Health Hotline Magazine | March 2020

Dietary dogmas die hard, and never has this been truer than with cholesterol. The “cholesterol-is-bad-and-causes-heart- disease” hypothesis is one that was built on a skewed study from more than 60 years ago—that even back then was criticized as being flawed—but through the years, it shaped government dietary guidelines and ingrained in us the idea that dietary cholesterol should be avoided at all costs. But this hardline stance is slowly softening—the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the scientific committee that issues federal dietary guidelines, said that dietary cholesterol is no longer “a nutrient

of concern” in their last report, and prior to that, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology said there was not enough scientific evidence to show that limiting dietary cholesterol lowered LDL cholesterol in the blood. 1 2 It’s time to take a new look at cholesterol and understand that it is not the dietary bogeyman it’s been made out to be, that it is crucial for good health, and that there are other, more serious risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including a diet heavy in sugar and refined carbs, metabolic dysfunction, poor blood sugar control, and lack of regular physical activity.

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