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Losing Weight Is More Important than Reducing Cholesterol and Saturated Fat

High blood pressure and cholesterol are two major risk factors for heart attacks and premature death. A diet that gets you to lose weight is more effective in preventing diabetes and heart attacks than all other factors.

A study from the University of Toronto put people with high blood cholesterol levels on three different diets:

1) Fruits, vegetables, and nuts,
2) fruits, vegetables and nuts plus grains and low-fat diary products and
3) the National Cholesterol Therapeutic step-2 diet that is very low on saturated fat and cholesterol and is recommended by many doctors to treat high cholesterol and blood pressure (Epidemiology: March 2006;17(2):128-130). After just two weeks, people who ate only fruits, vegetables and nuts had the greatest drop in the bad LDL cholesterol because it restricts calories the most.

Drop in LDL/HDL after two weeks on 3 diets
1) Fruits, vegetables, nuts: LDL -33%; LDL/HDL -24%
2) Fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains & low-fat dairy: LDL -23% LDL/HDL -12%
3) National Cholesterol Therapeutic step-2 diet LDL -7% LDL/HDL -5%

Eating only fruits, vegetables & nuts is the most effective way to lower high cholesterol and blood pressure. It makes it very difficult to meet your needs for calories, and is the same as what humans' ancestors ate 4 to 7 million years ago. Human ancestors had to spend all their time foraging and eating and often died in their teens because they couldn't get enough food. If you go on this diet, chances are thst you will be eating all the time just to meet your needs for calories.

Adding low-fat diary products and whole grains, barley, oats and dried beans to a fruit-vegetable-nut diet yields a low saturated fat & cholesterol diet: the basis of therapeutic diets.

However it is much less effective than the fruit-vegetable-nut diet that forces a person to limit calories.

Restricting Calories More Important than Restricting Saturated Fats and Cholesterol

Saturated fat raises cholesterol only when you take in too many calories. If you reduce your caloric intake by one third and ate nothing but fatty meats and diary products, your blood cholesterol level will drop (European Heart Journal Supplements, 1999;1(S):S19-S23). Saturated fats are broken down in your liver to 2-carbon units. Ingesting excess calories causes your liver to make cholesterol and blood cholesterol rises. If not enough calories are available, these 2-carbon units are burned for energy and do not raise in cholesterol (Brit J of Spts Med. July, 2008).

Saturated Fats from Plants Do Not Raise Cholesterol

Saturated fats in meat and chicken raise cholesterol and are associated with increased risk for heart attacks. However, saturated fats from plants (coconut, palm and palm kernel oils) can raise cholesterol a little but have not been shown to increase heart attack risk (Am. J. Clin. Nutr. August, 1981).

http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/obesity_kills.html

http://www.depsyl.com/

http://back2basicnutrition.com/

http://bionutritionalresearch.olhblogspace.com/