• qaz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’ve once overheard a conversation in the train where someone said “but cholesterol is good, right? Or are those proteins?” completely unironically. It got a good chuckle from me and several other people in the train.

    I eventually learned he was becoming a PE teacher who made diet plans for schools. That was less funny.

    • _bcron@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Perhaps surprisingly, dietary cholesterol has less an effect on blood cholesterol than a handful of other things. Saturated fat intake/balance in diet correlates more strongly, and vitamin D levels negatively correlates (vitamin D deficiency positively correlates).

      Dietary cholesterol is used for a lot of key things such as hormone production, so some people might actually want to increase their cholesterol intake (super active lifestyle people like endurance athletes - can help combat RED-S aka Female Athlete Triad), but the elephant in the room for bad lipid profiles is saturated fats, refined sugars, and sedentary lifestyle

    • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Dietary cholesterol has little to no effect on blood cholesterol, so indeed cholesterol is good or at least not bad

      • BootyBuccaneer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Yes.

        You also need cholesterol in cell membrane structures, hormone synthesis (steroids like testosterone & estradiol), vitamin D, bile acids for digesting fat, and insulating neuron sheaths.

    • BootyBuccaneer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      High cholesterol is “bad” with too much of other fats in your diet, but you need cholesterol to live so your body makes most of it.

      E: Correcting the science there, whoops.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Based on the other responses, better to be asking the question than assume he was stupid for asking it.