4. Dietary Cholesterol Isn’t an Enemy
The liver produces two types of cholesterol – HDL and LDL. While both types play vital roles in maintaining your health, excess LDL and excess total cholesterol lipids in your blood start the onset of lining your arteries with plaque. This process, atherosclerosis, is the only risk factor for heart disease.
Therefore, it would make sense to avoid eating high-cholesterol foods in your diet. However, recent research shows that dietary cholesterol has little to no impact on blood serum cholesterol levels. So, eating high-cholesterol foods like eggs isn’t bad for your health.
It turns out that eating refined carbohydrates like sugar, and flour – found in processed foods like candy and soda, are the primary culprits of driving excess LDL production. It also matters how you combine foods in meals. For instance, eating carbs and saturated fat together increases LDL production. However, eating fat with protein doesn’t seem to have any increase in the production of LDL.