The standard myth of heart and arterial disease, or coronary heart disease, goes something like this: If you have high blood cholesterol, due in part to eating saturated fats, it will deposit on the artery walls forming arterial plaque, perhaps eventually hardening with mineral deposits. Pieces of this deposited material can break off and produce strokes and heart attacks. Plaques can narrow the arteries, restricting blood supply to parts of the body and produce high blood pressure in the process.
Cholesterol in the blood occurs in one of two complexes:
LDL - Low Density Lipoprotein which carries fats into body tissues
HDL - High Density Lipoprotein which carries fats from body tissues
So it is seen that high levels of LDL are dangerous and high levels of HDL are beneficial.
Myth #1: Foods High in Cholesterol Increase Blood Cholesterol
Foods high in cholesterol are eggs, dairy fats, and meat fat. According to multiple studies there is no real correlation between eating eggs and increased blood cholesterol levels [13][15]. Cholesterol is a natural and useful substance in the body. It is manufactured in the liver and the body can regulate this production according to dietary intake.
Myth #2: Saturated Fat Creates Arterial Plaque
Blood cholesterol levels are equated in almost everyone as the factor showing how quickly you are heading towards heart disease, through the formation of arterial plaque. The important thing to grasp here is that a test for the blood cholesterol level is not a test for arterial plaque, it is measuring quite a different thing. The assumption by most people that it is cholesterol and saturated fat that forms arterial plaque is just not true. The arterial plaque reflects the composition of the polyunsaturated fats in the diet rather than the saturated ones. The fats in arterial plaque are in the form of cholesterol esters and 74% of the fatty acids within it are unsaturated, 26% saturated. 41% of these unsaturated fats in arterial plaque are the very polyunsaturates that the medical profession are recommending in the diet to combat heart disease [1]. In a typical diet, most polyunsaturates are from vegetable oils, not from animal fats. The plaque contains such fats as would be found in fried foods (that is, oxidised components of vegetable oils) and trans fatty acids from margarines, "vegetable fat" or shortening mixed into complexes with cholesterol [2]. Whereas dietary saturated fat looks like it may increase blood cholesterol, often this is seen as only an increase of the beneficial HDL cholesterol.
Plaque contains some cholesterol in its oxidised form, a form that has been damaged by chemicals commonly termed free radicals. Oxidised cholesterol occurs in cholesterol containing foods that have been cooked and in this form may contribute to formation of arterial plaque even with normal blood cholesterol levels [13].
There is much evidence for the role of cholesterol as an antioxidant - that is a protector of the body working as a neutraliser of free radicals [3]. These free radicals occur in abundance in refined and especially heated, polyunsaturated vegetable oils, such as soya oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, corn oil and so on. It remains uncertain as to whether oxidised cholesterol causes damage to artery walls and leads to plaque formation, or whether in fact it is the result of protecting them from damage.
Myth #3: Polyunsaturated Oils are Beneficial in that they Lower Cholesterol.
In fact polyunsaturated oils have been found to be incorporated into, and consequently weaken, cell membranes when insufficient saturated fats are available to build cells. Cholesterol is then used by the body to strengthen these cells, leading to a lowering of its level in the blood [4]. Many medical trials start with the assumption that lowering LDL blood cholesterol is a good thing; if you make this basic error you naturally come to the conclusion that, for instance, margarine is beneficial (for example [14]), whereas butter is not. Think what happens when you go to get your blood cholesterol level tested. If it's high, your doctor recommends cutting out saturated fats, and increasing polyunsaturated ones. Your LDL blood cholesterol levels lower, and you get the satisfaction of thinking that you have avoided heart disease, when in fact you just started creating it.
Myth #4: Having Low Blood Cholesterol is Healthy.
Having low blood cholesterol is well established in may studies as a factor present in some cancers, and liver disease [5] [7]. It is also associated with age related decline [6]. This does not necessarily show that the low cholesterol is a causative factor in the disease - in some cases it will be as a result of it. However, people with low blood cholesterol tend to be ones who have immune system problems [8] and are prone to serious infections, possibly due to the fact that blood cholesterol is used as a sponge for bacterial toxins which would otherwise cause damage to cells.
So what about cholesterol lowering drugs? Well firstly you are removing the toxin mopping ability of the cholesterol, and its ability to repair damage. Secondly there is a link to creation of cancers, at least in animals [10].
Myth #5: Having High Blood Cholesterol is Unhealthy
Contrary to the cholesterol myth is that there is a simple fact that people with naturally high blood cholesterol (HDL) tend to live longer than those with low [9]. For people over 50, having a high cholesterol (HLD & LDL) reduces the death rate from every cause apart from heart disease [11]. High cholesterol is also associated with a reduced risk of dementia [12]. For people under the age of 50, high blood cholesterol may be indicative of a problem, but if you recall its role as an antioxidant, and a substance used in repair of the body, you may wonder if this highered level is an attempt to protect the body from such things as damage to the arterial walls.
Why Perpetuate Myths?
Themedical profession and pharmaceutical industry are headed in the direction of reducing cholesterol levels at all costs and at this point, much revenue is at stake. They walk hand in hand with the food industry. There would be significant loss of face if they all went back on the myth now. Perhaps lawsuits. I read recently in a tabloid paper about a group of doctors in the UK who know about the cholesterol myths, but will not speak up for fear of the power of the medical establishment and pharmaceutical industry.