Cholesterol Myths: Why Cholesterol Isn’t the Enemy to Your Health
Cholesterol myths have driven decades of confusion about dietary fats, heart health, and what really impacts your body’s well-being. In this post, we explore why cholesterol isn’t inherently bad. We examine how misconceptions about LDL and HDL developed. We also discuss what science actually says about fats, processed foods, and cardiovascular risk. Understanding cholesterol myths helps you make better nutrition choices and see beyond outdated diet advice.
Per the National Cancer Institute (NCI) cholesterol is defined as “A waxy, fat-like substance made in the liver, and found in the blood and in all cells of the body. Cholesterol is important for good health and is needed for making cell walls, tissues, hormones, vitamin D, and bile acid. Cholesterol also comes from eating foods taken from animals like egg yolks, meat, and whole-milk dairy products. Too much cholesterol in the blood may build up in blood vessel walls, block blood flow to tissues and organs, and increase the risk of developing heart disease and stroke.”
For many years, it has gotten a bad reputation. Doctors and experts said high cholesterol was detrimental to your health. They warned you to stay away from foods like eggs, butter, meats, and nuts. In fact, in the 1950s, nutritionist, Ancel Keys, is hailed as the originator of the “cholesterol is bad” movement. He hypothesized (yes, a theory) that dietary fat was directly linked to heart disease. People, including doctors and nutritionists, believed him. As a result, you started to see promotions for “fat-free” and “low-fat” products. There was also an emphasis on eliminating foods like eggs, butter, and meats from the American diet. Government health officials began advising the public to adopt low-fat diets. They believed fats were directly linked to obesity and diabetes.
Cholesterol Myths and Why We’ve Been Taught to Fear Fat
But what happens when you start to have more low-fat or fat-free food options available? What I like to call “fillers” like processed grains, high fructose corn syrup, and vegetable oils are incorporated instead. These are the actual causes of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. The fats and cholesterol are not the causes.
Before I continue on defending cholesterol, let’s examine the findings from decades later. Studies revealed two types of cholesterol. One type is now praised as being good for you.
The Difference Between LDL and HDL Cholesterol Explained
LDL (low-density lipoprotein): called the “bad cholesterol” as it can build up in your arteries and cause plaque which can then lead to heart disease and stroke; people who have a high LDL are usually prescribed a statin drug to help lower their LDL levels
HDL (high-density lipoprotein): called the “good cholesterol” as it absorbs cholesterol from your blood and carries it back to the liver to flush from the body; high levels of HDL are said to lower your chances of heart disease and stroke
Here are some statistics from the CDC:
- 7% of US children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 have high total cholesterol
- 47 million Americans are now taking a cholesterol medicine (statin)
- 86 million Americans age 20 or older have total cholesterol levels above 200 mg/dL
Your cholesterol levels are checked via a simple blood test. However, some doctors agree that this blood test needs to be expanded. This expansion would provide a more accurate reading of your cholesterol. According to LabCorp the ranges of LDL, HLD and TOTAL are:
TOTAL Cholesterol Range:
LDL (bad) Cholesterol Range:
HDL (good) Cholesterol Range:
Dr. Michael Twyman and Dr. Paul Saladino say to get a more accurate reading of your cholesterol levels, your doctor needs to order the following tests:
- Triglycerides/HDL Ratio: a high triglyceride/HDL ratio is a signal for insulin resistance which can lead to heart disease
- Oxidized LDL (OxLDL): oxidized LDL is more likely to build up on artery walls and contribute to heart disease and diabetes
- Fasting Insulin: indicates your metabolic health
- Linoleic Acid Content: excess linoleic acid can cause metabolic dysfunction
- Visceral Fat: should be on the lower range
- Endothelial Health: can determine your risk for cardiac disease
Why Cholesterol Levels Alone Don’t Tell the Whole Story
The confusion nowadays is that cholesterol is not THE problem. It is a SIGNAL that there is another problem in the body.
Elevated LDL is an indicator of an underlying metabolic dysfunction; cholesterol imbalance is associated with insulin resistance. Insulin resistance causes inflammation which produces elevated levels of cholesterol.
Dr. Paul Saladino, author of The Carnivore Code, published a graphic showing the relationship between LDL, HDL and cardiovascular disease:
From the graphic, you can see a strong correlation between LDL and cardiovascular disease in individuals with low HDL. HDL levels are a good indicator of insulin sensitivity and metabolic health.
To break it down, HDL helps your body to recycle LDL. If there isn’t enough HDL in your body, it cannot help circulate and process LDL. This increases the risk associated with cardiac disease.
Do not focus on each individual lipid level on your blood test results. Instead, look at the ratio of HDL and LDL.
Dr. Mary Enig, a specialist in lipid biochemistry, even said high cholesterol is an “invented disease“.
Dr. David Diamond, a neuroscientist, says, “The most healthful foods are rich in animal fat and tropical oils. The fear of cholesterol is the greatest hoax of all time and it is unhealthy and unwise to lower serum cholesterol with diet and medication.”
How Processed Foods Play a Bigger Role in Heart Disease
We are a society that uses and consumes many industrial seed oils. In the 1800s and early 1900s, animal fat oils were used instead. During that time, there was no mass epidemic of heart disease issues. These very same seed oils contain linoleic acid. Linoleic acid is found in many highly processed oils such as canola and soybean. This acid promotes the oxidation of LDL, inflammation throughout the body, and the development of atherosclerosis.
Dr. Barbara O’Neill, who specializes in alternative health care, also debunks the claim that fat and cholesterol are bad for you in this video. She says:
“When someone has a heart problem they are told to stop the fats. Why? Because of cholesterol. Your liver makes cholesterol and your liver makes cholesterol according to the body’s demands. 80% of the cholesterol that your liver makes is made from glucose and 20% of the cholesterol that your liver makes is made from fat. You see? It’s not the butter on the bread. It’s the bread under the butter that’s the problem. The wrong guy’s been shot. There are two main types of cholesterol: HDL and LDL. HDL is called the good guy because it is the carrier and it carries excess cholesterol back to the liver. LDL is called the bad guy, but the body doesn’t make anything bad. LDL’s role is that of a repairer and a rebuilder. But it does something else, too. It delivers cholesterol to the brain because the brain loves cholesterol. Did you know the fattiest food on the planet with the highest cholesterol levels is breast milk in the first month of life because that developing brain will not develop without rich amounts of cholesterol and fat.”
The Role of Cholesterol in Hormones, Brain Health, and Healing
To add to Dr. O’Neill’s explanation, 75% of our brain is made up of myelin. Myelin is a fatty, insulating layer that wraps around the nerves in our brain and our spinal cord. Myelin is made up by cholesterol.
The Alzheimer’s Disease Society was formed in 1979. This was due to the increasing number of people with AD. It was also in response to the associated deaths from AD. From 1979 through 1987, AD was listed as the underlying cause of death for 46,202 people in the United States. Now the cases of AD has skyrocketed and is one of the major causes of death today.
But what about before 1979? AD wasn’t around. So what happened?
Margarine was invented in 1869 by Hippolyte Mèges-Mouries as an alternative to butter. However, it didn’t gain popularity until after World War II. At that time, butter and other animal fats were scarce. During the 1950s and 60s, you saw more “low-fat” and “fat-free” products. Doctors and our government told us that meat, eggs, and nuts cause heart disease.
Then in the 1970s, the use of vegetable oils (and not animal fats) grew in popularity. FYI….canola oil was discovered in 1974.
Could we safely assume that these highly processed seed oils are the cause of brain disorders like AD? We are denying our brains of the cholesterol/fats it needs. Let me know in the comments below what you think!
Statins, Side Effects, and the Business of Cholesterol Fear
We now know that cholesterol is not the issue, but rather a signal of another issue within the body. Let’s discuss statins, the pharmaceutical drugs prescribed to people with high levels of LDL. Some name brands of statins include Lipitor, Crestor, Livalo and FloLipid.
Statins work by inhibiting the HMG-CoA reductase which enables cells to produce cholesterol. By inhibiting the HMG-CoA, the production of cholesterol is blocked; thus, lowering the amount of cholesterol in the blood. Statins also block production of CoQ10, one of the most important nutrients for mitochondrial support: the powerhouse of your cells. They also block your ability to absorb Vitamin D from sunlight.
And, like with any pharmaceuticals, statins come with a host of side effects. These include liver damage, muscle pain, increased blood sugar levels, pregnancy risks, memory issues, and hair loss.
Dr. Lauren Deville explains about side effects, “The most common is certainly muscle soreness, ranging from mild to severe, and affecting some 10-15% of statin users. The primary cause of this is likely mitochondrial dysfunction secondary to low CoQ10. Since the heart is also a muscle, statins have also been associated with cardiomyopathy, leading to heart failure. This effect is reversible upon discontinuing the statins and initiating CoQ10 therapy.”
Low CoQ10, which is a result of taking statins, negatively affects the muscles. The heart, being a muscle, is also negatively affected. I thought statins were supposed to protect the heart????
More than two hundred million people around the world, including children, take statin drugs for heart health. Now that we know what we do, those two hundred million people are on the wrong track. They are misguided when it comes to their heart health. But you cannot blame the people. Everyone in the medical field tells them that statins are good and cholesterol is bad.
Regarding statin use, Dr. Joseph Pizzorno said, “The only justification I can see for the new cholesterol practice management guidelines (discussed below) is to print money for drug companies. Truly, how can anyone think we need to prescribe statins to 50% of the population older than 40?! In order to justify this extreme position, data had to be distorted and cholesterol vilified.”
In fact, like Dr. Pizzorno said, statins are indeed profitable:
Global Market: global sales of statins are expected to reach $22 billion by 2032
U.S. Market: U.S. statin market was valued at $4.53 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $5.10 billion by 2031
Lipitor Brand: expected to be the third highest lifetime sales drug by 2028. Although Lipitor’s patent expired years ago, it continues to generate billions for Pfizer due to sales in China and other emerging markets.
Imagine if people diagnosed with “high cholesterol” realized cholesterol was not the enemy!
Dr. Chris Centeno agrees as he published an article titled, “Statins Are More Business Than Medicine”. He gave a depiction by comparing blueberries to statins to show how useless statins are even though doctors and pharmaceuticals claim great benefits of them:
I encourage you to read Dr. Centeno’s article here.
Dr. Pizzorno again confirms it is NOT cholesterol that is the problem and cause of heart disease and stroke, “The research is clear that elevated cholesterol is indeed associated with cardiovascular disease. The real problem is not cholesterol but rather oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) cholesterol. Elevated cholesterol typically also means elevated oxidized cholesterol, so it is, in reality, an indirect measure of the true problem (cooking cholesterol-rich foods in the presence of oxygen, excessive oxidative stress in the body, inadequate consumption of antioxidants, etc…“
He further explains that statins do have a benefit of preventing heart disease/heart attack HOWEVER only to people who have previously had a heart attack, “The statin will do no good for a person who has had no heart attacks. The situation in which statins have been clearly shown to offer benefits is secondary prevention of a heart attack in those with a previous history of heart attack or stroke. Healthy diet, adequate exercise, and reducing oxidative stress are still far more beneficial, let alone cheaper.“
Final Thoughts on Cholesterol Myths and Real Health
So now you may be wondering what exactly causes oxidized cholesterol and the solution. Dr. Pizzorno illustrates:
In closing, I encourage you, especially if you are currently taking a statin, to talk with your doctor and ask for a blood test based on the options discussed earlier.
As I have said before many times, you are your own advocate for your health!
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Together, we’ll look beyond surface-level lab results and work to understand what your body is really signaling, so you can make informed, empowered decisions about your health.
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