OBESITY: FATS & CHOLESTEROL

For years we heard that a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet would keep us healthy and help us lose weight. And many of us jumped on the bandwagon, eliminating fat and high-cholesterol foods from our diets. Well, unfortunately, we were doing it all wrong.

Instead of eliminating fat completely, we should have been eliminating the “bad fats,” the fats associated with obesity and heart disease and eating the “good fats,” the fats that actually help improve blood cholesterol levels. 

Cholesterol - It’s been ingrained into our brains that cholesterol causes heart disease and that we should limit our intake of foods that contain it, but dietary cholesterol is different than blood cholesterol.

Cholesterol comes from two places—first, from food such as meat, eggs, and seafood, and second, from our body.

Your liver makes a waxy substance and links it to carrier proteins called lipoproteins. These lipoproteins dissolve the cholesterol in blood and carry it to all parts of your body.

Your body needs cholesterol to help form cell membranes, some hormones, and Vitamin D. Good cholesterol is brain food. It is the only brain food.  Overloading the liver with bad cholesterol is just asking for liver failure. 

You may have heard of “good” and “bad” cholesterol.

High-density lipoproteins (HDL) carry cholesterol from the blood to the liver. The liver processes the cholesterol for elimination from the body. If there’s HDL in the blood, then less cholesterol will be deposited in the coronary arteries. That’s why it’s called “good” cholesterol.

Low-density lipoproteins (LDL), carry cholesterol from the liver to the rest of the body. When there is too much in the body, it is deposited in the coronary arteries.

A build-up of cholesterol in your arteries could prevent blood from getting to parts of your heart. That means that your heart won’t get the oxygen and nutrients it needs, which could result in heart attack, stroke, even sudden death. So, if your LDL is higher than your HDL, you’re at a greater risk for developing heart disease. 

High LDL levels are like riding a motorcycle without a helmet.  It only takes a moment for an incident that will leave you bedridden for the rest of your life.  Do you really want your family to have to care for an invalid?  Do you really want the financial drain on your family that would happen if you could not contribute to their income? 

It may come as a surprise, but recent studies have shown that the amount of cholesterol in our food is not strongly linked to our blood cholesterol levels. It’s the types of fats you eat that affect your blood cholesterol levels.

Obesity and Bad Fats -

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