These “Must Avoid” Foods Could Save Your Life
How You’ve Been Misled on Dietary Cholesterol, Fats, and Sodium
For most people, fitness is about more than just looking good. Sure, there’s an emphasis on improving one’s appearance by dropping body fat and adding muscle, but better overall health is the primary goal for many. If you think about it, it should be a concern for everyone — what good is a shredded physique if it comes at the cost of your health?
As much as we focus on calories and macros, making sure we stay on top of our diets with quality foods, questions remain about just how healthy our diets may be. With so many warnings about getting too much of this or that, it’s easy to become obsessed with tracking more than just our protein intake.
Most of these concerns — as well as the wish for improved health that drives them — center around heart health, and the role diet plays in that. Losing body fat and regular cardio training can go a long way toward improving heart health, but they may not be enough if your diet’s working against you.
A common problem in this pursuit of a heart-healthy diet is sifting through all the different advice out there as to what actually is or isn’t healthy. A lot of it comes in the form of warnings to restrict intake of certain things like dietary cholesterol, saturated fat, and sodium — but what if those warnings are actually overblown?
While concern regarding these nutrients can be legitimate, recent studies have shown that they can be a little misguided. The truth is a little more complicated — and may even surprise you.
Cut the Cholesterol? Not so Fast…
For years we’ve been told that lowering cholesterol is integral to a healthy heart and that, in addition to a diet favoring vegetables and whole grains, restricting dietary cholesterol intake is one of the main ways of accomplishing that.
The problem? Dietary cholesterol isn’t to blame for high cholesterol numbers. Even more surprising — high cholesterol may not have much to do with cardiovascular disease in the first place.
A recent study reviewing research on the link between cholesterol and heart disease found that, at the very least, high cholesterol had little to do with overall cardiovascular health in the long run. In fact, when it comes to low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad” cholesterol), low cholesterol could actually be worse for you.
Cholesterol is necessary for the body’s healthy functioning. It’s used in the construction of cellular membranes and plays an important part in the transfer of molecules like hydrogen and sodium through those membranes.
Cholesterol is also key to the transmission of nerve impulses. Lastly, cholesterol functions as a precursor to the biosynthesis of vitamin D in the body, as well as all of the body’s steroid hormones — a category that includes aldosterone, testosterone, and estrogen.
So not only is cholesterol actually a good thing to have, it now seems low cholesterol may not be as good for you as you think. But if you are still concerned about those numbers, even the advice on how to lower them needs rethinking as well.
When it comes to elevated LDL levels, and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good” cholesterol) levels, while dietary cholesterol can play a role in this ratio — called dyslipidemia — it’s minimal in comparison to the impact of excessive saturated and trans fat intake. In fact, one study from the University of Connecticut found a high cholesterol diet doesn’t increase LDL levels at all.
As much as 85% of the body’s cholesterol levels are regulated and produced by the liver from the metabolic processing of these fats and even excessive amounts of sugar. Given the composition of the average daily diet, this isn’t a hard connection to make.
While a poor diet may well include foods that are high in dietary cholesterol, those foods are also likely to contain excessive amounts of saturated fats, refined sugars, and worst of all trans fats.
So if cholesterol is a concern? An overall healthier diet is your best answer. This still includes the advice to increase the amount of leafy vegetables and whole grains you get — the phytosterols in whole grains, in particular, have been shown to have a positive effect on heart health — but should you avoid high cholesterol foods like eggs? Once again, science has spoken — and the answer is a definite no.
According to Dr. Jim Stoppani, one of the world’s foremost experts on exercise and nutrition, eggs could qualify as a “superfood” for all the benefits they provide, and not just because of their protein content.
Based on research out of Texas A&M, Stoppani recommends eating three whole eggs each day. The results of the study showed those eating three whole eggs gained twice the muscle mass of those who ate none.
“Yes, 3 whole eggs do provide about 15 grams of fat and over 600 mg of cholesterol,” Stoppani explains, “but the fat and cholesterol in egg yolks may be critical factors in why the subjects in the A&M study made such dramatic gains in muscle mass and strength. Research shows that athletes getting in higher fat intake, particularly from monounsaturated and saturated fat have higher testosterone levels than those getting in low amounts of fat. And 80% of the fat in egg yolks comes from monounsaturated and saturated fat.”
As for the cholesterol? “ When it comes to cholesterol, you need to remember that testosterone is created in the body from, you guessed it, cholesterol. Plus, cholesterol is important for maintaining the integrity of cell membranes, such as those of muscle cells. This is important for muscle strength and growth.”
In reality, the nutrients in eggs — specifically the yolks — are plentiful and beneficial to a host of processes including muscle gain, fat loss, testosterone production, and yes even heart health. Far from being the culprit in cardiovascular disease, fitting whole eggs into your diet can actually help you toward your goal of overall better health.
So when it comes to cholesterol, should you be worried? While for some there still may remain a connection between elevated cholesterol and poor heart health, it appears other factors are more likely to blame for incidents of cardiovascular disease.
As far as a diet designed to lower cholesterol, one that addresses trans fat intake — as well as excessive sugar and saturated fats — is likely to be more productive than cutting dietary cholesterol itself. If you’re following a healthy dietary plan like the foods suggested in Dr. Stoppani’s Dieting 101, chances are you’re already accomplishing those goals.
Consistency in diet and adequate exercise will be sufficient for most people to maintain healthy cholesterol levels.
Saturated fat — Bannable or Beneficial?
As stated above, excessive saturated fat intake can play a part in elevated LDL levels. However, it’s not just a matter of getting too much saturated fat that’s the problem — it’s more a matter of only getting saturated fat. In reality, it’s the proportion of saturated to unsaturated fats that make all the difference.
Like cholesterol, saturated fat is necessary for overall health. If it weren’t, why would the body produce it? Much like cholesterol, saturated fat is integral to the body’s production of hormones like testosterone, and a diet too low in this important nutrient can mean trouble for that and other bodily processes.
The key here is, as with all things, striking the right balance. This is why Dr. Stoppani recommends that your fat intake be composed of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats in equal measure — at a 1:1:1 ratio. Research has shown that maintaining the right balance of these fats is essential to improved overall health.
In his Muscle Building Nutrition Rules, Stoppani explains: “Actually, the research shows that male athletes consuming more monounsaturated fat AND saturated fat maintain higher testosterone levels. Yes, you actually WANT to consume some saturated fat versus trying to avoid it at all costs. Good sources include beef, dairy (full fat or reduced fat, but not fat-free) and whole eggs.”
What may surprise you is the fact that not only does adequate saturated fat intake provide benefits to the body, a diet low in saturated fat may not actually prove beneficial at all. Researchers have found that, in general, getting less saturated fat doesn’t reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease at all.
While more research into the properties of saturated fats and their effect on the human body clearly needs to be performed, the bottom line is if you’re eating a healthy, properly balanced diet, your saturated fat intake is probably of little concern.
Is a Low-Sodium Diet the Way to Go? Take That with a Grain of Salt
We’ve been told for decades that excessive sodium intake is bad for the heart, particularly blood pressure. The DASH Diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) and salt substitutes like Mrs. Dash have been around for years. However, as you can probably guess by now, recent research has some news for you.
While sodium intake may be a concern for those with existing hypertension issues, the truth is a low-sodium diet can be bad for you — if your blood pressure is normal.
This isn’t to say concerns over high-sodium diets are entirely unwarranted. But part of the reason diets high in sodium tend to be bad overall is the sources of that sodium. It isn’t a matter of cutting back on table salt — in fact, table salt is important due to the iodine it contains — but rather comes down to avoiding processed foods which are not only high in sodium, but unhealthy amounts of other nutrients like saturated fats absent complementary unsaturated fats, trans fats, and refined sugars.
Putting it another way, and true for all the nutrients discussed above: It’s not any one nutrient in excess but the combinations and amounts we get in an unhealthy diet.
A bad diet is its own brand of extreme. None of the nutrient balances are ideal, and that can lead to a host of problems. But heading toward the opposite extreme can be just as bad. As is the case with cholesterol and saturated fat, a diet too low in sodium can increase the risk of death from heart disease.
And as already mentioned, if your blood pressure is already healthy, a low-sodium diet can be worse for you than moderate intake — even if “moderate” means in excess of the currently recommended 2300 mg per day.
“While a low-sodium diet may be essential for those who have kidney problems or a history of high blood pressure, it can actually be unhealthy for others,” Stoppani says, citing a study that showed that adults who consumed less than the recommended 2,300 mg of sodium per day were almost 40% more likely to die from cardiovascular causes than those who ate more than 2,300 mg.
You read that right — you’re actually less at risk if you exceed the current recommendation.
As Dr. Stoppani explains, the upper limit could be as high as 3800 mg. But it’s not just because of the impact sodium levels have on mortality — sodium is critical to the body’s functions.
As with cholesterol and saturated fat, sodium is a necessity to overall health. Low levels of sodium in the blood can wreak havoc on a host of bodily processes. Extremely low sodium levels lead to a condition known as hyponatremia, which can cause water retention, headaches, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and at its worst seizures, coma, and even death.
On the other hand, adequate sodium levels are critical to the functions of the central nervous system, as sodium plays a key role in the firing of nerve impulses — hence the term electrolyte. It’s also essential to maintaining the body’s hydration levels, which is another reason why it’s included in sports drinks.
If you’re training regularly, your body is making use of its sodium as nerve impulses contract muscles, quicken your heart rate, and facilitate the transfer of nutrients throughout the body. However, it’s also expelling a fair amount in your sweat. This is just another reason why low-sodium diets may not be ideal, as your needs are increased considerably by your lifestyle.
A Healthy, Balanced Diet is All it Takes
When it comes to addressing concerns like cholesterol, saturated fat, and salt intake, the answer is pretty clear: It’s not any one of these that present the problem, but the ways in which we tend to get them in excess. If your diet is composed of healthy options, chances are you’re already getting healthy amounts of these key nutrients without going to excess. And given what we now know about what healthy intake levels actually are, it’s even less likely any dietary restrictions are necessary.
If you have high blood pressure or diabetes, then yes your diet does probably need some adjusting. But for the average, healthy individual, purposely decreasing the amounts of dietary cholesterol, saturated fat, and sodium in your diet won’t lead to improved health — and can, in fact, do the opposite.
So the key here is, as always, to remain consistent with a balanced diet composed primarily of whole ingredients, lean meats, vegetables, and the like. So go ahead, have your eggs — and don’t forget to throw a little salt on top.
Want to know more? JimStoppani.com features hundreds of articles and videos from Dr. Jim Stoppani himself, on everything from nutrition to supplementation and training.
