There is no such thing as bad Cholesterol! Just a $ 2 trillion pharma scam

Lucknow: Food on our plates has for long been an object of suspicion. In order to stay healthy and fit we try to cut down or totally avoid food that has nasty effects on our body. From banana, eggs, butter, sugar, full-fat dairy products, nuts, coconut oil, lentils, meat and what not, we will all look at them as they will cause some serious problems to our health.

This obsession with making right choice and picking up the right and healthy food, has earn Pharma companies nearly USD 2 trillion from consumers just in the name of cholesterol level treatment. Such incompetency on the part of government and scientific research costed a huge amount to the people those who were already fit and healthy.

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All this seems like a big scam where in the name of medical research consumers get trapped in new food trend, which directly benefits Pharma Companies. But recently the US government has finally accepted that cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern and it has been officially removed from the Naughty List of unhealthy foods. And from now onward you can guiltlessly enjoy eggs, butter, full-fat dairy products, nuts, coconut oil and meat as they have now been classified as safe and have been officially removed from the nutrients of concern list.

The doing a U-turn on their warnings to us to stay away from high-cholesterol foods since the 1970s to avoid heart disease and clogged arteries.

However, as per the findings of the US Department of Agriculture in 2015, which is responsible for updating the guidelines every five years, stated, "Previously, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended that cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg/day."

"The 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) will not bring forward this recommendation because available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum (blood) cholesterol, consistent with the American Heart Association (AHA)/ American College of Cardiology (ACC).

The DGAC will, in response, no longer warn people against eating high-cholesterol foods and will instead focus on sugar as the main substance of dietary concern.

Talking about the myths surrounding the cholesterol, US cardiologist, Dr Steven Nissen said: It's the right decision. We got the dietary guidelines wrong. They've been wrong for decades."

It is believed that when we eat more foods rich in this compound, our bodies make less. If we deprive ourselves of foods high in cholesterol - such as eggs, butter, and liver - our body revs up.

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Our body produces cholesterol

This is really something interesting to know that the majority of the cholesterol in our body is produced by our liver. Our brain is primarily made up from cholesterol, which is essential for nerve cells to function. It is also the basis for the creation of all the steroid hormones, including estrogen, testosterone, and corticosteroids.

Interestingly, high cholesterol level in one's body can be a clear indication that shows the liver of the individual is in good health.

"Saturated fats and cholesterol in the diet are not the cause of coronary heart disease. That myth is the greatest deception of the century, perhaps of any century," says Dr. George V. Mann M.D. associate director of the Framingham study for the incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors.

So, now you can stop worrying about your Cholesterol level as studies prove beyond a doubt that cholesterol neither it causes heart disease nor it will stop a heart attack.

However, as said earlier cholesterol has no direct relation with your heat attack, it does not reverse warnings about high levels of “bad” cholesterol in your blood, which are linked to heart disease. Moreover, some experts warned that people with particular health problems, such as diabetes, should continue to avoid cholesterol-rich diets.

Myth buster: Did you know that?

-Our body needs 950mg Cholesterol for our daily metabolism.

-If the fat content is less in our food we eat, our liver produces Cholesterol to maintain its level.

-Only 15% of the Cholesterol is being donated by the food we eat.

The majority of people that have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels.

If the cholesterol level is high in our body, it shows the liver is working perfect.

-Cholesterol is not found responsible for creating blockage any where in our body.

-As per experts, "there is nothing like LDL or HDL".

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What primarily made Cholesterol Culprit

To trace back the history of the cholesterol gained popularity as an agent responsible for heart attacks, we will have to look into 19th century era when scientists first recognized that the plaque that clogged arteries consisted, in part, of cholesterol. It would have seemed logical enough then that a diet that is high in cholesterol would wind up clogging arteries.

In 1913, Niokolai Anitschkov and his colleagues at the Czar’s Military Medicine Institute in St. Petersburg, decided to try it out in rabbits. And to run the experiment a group of rabbits was fed cholesterol for about four to eight weeks. After monitoring them for days scientists registered that the cholesterol diet had harmed them and they thought they were on to something big.

“It often happens in the history of science that researchers ... obtain results which require us to view scientific questions in a new light,”wrote Niokolai Anitschkov and his colleague in their 1913 paper.

But it wasn’t until the 1940s, when heart disease was rising in the US and the dangers of a cholesterol diet for humans came more sharply into focus. Several experiments, researches and other studies also linked high cholesterol diets to heart disease. Soon, Public warnings were made and in 1961, the American Heart Association recommended that people reduce cholesterol consumption and eventually set a limit of 300 milligrams a day. (It is to be menttioned that the yolk of a single egg has about 200 milligrams.)

Following the change in the eating trend and the idea that cholesterol is harmful the marketers got a good market to advertised their foods on the basis of "no cholesterol."

Later it was studied that the body creates cholesterol in amounts much larger than our diet provides and that the body regulates its level in the blood. It was also discovered that there is both “good” and “bad” cholesterol.

To cross check Anitschkov’s papers claim, a graduate student at the University of Arkansas in the late 1960s, Rudel decided to focus on understanding one of its curiosities. The results of Rudel papers were hinting towards a new finding. He noted that while the cholesterol diet harmed rabbits, it had no effect on white rats. In fact, if Anitschkov had focused on any other animal besides the rabbit, the effects wouldn't have been so clear -- rabbits are unusually vulnerable to the high-cholesterol diet.

“The reason for the difference -- why does one animal fall apart on the cholesterol diet -- seemed like something that could be figured out,” Rudel said. “That was 40 or so years ago. We still don’t know what explains the difference.”

Even what his study said, Rudel still warned people about cholesterol. He said, “Eggs are a nearly perfect food, but cholesterol is a potential bad guy. Eating too much a day won’t harm everyone, but it will harm some people.”

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