There’s a lot of confusion surrounding dietary cholesterol and its impact on heart health. Do you need to avoid it? What’s “good” cholesterol and “bad” cholesterol? How important is dietary cholesterol when it comes to heart health anyway?
It’s American Heart Month, and the perfect time to talk about ways to promote heart health. There is no one thing you can do to guarantee heart disease prevention. However, there are a lot of things you can do to overall promote heart health. For the month of February, I’ll be unpacking a different aspect of nutrition and heart health. The more you do, the greater the potential benefit–so let’s dive in to the basics of dietary cholesterol!
What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is vital to your health. Your body needs it to make hormones, bile acids for digestion and absorption of nutrients, and Vitamin D from the sun. Cholesterol is produced naturally by your liver in sufficient amounts, so you don’t need to get it from food. An important thing to realize is that dietary cholesterol is not the same thing as blood cholesterol. So when you go into the doctor and they tell you your cholesterol is high that doesn’t directly translate into “you need to eat less cholesterol”. Blood cholesterol is primarily made up of cholesterol produced in your liver. So when blood cholesterol is measured it’s mostly a measure of the levels of cholesterol your body is producing, not how much cholesterol you’re eating.
Okay, so what’s dietary cholesterol?
Dietary cholesterol is the cholesterol we consume from foods. It is only found in animal products (meats, dairy, eggs, etc.).
What’s “good” and “bad” cholesterol?
Now we’re talking about blood cholesterol again (read: not dietary cholesterol). Blood cholesterol is pretty complicated, but in general there are two main types: LDL and HDL cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is the stuff that builds up in your arteries and can cause a heart attack or stroke overtime. LDL is thus referred to as the “bad” cholesterol. HDL cholesterol, on the other hand, brings cholesterol from your body back to your liver. Your liver then facilitates the removal of this cholesterol from your body. This is why HDL is referred to as the “good” cholesterol. Basically, they’re fighting against each other. LDL is the one trying to make a mess in your body, and HDL is trying to clean up that mess. You need high enough numbers of HDL to combat the LDL and keep your arteries clear. Too much LDL and not enough HDL increases your risk of heart disease.
How does dietary cholesterol affect blood cholesterol?
It’s unclear. For a long time, it was suspected that dietary cholesterol would increase blood cholesterol. Now that we have more research, however, this link is, at best, weak. The evidence is so limited, in fact, that the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans no longer includes a recommendation to limit dietary cholesterol intake. Egg lovers rejoice!
There are some people, however, who are more sensitive to dietary cholesterol. So if you have particular concerns about your cholesterol intake, consult your doctor and dietitian.
So, I can eat all the dietary cholesterol I want?
Not so fast! While there isn’t good evidence to suggest that dietary cholesterol itself increases blood cholesterol, there is good evidence suggesting that certain dietary fats do. (Don’t worry, I’m talking all about dietary fat in next week’s post!) And since many high cholesterol foods are also high in dietary fat… Basically, you don’t need to avoid dietary cholesterol, but that doesn’t mean it’s wise to eat a dozen eggs slathered in butter everyday. I say it often, but in this instance it’s true as well: moderation is key.
TL;DR
Your body needs cholesterol to survive.
Your liver produces all of the cholesterol your body needs.
Blood cholesterol and dietary cholesterol are not the same thing.
LDL (“bad” cholesterol) clogs up your arteries, HDL (“good” cholesterol) cleans them out.
You don’t need to stress out over the dietary cholesterol content of your food.