Here it is the end of 2016, and my last newsletter of the year. I have written about many things, and I hope that each newsletter impacted you in some way. My desire and passion is to reach people and impact them to make a change in their eating habits, and by doing so improve their health. I hope you enjoy this newsletter and it impacts you in a positive way.
What would we do without eggs? They are a dietary mainstay, not only for breakfast but to stand in for a quick lunch or supper, after all who doesn’t love a good omelet at any time of the day.
Many of us will remember when we were told that eggs are bad for us, that they cause heart disease, that they raise our cholesterol – all of these have since been proven wrong. For a few decades, eggs had a bad reputation. Thanks to its high cholesterol content, the egg was considered bad for us to eat. Years went by while many of us shunned eggs, ate only the whites, or ventured into the world of egg substitutes.
You see, for years we have been told that cholesterol intake should be kept to a bare minimum as doing so will help to decrease blood cholesterol levels and promote overall health, and although the theory of lowering dietary cholesterol intake to lower internal cholesterol makes logical sense, the theory doesn’t quite pan out, as our bodies are, generally, more complex creatures than our logical minds give them credit for.
Fact is, when dietary intake of cholesterol is decreased, the liver compensates by producing more cholesterol, leaving total cholesterol levels relatively unchanged. In the same way, if cholesterol consumption is increased, the liver produces less cholesterol, and again, total cholesterol values will not be substantially altered.
Now that’s not to say that we should go crazy with our intake of cholesterol, but it does mean that one can expect cholesterol levels to remain relatively stable over a wide range of dietary intakes.
The truth is, cholesterol actually acts as an antioxidant against dangerous free radicals within the blood and is also necessary for the production of certain hormones that help to fight against heart disease. Cholesterol is important for brain health; low levels of HDL cholesterol have been linked to memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease, and may also increase your risk of depression, and stroke. When there are high levels of undesirable substances in the blood (caused by the dietary intake of damaged fats, highly processed “unhealthy” foods, and large quantities of sugars), cholesterol levels rise in order to combat these substances.
Blaming heart disease on high cholesterol is like blaming infection on high levels of antibodies (special proteins produced by the body in order to defend against foreign bacteria and infectious agents). If the body allowed cholesterol to fall in the presence of large amounts of free radicals, our risk for heart disease would increase, not decrease, and fortunately our bodies won’t let that happen.
So, the answer to decreasing blood cholesterol levels is not avoiding omelets and not necessarily decreasing dietary cholesterol intake, but rather improving ones diet overall by eating healthier in general and avoiding the other harmful types of foods mentioned. Basically, removing processed foods high in sugar are the key to lowering your blood cholesterol. Combine that with increased physical activity and both you and your cholesterol levels will be in even better shape.