Cholesterol demon

We remove the cholesterol "noodles" from the earsAlexey Vodovozov, ABC Magazine
A lot of things are written on food packages.

Here and caloric content, and composition, and percentages of daily needs, and much more. But here the consumer comes to the word "cholesterol", and then all the centers of knowledge, as well as long-term memory, are turned off. The only thing most people remember is that cholesterol is bad! Especially for the heart.

This is both so and not so, at the same time. Cholesterol is one of the most problematic substances in the sense of correct information.

The fact is that cholesterol, which is in food, and cholesterol, which is in our body, are slightly different things. We synthesize up to 80 percent of cholesterol on our own, but we collect the missing 20 percent from food. At the same time, the amount of cholesterol in a particular product directly affects the level of cholesterol in the blood of only a third of people who inherited a "problematic" type of lipid metabolism.

Experts say that even in this scenario, dietary cholesterol is only half of the problems. The second, integral part is saturated and trans fats. And to consider them separately is at least wrong.

Cholesterol demonIf you try to look for the word "cholesterol" in the supermarket, it will definitely be found, and more than once.

For example, sunflower oil producers helpfully write on the label "Does not contain cholesterol". And you can't find fault, it's true. But just because cholesterol is an animal substance, it cannot be in vegetable oil by definition. You might as well write "Does not contain salt" on a pack of sugar.

Meanwhile, the main sources of dietary cholesterol are liver, chicken eggs and shellfish/shrimp. And they don't write on them: they contain cholesterol.

But other animal products labeled "cholesterol-free" may actually contain large amounts of saturated or trans fats. And as a result, they will turn out to be much more dangerous for the heart and blood vessels than the most "cholesterol" meat.

Fatal EggsOn March 26, 1984, the popular TIME magazine came out with the cover "Cholesterol.

And now the bad news." It depicted a sad smiley face with a plate instead of a face, fried eggs instead of eyes, and bacon instead of a mouth. The cover, by the way, was subsequently recognized as one of the best for all time of existence, and the dubious fame of "harmful" and excessively "cholesterol" was fixed for a long time for chicken eggs.

Indeed, one egg contains as much as 200 mg of cholesterol, that is, 2 eggs theoretically cover the daily need for this substance.  However, as already mentioned, not all cholesterol from food enters the bloodstream. Both saturated and trans fats are much more dangerous in this sense. By the way, but there are very few "harmful" fats in chicken eggs, only 2-3 percent of the mass fraction.

That is why none of the studies conducted have found any noticeable effect of the egg diet on the risk of coronary heart disease or stroke. In 1999, an article was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which claimed that the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases in people who eat from 7 to 14 eggs a week does not differ from that of people who do not eat eggs at all.

Scientists at Harvard Medical School, who analyzed the data of almost 120 thousand men and women, found that one egg eaten a day does not entail negative consequences.

Moreover, a 2008 Harvard study increased the relatively safe number of eggs to seven per day. That's how much a healthy man can eat without fear for his cholesterol. The only exceptions were diabetic men, but diabetes itself is a risk factor for atherosclerosis.

In 2009, the journal Nutrition Bulletin published the results of research by Professor Bruce Griffin and Dr. Juliet Gray, who studied the effect of the "egg" diet on blood cholesterol levels. Yes, such a diet increased the level of LDL ("bad" cholesterol), but this increase was clinically insignificant. But the level of HDL ("good" cholesterol) increased very significantly. But it is the LDL/HDL ratio that is decisive in assessing the risks of atherogenicity. A high level of HDL, by the way, has a protective effect on the brain, people with elevated levels of "good" cholesterol are less likely to develop various cognitive disorders, including Alzheimer's disease.

(The terms "bad" and "good" cholesterol arose after it was found that different classes of lipoproteins (protein-lipid complexes) are differently involved in the occurrence of atherosclerosis. Hydrophobic cholesterol molecules are insoluble in water and in blood plasma and are carried by the circulatory system only as part of lipoproteins assembled into spherical particles – liposomes. Their outer (hydrophilic) layer is formed by proteins, and the hydrophobic core is made up of lipids (simply put, fats) and cholesterol. One such microcapsule can contain up to 1,500 cholesterol molecules. Cholesterol associated with low- and very low-density lipoproteins (LDL–C) became known as "bad", and associated with larger molecules of high-density lipoproteins (HDL-C) unrelated to atherosclerosis - "good". Recommendations for reducing the concentration of "bad" cholesterol have become the basis for the prevention of atherosclerosis and the strategic goal of dietary and drug intervention – VM.)

A low-cholesterol diet does not work well to overcome high cholesterol. A review of studies published in the British Medical Journal showed that reducing the daily intake of cholesterol by 100 mg per day reduced its level in the blood by only 1 percent.  But the replacement of saturated fats with polyunsaturated ones turned out to be much more effective in this sense.

How much in grams?The American Heart Association believes that you should not consume more than 300 mg of cholesterol per day.

However, a recent study conducted by scientists at the University of Surrey showed that if you monitor the calorie content of your diet, it doesn't really matter how much cholesterol is contained in the foods you choose.

The volunteers ate based on a daily allowance of up to 582 mg – almost twice as much as the recommended amount. But while they controlled calories and shed excess weight, the blood cholesterol level remained within normal limits.

Cholesterol is not only not harmful. It is vital:

• for the synthesis of steroids, which include sex hormones (estrogens and androgens), and hormones of the adrenal cortex (aldesterone, hydrocortisone, cortisol), and vitamin D;
• to build the framework of all cell membranes of our body, the construction of transport channels in the cell;
• for the synthesis of bile acids, which are extremely important in the digestion of fatty foods.

Therefore, there is no need to artificially limit yourself. It is enough to monitor the caloric content of the diet and not get carried away with hydrogenated trans fats (margarine and other spreads), as well as animal fats, especially refractory ones like lamb and beef (they contain more saturated fatty acids), preferring products with polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru19.11.2009