The Great Cholesterol Myth

High cholesterol causes heart disease and strokes – true or false?

You answered true, didn’t you.

Actually, it’s false. I won’t hold it against you, because we keep being told by our doctors and health experts that high cholesterol is a sign of poor health and can be life threatening. Even the Heart Foundation continues to say that people are dying from high cholesterol! But that is outdated science. Studies have proved that there is no correlation between high cholesterol and heart disease. And the funny thing is, this evidence has been around for a while – but there’s still so much misinformation, and we remain in the dark.

We’ve become a fat-phobic society. We choose low-fat milk and fat-free yoghurts, thinking that the cholesterol is bad for us.

So let me bust this myth for you – cholesterol does NOT make you unhealthy.

Here’s what your doctor should be telling you: high cholesterol levels are not a risk factor for heart disease.

There are studies upon studies that show no correlation. It’s been called “the greatest health scam of the century” by Dr George Mann who led the famous Framington Heart Study in 2005. High cholesterol is a very poor predictor of heart attacks, and in fact, many heart attack sufferers are in the normal range. People with low cholesterol are just as likely to have heart disease as people with high cholesterol.

The same with saturated fats. All that misguided health advice has made us scared to eat eggs and butter, but they have absolutely no link to a higher risk of heart disease. In fact, people who eat the most saturated fats actually have a lower risk of heart problems!

The report that found this looked at over 20 other studies and showed they all came to the same conclusion. So the science is out there in bucket loads – it’s just not getting through to us. Why? Well, that same study found a publication bias: reports confirming the mainstream theory, that fat is unhealthy, were more likely to get published. How sneaky is that - it definitely explains why we’ve been in the dark for so long.

So if you’ve been scared to include fats in your diet, rest assured that high cholesterol alone is not a significant health threat.

Then what actually causes heart disease?

We all know the classic unhealthy lifestyle factors that make us prone to heart problems: smoking, excess alcohol, a lack of aerobic exercise, and being overweight. Unfortunately, cholesterol levels have been thrown into the mix as well. But it’s well time to reveal the true culprit: a high carbohydrate diet. And not just sugar, but everything from bread and potatoes to soda and beer.

Carbs trigger a surge in blood sugar levels, which over time affects your insulin sensitivity and means you pack on fat. The more fat you carry, the more inflammation and free radicals that build up in your body. And inflammation always equals disease – the heart is one of the primary victims. We do not do well on high-carb diets.

You may have heard of LDL – it’s also been labelled as the bad guy in heart health. We've been told that we need to lower LDL because its the "bad cholesterol" that forms plaques and clogs our arteries. Not true. LDL is awesome! It’s a carrier protein, transporting cholesterol to the brain to keep all our little neurons firing away. But, LDL can become oxidised – it becomes damaged, useless and increases free radicals, meaning it can contribute to heart disease. And how does it become oxidised? You guessed it – inflammation. So LDL is not inherently bad, and we need to reduce oxidisation, not necessarily levels of LDL itself.

A family member recently sent me this Instagram post that called out coconut oil as unhealthy because it raises cholesterol and is a risk factor for heart disease. As I read the post, I could immediately see where they were interpreting the science wrong. See if you can spot it as well. (Hint: healthy LDL is not bad for you!)

Bottom line: it does not matter whether your cholesterol levels are high or low. It's about the level of inflammation in your body.

It’s important to know the science. If you want to find out your risk for heart disease, look at tests for blood sugar levels or fasting insulin. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that high cholesterol is a risk factor.

Also, check out this podcast on the cholesterol conspiracy if you're interested. Steve, a Nutritional Cardiologist, talks about how the Heart Foundation gave a 'tick' to McNuggets (which says a lot about the credibility of the Foundation). And he shares a funny story when a doctor said Steve had the healthiest heart he'd ever seen, but the doctor was outraged when Steve said he had 6 eggs for breakfast and gave him some terrible advice:"you can't eat that, you'll get heart disease!"

What other things has high cholesterol been given a bad rap for?

Let me bust two more myths.

Eating fat does not make you fat. And diabetes has nothing to do with cholesterol levels.

Around the 1950s, we started to equate a fatty diet with fatty arteries – scientists called saturated fats bad, and diabetics were put on medication to lower cholesterol levels. We were told to replace fats with carbs and processed vegetable oils. How ironic that diabetes levels increased and increased after a low-fat diet was endorsed. As I explained earlier, obesity and diabetes come from blood sugar surges and insulin resistance. Helloo, scientists, the culprit is the high-carb diet you’ve been telling us to eat!

Some people still haven’t figured it out. Gosh, even the Australian Dietary Guidelines encourage people to eat “low-fat dairy” and limit saturated fat to maintain a healthy weight – which is such outdated science that frankly, it’s just plain embarrassing for them.

So high cholesterol actually has health benefits?

Cholesterol is a wonderful thing and our bodies need it to thrive. Cholesterol allows neurons to function properly, improves our immune system, and creates Vitamin D (one of the most important hormones in our body). It also creates testosterone, so has an impact on our libido and sex life.

And it makes you smarter! In that famous Framington study I mentioned earlier, people with higher cholesterol performed better in cognitive tests.

Because it’s so important, cholesterol actually reduces the risk for brain disease and increases our longevity. The complete opposite of what we’ve been told for so long. People who eat fish are 44% less likely to get dementia, and those who consume omega-3 rich oils like olive and flaxseed in their diet are 60% less likely. A Netherlands study showed that people with high cholesterol levels were less likely to die from cancer or infection, and in general lived longer!

But our brains and bodies do much worse on a high-carb diet. Older people eating lots of carbs are 4 times more likely to get cognitive impairment, memory loss and eventually brain diseases. A post-mortem study of the brains of Alzheimer’s sufferers had way less cholesterol and fat than the average brain – they would’ve eaten a carb-heavy diet.

This is why foods that advertise themselves as “LOW-FAT!” are so wrong – eating a low-fat diet and minimising your cholesterol does a huge disservice to your body and is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Don’t be fooled by the misinformation that lingers around today from the mid 20th century. It doesn’t reflect the science.

So a diet high in healthy fats is the key to health and brain function. Of course, this does not include processed toxic trans fat. But we need all the other types: monounsaturated (avocado, olives, nuts), polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids (fish, flaxseed oil), and saturated fat (coconut oil, eggs). Not only does a high-fat diet protect your brain and give you a sharper memory, it also makes weight-loss easier, improves your sleep and gives you a better sex life.

So no link to heart disease, obesity or diabetes? Improves our brain health and makes us live longer? Sounds like cholesterol is a hero, not an enemy.

Let’s stop slamming cholesterol as the root of our health problems and start giving it the recognition it deserves. Now, every time you see a TV ad or weight loss program or recipe book advertising a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet, you can laugh in its face. We have eaten cholesterol-rich foods for 2 million years, and it’s about time we got back to them.

Let me know your thoughts!