I never feel I have as much energy as I do on game day as when I consume quality bacon 6-24 hours before competition! Eating bacon seems to feel like my super power :).
    Thanks for the research and the article information, as well as the comments (I read just about each one).

  12. This is amazing – I too have a family history of high cholesterol. My healthy 85 year old mother was diagnosed in her 40’s with it.

    I’m a 55 year old male with an 7.1mmol/l (274mg/dl) reading. My ratio is about 3.4 so I’m equally high on HDL & LDL. My Trigylcerides are almost zero they are so low 0.1mmol/l (8mg/dl). I am 180cm (5’11”), weigh 68kgs (150lbs), have 9% bodyfat. I exercise very regularly. Eat a very normal…but low GI…diet. I have a BP of 95/45. A resting pulse of 48bpm. No family history of heart attacks, hypertension or strokes. But I have been advised by two GP’s (who I’ve ignored on the advise of a 3rd GP), that I should be on statins…and have been required to provide “further evidence” on a life insurance policy application that I wasn’t about to drop dead.

    Fortunately I now have a sensible GP who has told me that my previous GP’s were barking mad and that I was, by far, the fittest 55yo patient he had. He said he was 100 times more concerned about some of his patients with half my cholesterol readings. Go figure.

  13. I have a family history of high cholesterol, but REALLY don’t want to take statins, which is what my doctor is recommending. I have been eating a mostly paleo diet the last year or two and my most recent results are as follows:

    VAP – Pattern A
    LDL – 250
    HDL – 62
    Trigylcerides – 46

    My doctor didn’t test for LDL-P.

    Any advice?

    • Read the following article from beginning to end and you will see why you should not take cholesterol lowering drugs:

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/the-cholesterol-myth-that_b_676817.html

      Also, note that while your LDL-cholesterol is very high (healthy range = 70 mg/dL to 99 mg/dL) and your HDL-cholesterol is within the optimal range (healthy = 40 mg/dL to 89 mg/dL; optimal = 60 mg/dL to 89 mg/dL), your triglycerides are a little low (healthy range = 50 mg/dL to 149 mg/dL), so you should try to get your triglycerides up a little to prevent malabsorption of fat soluble vitamins and poor energy output. I recommend that you consume a diet rich in healthy fats (saturated fat counts as healthy fat — believe it or not, you actually need saturated fat) and limit added sugars, hydrogenated fats, and processed foods.

  14. Sorry, but I don’t see how this article shows at all that saturated fat does not raise cholesterol and the Ancel Keys quote was not saying it doesn’t. What his quote says is that if a person’s diet is ALREADY high in saturated fat and already has high cholesterol, adding more to that same diet does not make much difference. However, if person eats a diet with minimal if any fat in it (and has the corresponding low cholesterol), adding saturated fat makes a heck of a difference. That is what many of the respondants to this blog have found – they are a ‘lower fat’ diet, then went Paleo, and their cholesterol shot sky high.

    How anyone these days can say that high fat diets (all fats) and high cholesterol that results from them is not related to heart disease, when for many decades, Drs Esselstyn, McDougall, Ornish and a growing host of others have been removing ALL fat from their heart-ill patient’s diets, dropping their cholesterol rapidly over a matter of weeks, and removing angina, clearing blocked arteries, giving patients put on ‘death row’ after failed by-passes and stents their lives back, beats me. It’s so clear, and is extremely well-documented. All fat is implicated in heart disease and the removal of it moves us away from the brink. This is what Keys found and it is what works in practice. It’s not a ‘familial problem’ – it’s a human problem.

    • You cant ‘clear’ blocked arteries . Plaque build up in arteries is permanent and there are no studies to suggest regression is possible through dietary modification. What about essential fatty acids do we not need those? Think you might be referring to trans fats as opposed to saturated?

      • RT, I am not sure where you have been, but for over 30 years, doctors have been removing plaque from coronary arteries (and all the vascular system) using diet. It’s been shown over and over by angiograms, the disappearance of angina, and the end of erectile dysfunction (just another sign of artery blockage). Even losing weight removes plaque from arteries. And regaining it puts it on. Read the work of Dr Esselstyne for starters, then you can go from there. This is not a theory – it’s a well established fact; and a growing number of insurance companies now pay for dietary intervention for heart patients because it has been clearly proven to get these amazing results. Even those who have already had several bypasses can reverse and remove the plaque in their arteries. Esselstyne has people alive 20 years later in great health – and he’s only one of the doctors doing this so effectively. The body is an amazing self-healing organism, once it gets the right fuel into it.

      • Sorry RT but you are misinformed. you can clear your arteries. In the following website i will give you Dr Esselstyn took angiograms of the same coronary artery in the same patient before and some time after implementing his program of a low fat plant based diet. the results are staggering, The angiogram clearly shows the coronary artery unblocking. Here is the web sit:
        http://www.heartattackproof.com/resolving_cade.htm

  15. I think Chris has been selective in his literature search. I am not sure why the most recent and updated Cochrane review on this topic is not mentioned here.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD002137.pub3/abstract;jsessionid=A71050B10BEB66F2912C337D107B7DDB.f02t02

    Main results

    “This updated review suggested that reducing saturated fat by reducing and/or modifying dietary fat reduced the risk of cardiovascular events by 14% (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77 to 0.96, 24 comparisons, 65,508 participants of whom 7% had a cardiovascular event, I2 50%). “-seems to contradict what is claimed in this article.

    • Zorba,
      I was hoping that Chris or his staff would review this comments section and address this particular study, but it appears this is an after thought shortly after being published.

      I believe that this probably shows that saturated fat may increase risk, but due to the nature of the target, this can only show correlation and not causation. I would be interested to know the source and breakdown of the SFA in those that had an event for example. What other cofactors contributed, such as inflammation. While it is true that there were 14% less events in the group substituting SFA for some other form of fat, I would suspect that fat was likely sourced from a mainstream source, such as supermarket grain-fed, hormone and antibiotic filled, high omega6 food. In other words, there were most likely toxins that aren’t present in sustainable, humanely raised meats that increase the amount of inflammation in those subjects.

      What this tells me is that they need to further break down the examination of SFA and look at inflammatory ingredients in the foods used to acquire that self-reported SFA content.

      As a personal, completely anecdotal example, my inflammatory markers are almost nil while consuming copious amounts of coconut oil, mct oil, wild caught salmon, avocados, and grass fed butter. My lipid profile is even remarkable.

      • That’s interesting. When a Cochrane study was inconclusive, it is quoted everywhere including here by Chris in support of their arguments. When it clearly shows a difference it is blamed on putative unproven factors.

        The quoted review in fact also states

        “Subgrouping suggested that this reduction in cardiovascular events was seen in studies of fat modification (not reduction – which related directly to the degree of effect on serum total and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides), of at least two years duration and in studies of men (not of women).”

        • http://juvenon.com/jhj/vol4no09.htm

          There are several types of saturated fats. Additionally, since this study likely involved general population consuming typical grocery meat as the main way they modified their macros to increase saturated and reduce mono/poly, they likely introduced other toxins into their systems.

          I don’t disagree with the findings of the study or even find it sketchy. All I’m saying is that this is far from conclusive showing causation. Where I find the most logic is the fact that before the 20th century, the main type of fat used to cook with was animal fat, heavy in saturated fat. Heart disease and cancer were rare. After the introduction of sugary drinks, like Coca Cola and Pepsi, along with vegetable oils, there was an increase in CVD.

          When I look to troubleshoot an issue, I generally look to what changed. A study by the Cleveland Clinic last year found that TMAO was much more likely to be the factor in heart disease than the saturated fat. I believe that study needs to be expanded upon too for the same reasons. It does somewhat contradict this study in that saturated fat wasn’t the culprit. Perhaps this study is flawed in drawing a conclusion. After all, they didn’t just have the people eat pure fat over the course of any time and see what happened. No, they had them self-report what they ate and correlated the macros according to estimations.

          It very we’ll could be that the participants that experienced CVD episodes were consuming food containing more toxins to get those macros.

          These studies also tend to look at the effects of isolating one item, which is pretty much expected from a scientific study – make a change to one variable and see what happens. This is another case for further investigation. OK, now we know there is an increases risk for CVD in participants that had high saturated fat intake. Now let’s do a study where we keep that aspect and alter another variable. While at it, collect information on their gut microbes and particle size.

          I think these studies are great, but to say they are definitive is just foolish. I haven’t see one for or against that convinces me either way yet (which is probably why 11 months after stopping my statin use and changing my lifestyle that I’m still reading on it)

          I personally eat red meat – grass fed whenever possible – in moderation just in case. I do eat a lot of coconut oil, mct oil, and grass fed butter though. My hs-CRP came back at 0.27 and my cholesterol profile show no inflammation markers despite this. My total cholesterol isn’t especially high either. This reinforces my belief that a diet that favors a lot of vegetables and a moderate amount of meat from sustainable sources is working for me and making me healthier.

          • I apologize for not proof reading what my iPad corrected…it makes the reply a little more difficult to read. 🙂