High Cholesterol- The Misunderstood Reading

You have High Cholesterol. This means that you need to eliminate bacon, eggs, and other tasty treats because of the high levels of cholesterol within the food? Right?… WRONG?.

If you go to the FDA website right now, and search “Cholesterol”, it will tell you about how cholesterol that you eat from meat products cause high cholesterol. Is this true?

First and foremost, I’m not a doctor. However after reading countless studies and papers from the scientific community, it seems as the FDA and many doctors have been wrong all along. It isn’t the cholesterol that we eat that causes high cholesterol, it is the cholesterol we make. Note: High Cholesterol can be genetic. It can be caused by a variety of factors. This article only notes that many, if not the majority of cases of high cholesterol in the United States is linked to carbohydrate consumption.

How Cholesterol is Made

Cholesterol is made in the body. When we talk about cholesterol, we are talking about HDL (Good Cholesterol) and LDL (Bad Cholesterol), however triglycerides are important. Triglycerides are fats found in the blood. Dietary cholesterol actually tells our body to slow down the production of cholesterol. Some say that 80% of our total cholesterol is created within our bodies, mainly by our liver.

Why is High Cholesterol Bad?

Cholesterol is linked to early death from heart disease and stroke, however cholesterol is needed in the body to work with hormones and vitamin D. Good cholesterol actually helps you stay health by cleaning up your blood.

What Causes High Cholesterol

Cholesterol has been debated for years, but we are starting to find out what causes high cholesterol over the last few years.

In this study researchers looked into added sugar by total percentage of diet and cholesterol levels. They reached that the more sugar consumed decreased good cholesterol, increased bad cholesterol, and increased triglycerides.

Other studies show that people suffering from pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes have increased lipid issues. This is because when insulin isn’t used properly, it causes good cholesterol (HDL) to lower, raising bad cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides. Pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance mostly caused by genetics or high carbohydrate diets over a long period of time.

Based on these two studies, and countless others, we can relate the increased consumption of sugar (and simple carbohydrates) with the increase in cholesterol/triglycerides in humans.

What to do if you are Diagnosed with High Cholesterol

Listen to your doctor. In the past when I had an issue, I asked my doctor if I could have 6 months to get my diet and life together and then retest. Cholesterol levels lower with weight loss and eating a healthy diet. After losing 20 pounds and eliminating soda, my levels fell within the safe range, shocking my doctor. If my results wouldn’t have came back positive, I would have been prescribed a statin medicine.

What are Some Things you can do at Home to Lower Cholesterol?

As mentioned above, lowering your sugar consumption will have positive effects on your body, including lowering cholesterol. It can also help you lose weight. Eliminating soda is typically the easiest way to lower sugar consumption. Working out has positive effects on cholesterol. This includes resistance training (weights) along with cardio.

My Favorite Cholesterol Lowering Supplements:

1st Phorm Full Mega– This is the highest quality fish oil on the market. Omega 3’s have shown to increased HDL (good cholesterol) and lowering triglycerides!

Red Yeast Rice- This herbal supplement has been used for thousands of years and has multiple studies showing that it is nearly as effective as statins when lowering cholesterol levels.

Please talk to Doctor before starting any exercise, diet, or supplement regime.

Questions or Comments? Let me know!

Thank you for reading!

Dustin Holston
NASM Weight Loss Specialist and Personal Trainer