Cholesterol Guidelines

As many of you may know, the US Dietary Guidelines for Adults is under revision. One of the major points of controversy is the potential lifting of cholesterol limits. Now, we’ve known for a while that the arbitrary 300 mg of cholesterol per day ceiling that was set was probably a “best” guess. But, we also know that there is a direct influence of dietary cholesterol (i.e. from animal products) on our serum (blood measured) cholesterol. As such, eating all the eggs and butter you would want will indeed raise your serum cholesterol, in addition to creating some serious inflammation, and in susceptible people, make blood sugar (or diabetes) worse and raise one’s risk for several cancers, heart attack, and stroke. As such, it is my hope that we don’t lift this guideline just yet until we have a better handle on the magnitude of this problem. As you could imagine, many big food industries would jump on the ability to create rich decadent foods loaded with cholesterol if this limit is lifted. Know that many of your cardiologist professional organizations are working hard to prevent the potential public health crises that could ensue!