Cholesterol confusion

[knot]

Is it just the saturated fat that's harmful, and not cholesterol? I'm confused by these articles

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/pane ... 1502127713
http://blog.heart.org/new-federal-guide ... ol-limits/

[brimstoneSalad]

Dietary cholesterol has diminishing returns. Eat a little, and it's bad. Eat a lot, and it's only slightly worse. So, it's often ignored. Unless you eat virtually no cholesterol at all, then it doesn't matter much the amount you eat.

Saturated fat is more of a linear cumulative issue. Reducing consumption is more useful, even without eliminating it.

[knot]

gotcha, I thought it would be something like that... There's too much obfuscation out there

[Heinechan]

I'm so confused about cholesterol.

[brimstoneSalad]

I'm so confused about cholesterol.

Try dissolving some salt in water. The first teaspoon dissolves fast, really easily. The next teaspoon pretty fast too. After a few more, it starts to slow down, and it's really hard to dissolve. Eventually, the salt just sits at the bottom and won't dissolve.

That's kind of how cholesterol is. The first little bit you eat will be absorbed by your body really quickly, and it will harm your health, the next bit still pretty fast, but less. After that, the cholesterol is absorbed less and less, until it is barely absorbed at all -- like the salt sitting at the bottom of the glass that you can't get to dissolve.

Does that help?