# This person claims dietary cholesterol intake has nothing to do with heart disease - Is she right? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 18, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-dietary-cholesterol-intake-has-nothing-to-do-with-heart-disease-is-she-right/641439 "2012-11-18T20:46:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-dietary-cholesterol-intake-has-nothing-to-do-with-heart-disease-is-she-right/641439/21 "2012-11-20T20:36:19Z")
I was researching for another thread and came across [this article](http://www.livestrong.com/article/521518-palmitic-acid-health-benefits/) which says that even palmitic acid, the saturated fat linked to higher LDL cholesterol (see my previous posts on how bad it supposedly is, from what I had read then), is only bad when overconsumed by itself (possibly dubious, one study mentioned looked at either palmitic acid or palmitic acid plus trans fat and found no increase in cholesterol with a high palmitic acid diet; of course, nobody consumes only palmitic acid, even if they only ingested palm oil) and may otherwise be beneficial; even “healthy” oils like olive oil contain it (it is the most common fatty acid in all/most lifeforms, so why would it be bad?). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-dietary-cholesterol-intake-has-nothing-to-do-with-heart-disease-is-she-right/641439/22 "2012-11-20T21:05:09Z")
No. She’s wrong. Now if she had said “the role of dietary cholesterol intake is often overstated, that other factors may be as if not more important”, then she’d be right. But such things don’t sell books to idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-dietary-cholesterol-intake-has-nothing-to-do-with-heart-disease-is-she-right/641439/23 "2012-11-20T22:22:46Z")
There are claims made that risks from consuming tropical oils are overstated, which often cite examples of people living in the tropics who use them all the time for cooking and have relatively low rates of heart disease. What gets overlooked is that these people have overall diets far different from people in developed countries (i.e. the U.S.), consume fewer calories, and are generally less obese and sedentary - not to mention possible genetic differences affecting heart disease incidence. No one says you’re gonna die if you use, say, coconut oil in cooking on an occasional/moderate basis. But if you think that you can graft regular coconut oil use onto an already unhealthy lifestyle and not be adding additional cardiovascular risk, you’re kidding yourself. And what **Dr Deth** said. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-dietary-cholesterol-intake-has-nothing-to-do-with-heart-disease-is-she-right/641439/24 "2012-11-20T22:52:41Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There are claims made that risks from consuming tropical oils are overstated, which often cite examples of people living in the tropics who use them all the time for cooking and have relatively low rates of heart disease. > > What gets overlooked is that these people have overall diets far different from people in developed countries (i.e. the U.S.), consume fewer calories, and are generally less obese and sedentary - not to mention possible genetic differences affecting heart disease incidence. > > No one says you’re gonna die if you use, say, coconut oil in cooking on an occasional/moderate basis. But if you think that you can graft regular coconut oil use onto an already unhealthy lifestyle and not be adding additional cardiovascular risk, you’re kidding yourself. > > And what **Dr Deth** said. 🙂 If you are referring to my post, the name “palmitic” acid is a misnomer; it may be a significant part of palm and coconut oil, but many other foods are loaded with it - it is the most common fatty acid found in nature (per [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitic_acid)), saturated or otherwise. For example, [NutritionData](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/111/2) shows that of the 7.5 grams of saturated fat in their default serving of whole eggs (1 cup), 5.4 grams, or 72%, is palmitic acid (listed as 16:0 under saturated fat when you look at details). Yet it has already been said several times that eggs aren’t considered to be bad for you, most likely because of the other fatty acids and nutrients they contain (interesting also the note that [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil#Nutrition) says about palm oil; “Much of the palm oil that is consumed as food is to some degree oxidized rather than in the fresh state, and this oxidation appears to be responsible for the health risk associated with consuming palm oil.” - sort of like the difference between processed and unprocessed meat). ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-dietary-cholesterol-intake-has-nothing-to-do-with-heart-disease-is-she-right/641439/25 "2012-11-21T00:00:52Z")
> [@Michael63129](#): > > Those statements are contradictory; eggs are loaded with saturated fat as can be seen [here](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/111/2) (347 calories contain 38% of your DV), and in roughly the same proportion relative to total fat as other animal based foods (one wonders if the DV for saturated fat was based on a diet consisting of only said foods, since to get 100% of your DV of saturated fat, you will also get about the same in total fat; of course, processed foods can have far more saturated fat as a percent of total fat, plus use oils (palm oil) with a higher palmitic acid content, which adversely affects cholesterol, unlike other saturated fats). What was often recommended was to try a diet heavy in whole eggs, and monitor the results, to include blood cholesterol levels. If they go up, try cutting out the saturated fats by discarding the yolks and eating only the whites (or, instead of eggs, get protein from other sources like lean meat or dairy products - eggs were often the first choice of young trainers without a lot of money) and getting dietary fats from other foods with less saturated fats (e.g., olive oil). This diet could still be high in cholesterol from the animal protein (which was generally better for building muscle than vegetable proteins), but low in saturated fats. Either way, keeping concentrated carb intake low was advised (fruits were less of a problem). This is pretty much how I’ve been eating for 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![Lightlystarched](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Lightlystarched](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightlystarched)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-dietary-cholesterol-intake-has-nothing-to-do-with-heart-disease-is-she-right/641439/26 "2012-11-21T02:42:44Z")
This is a really amazing blog if you are interested in challenges to the lipid hypothesis: [Hyperlipid: Cholesterol and heart attack survival](http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/search/label/Cholesterol%20and%20heart%20attack%20survival) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-dietary-cholesterol-intake-has-nothing-to-do-with-heart-disease-is-she-right/641439.md?page=1)