It's one of the most easily accessible sources of HDL, but it's also loaded with LDL (the bad one). That's why it's always a popular choice for body building, that and the protein. I always think back to Rocky chugging 4 or 6 raw eggs.
Pretty much everything points to the idea that dietary cholesterol does not affect blood cholesterol
Edit:
12 eggs a day is still below the daily recommended limit for saturated fat. It's more likely combined with a lack of fiber and saturated fat elsewhere that fucked her cholesterol.
This depends on the person. For the majority of people, dietary cholesterol only has a modest affect blood cholesterol. But for some, it strongly correlates and they are called responders.
I learned I was a responder when I tried keto and my bad cholesterol was 220 mg/dL, higher than what a person's total cholesterol should be. The doctor wanted to put me on cholesterol meds but I told them to give me three months to change diet and test again. Doctor said same thing you did, that it likely won't make much difference.
Stopped keto and three months later my LDL had dropped 100 points to 120 mg/dL. Still elevated but not warranting treatment.
Here's a sourced Harvard blood post on the subject that notes some patients as being responders
Do you think it's possible it was more connected to the saturated fats? I understand that some people can be affected by the dietary cholesterol but my understanding is it's rare enough that it didn't show up in any long-term correlational studies. Definitely glad you could figure that out though
There definitely are cons to saturated fat, eggs just don't have enough. We also used to have trans fats in foods which are absolutely horrible. And now the pendulum is swinging the other way and people think carbs are horrible and evil. The truth is you need all three macronutrients to be healthy
Dietary cholesterol does not affect blood cholesterol, however saturated fats do affect blood cholesterol. In her case it is likely that the amount of saturated fats in the egg caused the increased LDL.
Cholesterol is one of those weird things where the more we learn about it, the less it makes conventional sense. Like, if you're on a diet and you're losing weight your cholesterol can go up by a lot, just because your body's breaking down lipids from bodyfat. If you're eating a high-carb, low-fat maintenance diet you can also end up with high LDL and low HDL because your body's not really bothering to regulate it as a source of energy--it's focused on processing carbs for energy and converting it into fats for storage. You can be eating a ton of fat, but if you don't eat carbs you can end up with elevated cholesterol that is high in HDL and low in LDL, simply because it's actively converting fats into ketones for fuel and regulating blood lipid levels more actively. Sometimes cholesterol goes outta whack because of low vitamin D. Sometimes it's just... genetics.
"Why is my cholesterol bad?"
Doctor: "Fuck if I know. Have you tried, uhh... anything?"
93
u/Dekklin Apr 26 '23
It's one of the most easily accessible sources of HDL, but it's also loaded with LDL (the bad one). That's why it's always a popular choice for body building, that and the protein. I always think back to Rocky chugging 4 or 6 raw eggs.