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Oxidized Cholesterol
- The Deadliest Type of Cholesterol
You’ve Never Heard About
You’ve
probably heard about the so called good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL), and that you should boost the good and cut down
on the bad.
But
a new study reveals a third type of cholesterol,
more dangerous than anything you’ve ever heard about before.
This
will turn previous dietary advice on its head.
Cholesterol is a waxy compound
that circulates through your bloodstream and that is an essential ingredient of
cell membranes and steroid hormones. As such, it is an essential substance,
without which you would die.
But
most scientists traditionally believe that animal products contain too much cholesterol,
and that excessive consumption clogs your arteries.
That
is why your doctor tells you to cut back on red meat and dairy products.
A
new scientific movement has now arisen that argues that it is not cholesterol,
but oxidized cholesterol, that clogs arteries
and causes atherosclerosis.
Oxidation
is the chemical reaction that takes place when something mixes with oxygen.
Oxidized cholesterol
is, accordingly, cholesterol
that has come into contact with oxygen during the extraction, processing, or
cooking of our food.
Cholesterol appears in large
quantities in animal products, but plants also make a form of cholesterol
called phytosterols. This means that we should be wary of both animal and oily
plant-based products that have undergone enough processing and cooking to
introduce oxygen.
Just
think of how your vegetable oil is made. Most vegetable oils are extracted
either via pressing or crushing products with a roller (virgin oils), or
through the use of a petroleum solvent, normally after heating the oils first.
Both these processes expose the seeds and vegetables to oxygen, in the press
and during the heating.
In
fact, vegetable oils are often boiled further to remove impurities, usually by
making steam (oxygen) bubble through them to carry the impurities out of them.
This means that vegetable oils contain plenty of oxidized cholesterol, even
before you heat them again in your own kitchen.
This
could be why a 2012 study in the European
Journal of Lipid Science and Technology (EJLST) found milk powder and UHT milk
has substantially more oxidized cholesterol than fresh milk.
Several
studies have demonstrated that egg powders contain more of it than fresh eggs
(before you cook them, anyway), and why fermented products have extreme levels
of oxidized cholesterol, according to EJLST in 2010. The more it is processed
in air and with heat, the worse it gets.
So
how does oxidized cholesterol cause atherosclerosis and what is the evidence
for this claim?
Numerous
scientists, such as Dr J.L. Witztum and Dr D. Steinberg, have performed
countless studies in which they engineered oxidized cholesterol plaque in
arteries and photographed it.
Up
to this point, the exact mechanism has not been fully understood. The cells
that line your arteries identify the oxidized cholesterol as a threat. They
become inflamed as a warning to your immune system that this cholesterol needs
to be removed.
Your
immune system then sends cells to absorb the oxidized cholesterol, but once
they absorb all this fat, they become trapped in the linings of your arteries
and die there, smearing the fatty stuff they have just absorbed all over the
place. Oops.
What
can you eat? At this stage unprocessed nuts, seeds,
whole grains, and vegetables
are probably the healthiest sources of oil.
The
more research scientists carry out on oxidized cholesterol in food, the better
the guidelines will become on what we should and should not eat.
This post is from the
Oxidized Cholesterol Strategy Program created by Scott Davis. He once suffered
from High Cholesterol so much that he even had a severe heart attack. This is what
essentially led him to finding healthier alternatives to conventional
medication.
The program is highly
focused on eliminating one simple ingredient you consume every single day, an
ingredient you had no idea you were even putting it your body. What’s
scary is that this ingredient isn’t even listed on the label of many common
food choices. It’s terrifying stuff! So, this system starts you off with
valuable information about this one simple ingredient, what it’s doing to your
body and what you can do about it. But it doesn’t end there.
The Oxidized
Cholesterol Strategy goes on to
teach you a wide range of diet, fitness, lifestyle, exercise, sleep and eating
tips that will help you maximize your results. More importantly, these tips
will help completely clean out any plaque build-up in your arteries.
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