Confused about low cholesterol and red meat

All red meat is not created the same, some cuts are better than others. The Dr. gave you this advice probably to entice you to broaden the spectrum of your diet and to avoid big macs.

I was able to lower my cholesterol primarily through exercise and eating more soluble fiber (oats, beans). I rarely eat fried foods and try to keep my fat at or below 30% of my daily calories.

Congratulations, you are more observant than most!!! You are absolutely correct that white meat is also loaded with cholesterol. ALL animal products have cholesterol, and the most effective way to lower your cholesterol is to lower the amount that you take in. That means in order to lower your cholesterol, you need to limit ALL animal products, and foods that contain them.

It's really just a matter of swapping out your current foods for other foods. For instance, if you regularly make chili, add an extra can of beans, and leave out the meat. If you normally have eggs for breakfast, instead have oatmeal and fruit. Try to have a salad before dinner each night, as each bite of green leafs you eat, is a bite of meat you wont eat. Each thing you can swap out will help reduce the overall cholesterol intake.

Congratulations, you are more observant than most!!! You are absolutely correct that white meat is also loaded with cholesterol. ALL animal products have cholesterol, and the most effective way to lower your cholesterol is to lower the amount that you take in. That means in order to lower your cholesterol, you need to limit ALL animal products, and foods that contain them.

It's really just a matter of swapping out your current foods for other foods. For instance, if you regularly make chili, add an extra can of beans, and leave out the meat. If you normally have eggs for breakfast, instead have oatmeal and fruit. Try to have a salad before dinner each night, as each bite of green leafs you eat, is a bite of meat you wont eat. Each thing you can swap out will help reduce the overall cholesterol intake.

Cholesterol containing foods have little to no effect on our cholesterol levels since the body makes virtually all of the cholesterol for our bodies. Most times (except for a few people and its actually rare) the more cholesterol you eat, the lower your cholesterol levels are.

When I was on strict Atkins (eating protein, fat and green leafy vegetables) my cholesterol actually dropped too low. And I was eating a ton of red meat. Steaks, hamburgers, roasts almost all the time.

that will never compute with this guy, nice try though.

OP: Please read this from a very world renowned Dr. Here are Dr Ravnskov's credentials.

Born 1934 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Graduated 1961 from the University of Copenhagen with an MD.
1961-1967 various appointments at surgical, roentgenological, neurological, pediatric and medical departments in Denmark and Sweden.
1968-79 various appointments at the Department of Nephrology, and the Department of Clinical Chemistry, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden; 1975-79 as an assistant professor at the Department of Nephrology.
1973 PhD at the University of Lund. A specialist in internal medicine and nephrology.
1979-2000 a private practitioner. Since 1979 an independent researcher.
Honoured by the Skrabanek Award 1999 given by Trinity College of Dublin, Ireland for original contributions in the field of medical scepticism.
Honoured by the 2007 Leo-Huss-Walin Prize for Independent Thinking in Natural Sciences and Medicine.
Member of International Science Oversight Board
Member of the editorial board of Cholesterol
Member of the editorial board of Journal of Lipids
Director of THINCS, The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm

Cholesterol is not a deadly poison, but a substance vital to the cells of all mammals. There are no such things as good or bad cholesterol, but mental stress, physical activity and change of body weight may influence the level of blood cholesterol. A high cholesterol is not dangerous by itself, but may reflect an unhealthy condition, or it may be totally innocent.

2 A high blood cholesterol is said to promote atherosclerosis and thus also coronary heart disease. But many studies have shown that people whose blood cholesterol is low become just as atherosclerotic as people whose cholesterol is high.

3 Your body produces three to four times more cholesterol than you eat. The production of cholesterol increases when you eat little cholesterol and decreases when you eat much. This explains why the ”prudent” diet cannot lower cholesterol more than on average a few per cent.

4 There is no evidence that too much animal fat and cholesterol in the diet promotes atherosclerosis or heart attacks. For instance, more than twenty studies have shown that people who have had a heart attack haven't eaten more fat of any kind than other people, and degree of atherosclerosis at autopsy is unrelated with the diet.

5 The only effective way to lower cholesterol is with drugs, but neither heart mortality or total mortality have been improved with drugs the effect of which is cholesterol-lowering only. On the contrary, these drugs are dangerous to your health and may shorten your life.

6 The new cholesterol-lowering drugs, the statins, do prevent cardio-vascular disease, but this is due to other mechanisms than cholesterol-lowering. Unfortunately, they also stimulate cancer in rodents, disturb the functions of the muscles, the heart and the brain and pregnant women taking statins may give birth to children with malformations more severe than those seen after thalidomide.

7 Many of these facts have been presented in scientific journals and books for decades but are rarely told to the public by the proponents of the diet-heart idea.


8 The reason why laymen, doctors and most scientists have been misled is because opposing and disagreeing results are systematically ignored or misquoted in the scientific press.

Also, if you want a big cholesterol shocker, look at shellfish...

As far as I'm aware, cholesterol in food has nothing to do with cholesterol levels.

Recent reseach is showing that the cholesterol we consume in food has little to no relationship to the actual cholesterol level in the blood. Although, the last time I checked, there are still a variety of foods that have a positive impact on overall cholesterol ratios by raising the good cholesterol numbers (like olive oil, fish, etc.). I have dropped my bad cholesterol numbers and raised my good ones significantly during my weight loss, but I sitll eat eggs and red meat every single week, usually several times. I think what has the big impact on cholesterol is exercise and simply the weight loss itself.

As I understand it, dietary cholesterol actually has very little to do with your blood cholesterol levels. Eating foods high in saturated and trans fats can have an impact (although I've heard sat fats are now thought to have less to do with it).

As someone else pointed out, animal fats in general can be a problem so shooting down red meat is kind of silly. Say you think fried chicken (with skin on) is perfectly ok because at least it's not red meat - obviously that's not a better choice. Point is, cuts and preparation can also play a factor. As long as you're going with the leaner cuts of animal meat and cooking them in such a way as to not add unhealthy (trans/sat) fats, you should be just fine.

Side note: make sure you're eating whole grains, green leafy veg and getting some cardio in as these also can help with your lipid profile. Also consider adding in some healthy fats (fish oil). Genetics do play a factor but doing all of this can help. I'm borderline with my cholesterol levels due to genetics but my tests will come out better when my diet is heatlhy and I exercise regularly.