Friday, October 19, 2018

Friday Reading Report: Cholesterol



Like most people I know, I often remember that I read something, but rarely where I read it or how trustworthy the source was.  As I was doing my homework this week, I had this vague feeling that there was an article somewhere about how dietary cholesterol didn’t have that much correlation with blood cholesterol levels.  I went looking.  That didn’t work, so I called in the expert:  my kid the librarian, who can find anything.  (I got some tips on how he searched at the same time to try to get more independent…)

Here’s the deal:  the reliable sources say that there is, in fact, a strong correlation between dietary cholesterol and blood levels.  You can check it out here and in the resources listed here.  Different people react differently to cholesterol in the diet, but there is no easy way to tell whether an individual is a hyperreactor or a hyporeactor.  Bottom line is that, in this case, the recommendation to keep cholesterol intake under 300 mg per day is a good one.

Fun fact:  we make more cholesterol in our own bodies than most people ingest because it is an essential part of the lenses of our eyes, our brains, and our cell membranes.

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