Striving for proper nutrition in terms of eating low-cholesterol foods may not be very scientifically sound. Cardiologist-lipidologist Alexander Baryshnikov expressed the opinion that there is no connection between dietary cholesterol and elevated blood cholesterol levels. Calls to buy certain products “without cholesterol” – advertising hype, says the doctor.
According to the physician, health problems due to cholesterol begin when the body loses the ability to use and utilize its own cholesterol, which leads to atherosclerosis. This is a systemic disease that affects the walls of the arteries – they form cholesterol plaques that interfere with blood flow. Following, due to insufficient blood supply, organs are affected, the risk of thrombosis increases.
“Almost all cholesterol is formed inside us,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta quotes the doctor. “To a large extent under the influence of what we eat.”
He emphasized that certain types of food (for example, fast food, processed foods, fatty foods, palm oil and others) simply contribute to the accelerated synthesis of “our own cholesterol.” At the same time, cholesterol itself is a “vital substance,” the doctor added. By the way, nutritionists also urge to distinguish between “bad” and “good” cholesterol – low-density lipoproteins (considered harmful) and high-density lipoproteins (considered beneficial to the body).
Each of our cells is capable of synthesizing cholesterol as needed, but only when the body’s ability to use it is reduced, then the level of cholesterol rises “with all the further consequences,” concluded the cardiologist Baryshnikov.
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