Summary

• High cholesterol is an indicator of a problem, it is rarely the problem.
• The safest way to lower cholesterol is to lower blood sugar levels and lower inflammation levels through a change in diet. Less carbs = less sugar. Less seed oil and less grain fed animals = less inflammation.

The Story – It’s the Burns not the Band-Aids.

Once upon a time there was a man who loved lighters.

This man really, really loved lighters. He had hundreds of lighters.  Everyday, three times a day, he sat down to play with one, or two or all of them.

Every time he played with a lighter, he burned himself. Every time he burned himself, he put a band-aid on the wound. He had a lot of wounds covered by a lot of band-aids.

When the man died, a famous doctor performed the autopsy. The doctor was astounded at the number of band-aids but not the cause of death. He was seeing more and more men and women with the same symptoms.

“Yes, I know what causes this disease.” The famous doctor proclaimed.

“Yes, I have a recommended cure for the disease.”

“The disease is called ‘Syndrome Z’. As you all are aware, Syndrome Z is on the rise. Syndrome Z is responsible for the death of more and more Americans every year. We need to put an end to Syndrome Z.”

“I have determined that Syndrome Z is caused by excess band-aids. Every autopsy I perform on a victim of Syndrome Z reveals the same characteristic indicator of an excessive amount of band-aids. I propose that we educate the public on the danger of excess band-aids.”

—————-

Ancel Keys declared in 1956 that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease. According to Dr. Keys, individuals should do everything they can to reduce cholesterol and individuals should replace saturated fat from animals with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats from vegetable oils.

Cholesterol is used by the body as a building block and a band-aid.  Cholesterol is the base for many important hormones and cholesterol is used to shore up weak cell walls and repair damage in inflamed tissue.  Cholesterol is vital for life and we would die without it.

High cholesterol is an indicator of a problem (it’s the body producing and using a lot of band-aids), cholesterol is rarely the problem.

While some individuals do need to eat less cholesterol, lowering blood sugar and lowering inflammation will lower cholesterol levels by getting at the root of the problem – inflammation.

Blood sugar can be safely lowered by lowering the amount of sugar in the diet by reducing or eliminating flour, sugar and potatoes.  There are no critical nutrients in flour, sugar or potatoes.  Chronic consumption of excess carbohydrates will generate nutrient deficiencies, weight gain, and chronically elevated blood sugar.

Inflammation levels can be safely reduced by eliminating seed oils and improving the quality of meat consumed.  Seed oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids. Grain fed livestock (beef, pork, chicken) are also high in omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-6 fatty acids are used like smoke alarms in the body. Omega-6 fatty acids are unsaturated which causes them to be highly reactive. When the omega-6 fatty acids react or oxidate, it triggers an immune response (calls the fire department). If there are 12 smoke alarms in the house and one goes off every time someone burps, no maintenance on the house is getting done because the fire department keeps knocking down the front door and putting hoses through the windows.

There are no nutritional requirements for consuming concentrated seed oil. There is increasing evidence of the negative effects of consuming concentrated seed oils (canola oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, corn oil, etc). Seed oils are cheap to produce and are present in a wide variety of commercial products. While a small amount of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are required in a diet – the required amount is significantly exceeded in a typical American diet.

There is no debate on the health benefits of reducing blood sugar and reducing inflammation.

Targeting cholesterol shoots the messenger, it doesn’t fix the problem.  Cholesterol is the band-aid, not the burn.

 

Notes:

• Gary Taubes does a fantastic job of explaining how the Fat Hypothesis came to be the accepted dogma in his book ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’.
• ‘Perfect Health Diet’, by Paul and Shou-Ching Jaminet has the best explanation I have found on how consumption of concentrated seed oils increases inflammation.

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