Does Eating Cholesterol Raise Your Cholesterol?
I recently talked about how the idea of “good’ and “bad” cholesterol doesn’t necessarily make sense. Now let’s talk about where cholesterol actually comes from.
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As I mentioned in my previous post, cholesterol is an antioxidant MVP of the body and a vital building block for cell membranes.
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Cholesterol is SO important to the body, that your liver and intestines make about 80% of the cholesterol you need. Only about 20% of our daily cholesterol needs are met by the foods we eat.
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Regardless, that 20% is super important. Because even though we have the ability to make our own, it pulls from other key resources. Like I’ve mentioned before, we need cholesterol to digest cholesterol, make sex hormones, hormone-D, etc. In fact, the brain is a cholesterol-loving organ, where 25% of the cholesterol in the body can be found!
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Dietary cholesterol is also the primary way we get real Vitamin A — retinol — which is involved with so many things, like fertility, eye and skin health, metabolism and much more.
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If we have high cholesterol, it’s usually not from excess consumption, but from inflammation in the body. Remember, cholesterol is a master antioxidant and if the body has too many pro-oxidants, it will increase cholesterol production.
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Hypothyroidism is another common driver of high cholesterol, as well as excess iron in the body. Check out my other posts on these.
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The answer to normalizing cholesterol levels for good is not to cut out vitamin-rich, cholesterol-containing foods, but to address the real drivers of the problem mentioned above.
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Some food for thought!
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This is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare professional before pursuing any changes to your personal healthcare regime.
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References
Campbell-McBride, N. (2016). Put Your Heart in Your Mouth. UK: Medinform Publishing.
Harvard Health Publishing. (2019). How it’s made: Cholesterol production in your body. Retrieved from: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/how-its-made-cholesterol-production-in-your-body#:~:text=Cholesterol%20also%20is%20needed%20to,from%20the%20foods%20you%20eat..
Littlewood, K. (2019). Beyond TSH - additional markers for hypothyroidism - additional conversations with your doctor. Retrieved from: https://balancedbodymind.com/blog/2019/12/5/beyond-tsh-additional-nbspmarkers-for-hypothyroidism-additional-conversations-with-your-doctor.
Perlmutter, D. (2013). Your Brain Needs Cholesterol. Retrieved from: https://www.drperlmutter.com/brain-needs-cholesterol/.
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