It's On............again!

Rethinking cholesterol | NutritionData.com Blog by Monica Reinagel, L.D.N., C.N.S. from NutritionData.com

Looks like I can have my omelets again. It seems the granola crunching, pony tailed, holier than thou crowd and their egg white omelets are proven once again, to be the idiots I always thought they were. Check out the link above, and the article below that illustrates that it is not dietary cholesterol intake that is at issue.

Rethinking cholesterol

For decades, we were warned to avoid foods containing cholesterol, such as eggs, shrimp, and many other types of seafood. The thought was that dietary cholesterol would contribute to high blood cholesterol. Now we know better.

Most of the cholesterol in your body is produced by your own liver. A diet high in saturated fats tends to promote the production of cholesterol by the liver. Dietary cholesterol, on the other hand, does not seem to have this effect. If anything, your liver will adjust its cholesterol production to compensate for the amount of cholesterol in your diet. That is, if you take in more dietary cholesterol, your liver will make a bit less.

So, isn't it time to put eggs and shrimp back on the heart-healthy menu? Although both foods contain a good amount of cholesterol, they are both low in saturated fat and rich in good-quality protein and other nutrients.

Contradictory advice?

Back in 2000, the American Heart Association (AHA) revised its recommendations in view of the new wisdom on cholesterol. For those without high cholesterol or heart disease, the AHA now countenances the consumption of an egg a day. However, their recommendations on cholesterol intake remain unchanged. For healthy adults, the AHA advises a limit of 300mg of dietary cholesterol per day. That seems unrealistic--and unnecessary--to me.

I can easily imagine a healthy diet, one that is well within the recommendations on saturated fat (less than 7-10% of total calories), exceeding this limit. For example, if you ate just one egg ( with 213mg of cholesterol) and a shrimp cocktail (90 mg) in the same day, you'd be over the limit for a healthy adut--even though these foods contain only about 2 grams of saturated fat.

Now that we know that dietary cholesterol is not the culprit in high blood cholesterol, I'm not sure what the justification is for this recommendation anymore--especially for those without cholesterol issues. It seems to me that there are more important things to focus on, such as keeping your saturated fat intake within recommended limits, and eating plenty of eating fiber- and nutrient-rich foods (i.e., veggies!).

For those with high cholesterol, the AHA's recommendations are even stricter...less than 200mg of dietary cholesterol per day, even though several studies have shown that netiher dietary cholesterol nor egg consumption appears to be the culprit in heart disease. I'm not saying that high cholesterol levels don't matter--they do. I'm just saying that I don't think dietary cholesterol is the reason that people have high cholesterol.

Usually, high cholesterol levels are brought on by a combination of genetics and lifestyle factors (such as not exercising, smoking, poor diet, etc.). The stronger the genetic component, the more likely that diet and lifestyle changes alone will not be enough to bring cholesterol levels down to safe levels. In this case, cholesterol-lowering medications (plus lifestyle modifications!) may be needed.

If you have high cholesterol, you obviously need to follow your doctor's advice, including his or her dietary recommendations. Limiting your intake of saturated fat, eating a diet high in antioxidants and fiber, exercising and avoiding cigarette smoke are all key factors in treating and preventing heart disease. But if you are doing all of this, and you miss eating eggs and seafood, it might be worth probing to see whether your doctor really feels that drastically limiting your intake of healthy foods that contain cholesterol is necessary.