Cholesterol and saturated fats are they good or bad?
Cholesterol is something that is mentioned frequently usually in a derogatory way, like cholesterol was a bad thing but it isn't...
Confused whether butter is better or
vegetable oil is healthier?
Some background is needed before I get into whether or not cholesterol is good or bad, or if butter is better.
The lipid hypothesis, a theory that implies there is a direct relationship between the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet and the incidence of coronary heart disease was proposed by a researcher named Ancel Keys in the late 1950s.[1] It is this view that received the most publicity, and any other studies have been largely ignored by the mainstream press and medical arenas.
Without getting into all the whys and wherefores, studies have been ignored, results not looked at in their entirety and it is a sorry tale of industry lobbying.
This study suited the vegetable oil industry and the rest is a history of slick marketing with butter and lard being largely vilified. Picture the scene as someone tucks in to a piece of cheese, looking guilty and say "Oh but it tastes so good, I know I shouldn't eat this." yet if we do not have enough saturated fat our body will crave it! So we might as well eat the good quality cheese or grass fed butter and ENJOY it! Well that is my theory and I love cheese!
"Cholesterol is also needed to produce a variety of steroids that protect against cancer, heart disease and mental illness." [1]
Mary Enig in her book "Eat Fat, Lose Fat", describes cholesterol in an easy to understand way, saying "Cholesterol is often referred to as a fat, but it's actually a heavyweight alcohol with a hormone-like structure that behaves like a fat."
"Generally speaking, high-density lipoproteins (HDL) carry cholesterol away from the cells to the liver, and low density lipoproteins (LDL) carry cholesterol to the cells. We speak of HDL as "good" and LDL as "bad" cholesterol. However, both HDL and LDL play critical roles in body chemistry." [2]
This is a complex matter that seems to be largely misunderstood, judging by the common talk of 'My good cholesterol...', or ' the doctor has me on pills to reduce my bad cholesterol', yet one carries cholesterol away from the cells to the liver and one carries cholesterol to the cells, so how can one be better than the other? I am confused by the marketing of lowering one's cholesterol as it is vital in the body! It seems to me to be as perverse as taking pills to reduce the amount of oxygen I breathe in?
Cholesterol is needed by the body for: [3]
- Your body uses cholesterol to make hormones that help you deal with stress and protect against heart disease and cancer.
- Your body needs cholesterol to make all the sex hormones.
- Your body uses cholesterol to make vitamin D, vital for the bones and nervous system, proper growth, mineral metabolism, muscle tone, insulin production, reproduction, and immune system function.
- Cholesterol acts as an antioxidant, protecting us against free radical damage that leads to heart disease and cancer.
- Cholesterol is needed for proper function of seratonin receptors in the brain. Since serotonin is the body's natural "feel-good" chemical, it not surprising that low cholesterol levels have been linked to aggressive and violent behaviour, depression and suicidal tendancies.
- Dietary cholesterol plays an important role in maintaining the health of the intestinal wall. This is why low-cholesterol vegetarian diets can lead to leaky gut syndrome and other intestinal disorders.
- Finally, the body uses cholesterol to repair damaged cells. This means that higher cholesterol levels are actually beneficial. Meyer Texon, M.D., a well-known pathologist at New York University Medical Center, points out that indicting fat and cholesterol for hardening the arteries is like accusing white blood cells of causing infection, rather than helping the immune system to address it.
- I have actually heard the analagy that blaming cholesterol for heart disease is like blaming the firemen for starting the fires- as every time there is a fire the fire men are there (putting it out) but to an onlooker that didn't know the whole picture it could be said that the firemen are always near the fires!
It appears from the extensive list of benefits of cholesterol that we need it. I know that now I eat more saturated fat I have more mental clarity. I sleep better and when I fall over skiing I can get up, have a hot bath later on and wake up feeling fine the next day. I believe from my own experience that eating more fat; butter, ghee, lard, beef dripping and coconut oil, I feel well and look healthy.
Talking of mental clarity, let's consider the alarming rise in modern diseases such as Alzheimers, depression, Parkinsons' disease, is there a correlation to our diet. Many think so and it stands to reason that eating real food would nourish our body, foods that humans have eaten for hundreds of years, yet in the last 50 years diets have changed dramatically and it appears so have rates of illness, and not for the better. The video from mindd.org is fascinating discussing fats.
In years gone by
we ate butter, full fat (usually raw) milk, lard, beef
tallow/dripping, ate meat with fat on it and shopped locally and in
season.
Chips/hot chips/french fries used to be fried in beef tallow or coconut oil, both rich in saturated fats, now they are fried in vegetable oils which are often hydrogenated. Hydrogenation is a process by which liquid vegetable oils could be hardened to make margarine. In 1909, Procter & Gamble acquired the US rights to the British patent that made liquid vegetable oils solid at room temperature. Hydrogenated oils are eaten in foods such as doughnuts, biscuits, cookies, breads, fried foods and margarines.
"Vegetable oils are more toxic when heated. One study reported that polyunsaturates turn to varnish in the intestines. A study by a plastic surgeon found that women who consumed mostly vegetable oils had far more wrinkles than those who used traditional animal fats. A 1994 study appearing in the Lancet showed that almost three quarters of the fat in artery clogs is unsaturated. The "artery clogging" fats are not animal fats but vegetable oils." [4]
So what about butter and is margarine or butter better?
Butter is made from milk. When that milk is from grass fed cows then it will contain a great number of essential nutrients, such as Vitamin A, D and Vitamin K. The human race would not have survived if butter was bad for us. Low fat and vegetable oils have only been around for under 100 years! Butter being rich in "Vitamins A and D in butter are essential to the proper absorption of calcium and hence necessary for strong bones and teeth. The plague of osteoporosis in milk-drinking western nations may be due to the fact that most people choose skim milk over whole, thinking it is good for them. Butter also has anti-cariogenic effects, that is, it protects against tooth decay." [5]
"It's no longer a secret that the margarine Americans have been spreading on their toast, and the hydrogenated fats they eat in commercial baked goods like cookies and crackers, is the chief culprit in our current plague of cancer and heart disease." [6]
Perhaps the trend to eat low fat, and switch to vegetable oils and low fat or fat-free homogenised milk might explain the rampant rise in degenerative diseases we see today? I know that I for one will be sticking with eating butter, it just sounds so much nicer than margarine!
References:
[1] Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig,Ph.D. Nourishing Traditions, 1999. p4. published by New Trends Publishing.
[2], [3] Dr Mary Enig and Sally Fallon, Eat Fat, Lose Fat, 2005. p.24. published by Plume.
[4] D Groom, "Population Studies of Atherosclerosis," Annals of Int Med, July 1961, 55:1:51-62; W F Enos, et al, "Pathogenesis of Coronary Disease in American Soldiers Killed in Korea," JAMA , 1955, 158:912
[5] Kabara, J J, The Pharmacological Effects of Lipids, J J Kabara, ed, The American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, IL 1978 pp 1-14
[6] Enig, Mary G, PhD, Nutrition Quarterly 1993 Vol 17, No 4