How Do We Know Fat’s a Problem?
Monday, October 19th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Most people have learned something about cholesterol, and many of us have been to the doctor for a blood test to learn our cholesterol “number.” Now, however, it turns out that there’s more than one kind of cholesterol, too. Almost every day there are newspaper reports of new studies or recommendations about what to eat or what not to eat: Lard is bad, olive oil is good, margarine is better for you than butter– then again, maybe it’s not. Once upon a time, we didn’t know anything about fat except that it made foods tastier. We cooked our food in lard or shortening. We spread butter on our breakfast toast and plopped sour cream on our baked potatoes. Farmers bred their animals to produce milk with high butterfat content and meat “marbled” with fat because that was what most people wanted to eat.[I:http://www.cholesterolbad.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ChrisArribbat0.gif]
Doctors recommend that total blood cholesterol be kept below 200mg/dl. The average level in adults in this country is 205 to 215mg/dl. Studies in the United States and other countries have consistently shown that total cholesterol levels above 200 to 220mg/dl are linked with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol act differently in the body. A high level of LDL- in turn increases the risk of a heart attack. Thus, LDL-cholesterol has been dubbed “bad” cholesterol. [I:http://www.cholesterolbad.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ChrisArribbat1.jpg]
Another misconception is that people can improve their cholesterol numbers by eating “good” cholesterol. In food, all cholesterol is the same. In the blood, whether cholesterol is “good” or “bad” depends on the type of lipoprotein that’s carrying it.
De Langen also noticed that both blood cholesterol levels and rates of heart disease soared among Indonesians who abandoned their native diet of mostly plant foods and ate a typical Dutch diet containing a lot of meat and dairy products. This was the first recorded suggestion that diet, cholesterol levels, and heart disease were related in humans. But de Langen’s observations lay unnoticed in an obscure medical journal for more than 40 years. After World War II, medical researchers in Scandinavia noticed that deaths from heart disease had declined dramatically during the war, when food was rationed and meat, dairy products, and eggs were scarce. At about the same time, other researchers found that people who suffered heart attacks had higher levels of blood cholesterol than people who did not have heart attacks.
Some research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish such as salmon and mackerel as well as in soybean and canola oil, lower both LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood. Some nutrition experts recommend eating fish once or twice a week to reduce heart disease risk. However, dietary supplements containing concentrated fish oil are not recommended because there is insufficient evidence that they are beneficial and little is known about their long-term effects.
A Healthier You Once upon a time, we didn’t know much about fat except that it made foods richer. We cooked our food in lard or shortening. We spread butter on our morning toast and plopped sour cream on our jacket potatoes. Farmers bred their animals to make milk with high butterfat content and meat “marbled” with fat because that was what most people wanted to eat. A Healthier You
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