Cholesterol and Heart Disease – Myth of epic proportions

According to Dr. George Mann, one of the original authors of the study on cholesterol and heart disease: “Saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet are not the cause of coronary heart disease. That myth is the greatest ‘scientific’ deception of the century, and perhaps any century.”

- George V. Mann, M.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine

The cholesterol “problem” has not been due to eating (natural) fat in general, but due to the kinds of fats, period. Bad fats - hydrogenated oils, often found in margarine and most supermarket items, which we’ve been led to believe are better for us, have replaced the good healthy ones like butter, the natural fat from meat, and unprocessed, full-fat dairy products.

Let’s take a look at the structure of our cells. The critical bi-lipid membrane cell walls are composed of half fat and half protein. There is no structural carbohydrate in your 100 trillion cells. Of the half fat about 25%-33% is suppose to be from natural polyunsaturated fats (EFAs) and from saturated fat. Saturated fat has been incorrectly termed “bad” over the past 5 decades! The saturated fat supports cellular structure, keeps out impurities, protects the delicate polyunsaturated fat (EFAs), and gives cellular support.

The polyunsaturated fat allows essential nutrients, hormones, numerous biochemical processes, and vital oxygen into the cell. Fats have a particular molecular structure. But when good, natural dietary fats are altered into trans-fats and other man-made unnatural, biochemically altered structures (the kinds found in popular low-fat, highly processed foods), the molecular biochemistry and structure is changed. This is what makes them so dangerous. Our bodies use them in place of the good natural fats it needs, but the structure is all wrong; very dangerous, and malfunctioning!

Imagine what these bad transfats do to your cell structure. Damaged fats create damaged cells. Transfats don’t work because they don’t have the required structure our bodies are designed to use. What makes them so bad is that they “fit” into the cell even though they are defective. These hydrogenated oils and other man-made modified oils are known to stop the oxygen transfer of EFAs and cause cancer. Even when margarine and other hydrogenated products contain relatively few transfats—as little as just 1%-2%—this translates to an enormous number of transfat molecules. Obesity is more related to bad fats, carbohydrates, sugar and processed foods. Process milk is not the same as raw milk.

In absolute numbers there will be some 1x1021 molecules (one followed by 21 zeros, or 100 million-trillion) in each tablespoon of oil. Therefore, the potential for them to cause damage, either integrally in the cellular structure, or in biochemical reactions, is highly significant, because only a tablespoon of defective oil provides some 100,000 defective oil molecules for each cell in our body—a tremendous overload potential. Add to this defective number the huge number of defective fat molecules from other processing sources and you will be terrified at what you and your family have been consuming for decades!

In absolute numbers there will be (an order of magnitude of) some 1x1021 molecules (1 followed by 21 zeros!) per tablespoon of oil - an overload potential of 104 (10,000 to 1) defective EFAs/cell).

Damaged fats and oils ruin our bodies in a number of ways. Rather than “high” or “low” cholesterol being a problem, the real issue is not the amount of cholesterol or the HDL or LDL number, but rather whether your cholesterol structure has been damaged.

Meat, butter and cheese, per se, do not relate to bad health, and heart disease in particular. There is nothing in the literature to indicate any poor health relating to meat, eggs, cheese, etc. and high cholesterol levels. There is a great deal of poor health related to process foods, chronic high glucose levels, and high intake of a diet saturated with carbohydrate food choices.