Yum cholesterol, eat up! Despite the fact that for decades doctors have demonized cholesterol as a molecular monster, these days the conventional understanding has changed. Earlier this year the United Sates Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee reversed its longstanding words of wisdom about avoiding egg yolks, shrimp, lobster and other cholesterol containing foods, proclaiming that the much-maligned substance is “…no longer a nutrient of concern”. No longer a nutrient of concern? Great, it’s about time! But what’s missing from the lifting of the medical and social stigma associated with eating cholesterol-containing foods is some actual love for what the under-appreciated biochemical really is and what it does to keep the body healthy.
Cholesterol is an anabolic (building) chemical. It plays an important role in the production of the hormones of youth, fertility, and growth. Its mere presence tells the body that anti-aging and repair can proceed and its production is stimulated by stress and tissue breakdown, which, in just the right amount, functions as growth signals. This partially accounts for our societal tendency to have higher blood cholesterol levels than we actually need. Our cultural inclinations to long term chronic stress and degenerative diseases, along with high blood sugar and insulin (there’s a reason that diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol go hand-in-hand), not to mention the physiological burden of nutritional deficiencies, are the ultimate cause of elevated cholesterol and the real bad guys in the epic decades-long drama called “CHOLESTEROL-MANIA”.
