The Truth About Cholesterol

Just say the word "cholesterol" and most people shudder. Almost half of North Americans are believed to have less-than-optimum cholesterol levels. Cholesterol has been vilified as "Public Enemy No. 1," to be eliminated from the diet and lowered in the bloodstream at all costs. But at what cost to your health?

While it's true that too much or too little of certain forms of cholesterol can wreak havoc, it's also true that this much-maligned substance is absolutely essential to health and well-being. Let's examine the benefits and drawbacks, debunk some myths, and learn how proper food choices and effective dietary timing can lead to a healthy cholesterol status.

What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance found among the many fats (triglycerides) in your bloodstream, but it is not a fat. It is actually a steroid that forms the backbone for the body's adrenal and sex hormones. As a structural component of all cell membranes, it helps to strengthen cell walls and is vital in the exchange of nutrients and waste materials across membranes. Cholesterol is so important to nerve impulses that you couldn't move a muscle without it. No wonder your central nervous system brain, spinal cord and nerves contains nearly one-quarter of your body's cholesterol stores. Cholesterol is also required for the digestion of fat and is responsible for converting sunlight into vitamin D.

Since cholesterol is waxy, it doesn't mix well in water mediums including blood, which is 80 percent water. To ensure proper transportation of this essential steroid through the bloodstream to the cells, your body wraps cholesterol in specialized protein carriers called lipoproteins. The amount of protein required to carry a cholesterol particle dictates the density of that protein. You produce both low- and high-density lipoproteins, or LDLs and HDLs. LDLs are responsible for transporting cholesterol to your cells, while the smaller, denser HDLs are responsible for picking up excess cholesterol from the cells and transporting it to the liver for processing or elimination.

LDLs are considered the "bad" cholesterols: the more of them circulating in your blood, the greater your risk of arterial disease. When LDLs are damaged through oxidation, they can accumulate in the walls of the arteries that feed the heart and brain (a condition known as atherosclerosis), cutting off essential nutrients and oxygen to the cells and potentially leading to heart attack or stroke. Almost 60 percent of circulating cholesterol is the LDL form. HDLs, on the other hand, are considered the "good guys" of cholesterol. Research indicates that HDLs are able to remove accumulated plaque in the arteries and may actually reverse atherosclerosis.

Optimum Cholesterol Levels

Unfortunately, to lower cholesterol, many people take pharmaceutical drugs known to create or contribute to possible health implications. Statin drugs, for example, block the liver's cholesterol production and deplete levels of coenzyme Q₁₀ one of the body's most important antioxidants and an essential component of energy metabolism. In animal experiments, statins and most other cholesterol-lowering drugs have produced cancer in dosages close to those prescribed to humans.

Other people, in an effort to lower cholesterol levels, eliminate cholesterol-containing foods, such as eggs and meat, from their diets. While diet is indeed key to cholesterol control, this approach is also misguided because the majority of the cholesterol in bloodstream is manufactured in your liver (up to a tremendous 1,500 milligrams daily) and does not come from cholesterol-containing foods. "There's no connection whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in the blood," says pioneering cardiovascular disease epidemiologist Ancel Keys, PhD. "None. And we've known it all along."

The Real Diet Connection

The answer to balancing cholesterol levels may just be found in lowering dietary sugar (carbohydrate) consumption and in eating more often. Many carbohydrate-containing foods that don't contain fat or cholesterol nevertheless stimulate the most cholesterol production. Why? Because digestion breaks down all carbohydrates into simple sugars. And the body secretes insulin a storage hormone to clear sugar from the bloodstream. Insulin also influences how much cholesterol your liver produces. The more sugar you consume, the more insulin you secrete, and the more cholesterol your body produces. Unfortunately, the majority of the cholesterol produced by an exaggerated insulin response is of the bad LDL variety, while high insulin levels actually decrease the good HDLs.

Processed carbohydrates, such as white flour, dry cereals, and corn meal-based products, break down into sugar quickest (and thus trigger more insulin), while all fibrous vegetables and many fruits especially berries release their sugars more slowly. Unfortunately, processed carbohydrates are the staple of the modern North American diet. No wonder the vast majority of us produce excess insulin and have unhealthy cholesterol levels.

Research also shows that cholesterol levels depend not only on what you eat, but also how often you eat. One study in the British Medical Journal found that, of more than 14,600 men and women aged 45 to 75, participants' total cholesterol and LDL counts declined as meal frequency increased. Participants who ate five or six times a day had the lowest total cholesterol and LDL, while those who ate one or two large meals a day had the highest measurements.

So the verdict is in. If you want optimal cholesterol levels and better health, avoid insulin-spiking processed carbohydrates. Try consuming five small, nutrient-dense meals per day (three solid meals and two protein shakes). And, if by some chance, after a couple of months of eating this way, you still need help to lower cholesterol, please visit a natural health professional for one or a group of side-effect-free alternatives to cholesterol-lowering prescription drugs. Your health may depend on it!

The Kicking-Cholesterol Plan

Eat cholesterol-lowering nutrients: garlic, curcumin (or turmeric root), gugulipid (containing gugulesterones), green tea extract, niacin (vitamin B₃), beta-sitosterol (plant fats from soy or rice), soluble fibres (citrus pectin, psyllium and guar gum), and especially cold-water fish oils.

Eat cholesterol-lowering foods: Vegetables, oatmeal and oat bran (contains beta-glucan), green tea, artichokes and soy protein isolates.

Avoid cholesterol-raising foods: All fast foods (especially fried foods), processed foods, foods high in sugar, bread, pasta, sweets and other simple carbohydrates.

Exercise to lower stress: Your liver produces cholesterol in response to real or perceived stress. By learning to decrease and manage the stress in your life, you can possibly reduce cholesterol in the process. Exercise can lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol.

Caution

If you are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, do not stop taking them without consulting your doctor. If you stop taking them without being weaned off, you will have a rebound effect and your cholesterol will increase. Also, when on statin drugs, it is important to supplement with coenzyme Q₁₀, which is essential to proper functioning of your heart and is drastically reduced when on statin drugs.