News - Nutrition
Introducing complexities. Part one of two.
By Daniel Lynch
In this two part series, I’ll begin touching on how foods and health are complex issues. Often health advice seeks to be simple and straightforward and I'll also strive for that at some level. But, our bodies are complex. Its responses to factors in its immediate surroundings like foods, temperatures, even people and situational scenarios cause a variety of different internal responses. Due to our complex nature, nutrition and health advice that is overly simplified is misleading. This certainly is the case with blood cholesterol guidelines and the related advice given to us from the various scientific and health agencies. Cholesterol number ‘cut-offs’ for defining us as healthy or unhealthy seem tidy and simple, but numbers alone are misleading.
Following my advice to eat at least one egg per day, it's a good time talk about cholesterol; After all, we’ve all heard a lot about blood cholesterol and heart disease. Well, as you've likely noticed, there are some media reports of how "eggs are not as bad as once thought." This is true. Your blood cholesterol will not be affected by eating eggs. But even if your blood cholesterol were to raise above a medically defined healthy cut-off, you’re not necessarily unhealthy; there is more to your scenario than a number.
Cholesterol is typically defined as ‘bad’ or ‘good.’ The bad is called LDL and the good is called HDL. Designating all LDL as bad is an oversimplification. But, it’s a designation with some basis because LDL is the type of cholesterol with greatest likelihood for becoming problematic. Fortunately, this likelihood is controllable though diet, wellnesses care from a chiropractic physician and exercise. In part two of ‘introducing complexities’ we’ll look into some biochemistry and physiology to see why ‘problematic LDL’ doesn’t have to do with a number.
