It seems that the fear of cholesterol is melting away. And the patents on the massively profitable cholesterol-lowering medications are starting to expire. Coincidence? We may never know.
A couple of days ago Dr Oz had a show (“the most important show that I’ve ever had on cholesterol”) on why “Everything you know about cholesterol is wrong”. He called it a “game changer”.
The message was probably familiar to many well-educated readers. Total cholesterol is an almost meaningless number. To get valuable information from cholesterol numbers means you have to look at them more closely: at HDL, LDL (including particle size) and triglycerides. If we do that the traditional message to avoid fat and cholesterol falls apart – it might lower your cholesterol somewhat but turn what you have into MORE harmful cholesterol.
Eating a low carb high fat diet might raise your total cholesterol a tiny amount (on average) but it raises your good HDL cholesterol (good for your health), lowers your triglycerides (good for your health) and increases the size of your LDL particles (good for your health!).
Now even Dr Oz seems to get it. The fear of cholesterol is melting away.
Dr Oz on cholesterol
