Cholesterol is bad for your heart.
Um Actually… that’s not quite the full picture.
As a certified health and wellness girlie- I’m fed up of hearing people talk sh*t about the cholesterol content of my daily omelette. So let’s talk about what cholesterol is, and why the public’s understanding of it is so misconstrued.
Cholesterol is essentially a special type of fat molecule.
Most fat molecules are what we call triglycerides, and they’re essential to protect your organs from bruising, insulate you when you’re cold, and if you are a sea lion, to help you float. Cholesterol is slightly different however, rather than residing in fat cells around your organs, cholesterol is an essential component of each and every cell in your body.
Whilst not quite the powerhouse of the cell, hopefully thinking back to GCSE biology might remind you that every cell is surrounded by a special membrane. Basically, a compartment holding all the cell contents inside of it - much like Tupperware prevents your spaghetti bolognese from leaking all over your uni fridge.
This rigid Tupperware container however, often results in leftovers becoming a bit soggy - as trapped water vapour can’t escape. As well as this, if I’ve added a bit too much salt to my leftovers- that can’t go anywhere either, as that hard Tupperware is keeping it all in.
For your cells, this may be a problem - it is essential that salts, water and other small compounds can move in and out of the cell contents through it’s compartment barrier.
Okay but where exactly does cholesterol come into play?
Well actually, cholesterol molecules are found embedded within these cell membranes.
Their primary function is in altering the rigidity of these barriers, ensuring that the appropriate molecules can move into and out of the cell when required. This is most important at different temperatures, for example you can imagine the Tupperware plastic melting if you left it in the microwave- spilling it’s contents everywhere. Cholesterol prevents this, helping your cell membranes to stay rigid when its hot. Oppositely, you can imagine the Tupperware lid being extremely difficult to remove when frozen over. Once again, cholesterol opposes this change - reducing the rigidity and helping to introduce a few gaps into the cold membrane, enabling the passage of water and salts when cold.
That doesn’t sound so bad? In that case how is it that cholesterol has gained such a bad rep?
Well for an awfully long time, it was hypothesised that a high cholesterol diet was a risk factor heart disease, as studies testing the effects of a diet high in red meat (with a high cholesterol content) found that a diet high in red meat increased the chance of disease. However, recent research doesn’t necessarily agree.
In fact - two recent studies (1 and 2) both concluded that cholesterol intake is in fact not proven to increase risk of cardiovascular disease. Study (1) even states that the ‘evidence is of low certainty’ for any linkage whatsoever between cholesterol and heart disease.
So what does this tell us - were the earlier scientists wrong? Well not entirely. They're tests correctly identified that eating red meat may be bad for your heart health. However, what they actually got wrong is the bad part of the meat. Rather than the cholesterol from the meat causing problems, recent research suggests it is much more likely to be the saturated fatty acids which are also found in high levels in your steak dinner.
Saturated fats are proven to be inflammatory molecules, which also negatively impact gut health (3). So instead, focus your attention on limiting your intake of these - and not our membrane-protecting buddy cholesterol!
Let me add a disclaimer at this point - too much of anything is always a bad thing, even too much water can kill you (this is known as hyponatremia if you are interested!). Cholesterol is no different - an extremely high cholesterol diet can indeed lead to it blocking the arteries and to medical complications. This is a proven fact - I am not umming or ahhing on this one. As such this article is not a free pass to eat as much McDonalds as you can get your hands on, but instead a suggestion to cut cholesterol some slack and turn elsewhere for improve our diet.
References: (in case you don’t trust me)