Cholesterol is your friend

by Morella Devost 

You're probably saying: "Morella's gone crazy!" I'm not trying to confuse you. I'm actually just about to share some information to help you clear some of the confusion around what causes heart disease, what high cholesterol means and how to lower it.

High cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, unlike what most people think. High cholesterol is a symptom that can accompany heart disease, just like high triglycerides. Sadly, focusing on cholesterol as the problem to be fixed has distracted thousands of people from REALLY addressing the causes of their heart disease.

So let's start from the beginning: what is cholesterol? Cholesterol is a waxy fat and it has many vital functions in your body. It forms the lining of every cell wall in the body and therefore plays a huge role in cell health. It is also the key substance from which hormones such as testosterone, estrogen and cortisone are made. It is so important to our survival that in fact most of the cholesterol in our bodies is made in the liver, and doesn't really come from diet as most people believe.

The cholesterol present in your blood is being carried to tissues that need repair. So it is actually part of a healthy inflammatory response in your body with the purpose of healing. Much like your body would carry extra red blood cells to the site of a cut or scrape to help build a scab.

You may be thinking that's probably what they mean by good cholesterol, but what about the bad cholesterol? The truth is that "bad" cholesterol (or LDL: low density lipoprotein) and "good" cholesterol (HDL: high density lipoprotein) are essentially the same, except that HDL is being transported away OUT of your blood back to your liver, and LDL is being transported INTO your blood from your liver to go wherever it is needed. So elevated cholesterol in your blood means that your liver is sending a lot of it out because there is repair work needed somewhere. It is a sign of high inflammation.

Things start to get a little tricky when you have very small particles of LDL (there are many different sizes of cholesterol) and these tiny particles embed themselves in tissues. The problem with cholesterol starts if and when it oxidizes (goes rancid). Now, many other substances in your body oxidize too, that's why you've heard of antioxidants. When cholesterol oxidizes it can damage the tissues in which it is lodged.

So the two things that really create a problem in your body are inflammation (which elevates the amount of cholesterol that is pumped into your blood) and oxidation (what makes the cholesterol go rancid). Lowering cholesterol in itself is not the solution to the problem.

Still with me?

So what then causes the inflammation and oxidation in the first place? Well, in terms of food, if you are guessing fried foods, trans fats and sugar, you are right! Fried foods and trans fats are already rancid fats, so they immediately wreak havoc in your body, they are the worst creators of free radicals which can destroy healthy cells. Now sugar might be a surprise to you, as we don't typically think of sugar as related to heart disease, right?

I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone tell me, "I eat a healthy diet, you know, low fat". And that is where the problem began for most people who are taking cholesterol drugs today. Everyone jumped on the "low fat" bandwagon and started eating a ridiculous amount of sugar instead: breads, pastas, rice, cakes, muffins, bagels, breakfast cereals, pizzas, and on and on... it's all sugar.

So what is the answer then? I wish there were a simple recipe I could give you; and I know what I'm about to say is not going to fully satisfy you, but the key is to eat as follows:

• Eat tons of fiber vegetables (as opposed to starchy vegetables)
• A healthy amount of protein (based on your metabolic type and also considering your blood type)
• Eat good fats, balancing Omega-3s and Omega-6s
• Eat some fruit