Will the Keto Diet Cause High Cholesterol Levels?
There is a prevalent misconception that consuming fatty foods, as encouraged by the keto diet, will inevitably lead to elevated cholesterol levels. High cholesterol in the body is known to be a risk factor for conditions like strokes, cardiovascular disease, and heart attacks. However, it’s essential to clarify the relationship between the keto diet and cholesterol.
1. The Culprit Isn’t Always Diet: To understand why the keto diet is unlikely to raise your cholesterol levels, it’s crucial to comprehend what truly causes high cholesterol. For years, we’ve been told that foods such as red meat, coconut oil, and eggs are to blame for raising cholesterol levels. However, if you look at historical data, you’ll notice that people in the past consumed these foods regularly without experiencing the high obesity and heart disease rates we see today. Even our ancestors had diets rich in meat and fat without suffering from strokes or heart disease. So, there’s clearly more to the story.
2. The Truth About Cholesterol: The real culprit behind high cholesterol levels is not dietary fat but rather sugar. Sugar is one of the most harmful substances for our bodies and is implicated in causing inflammation, which, in turn, triggers the body to release cholesterol. This situation leads to elevated cholesterol levels. Other inflammatory foods can also have a similar effect. The key is to reduce inflammation to lower cholesterol levels.
3. How the Keto Diet Helps: The keto diet, although rich in fat, emphasizes healthy fats. Ingredients like coconut oil, which had an undeserved bad reputation for years, offer significant benefits to the body. In contrast, hydrogenated vegetable oils found in many processed foods can be highly detrimental to health and contribute to inflammation.
Furthermore, the keto diet promotes the elimination of most processed foods from your diet. To maintain ketosis, your blood sugar levels need to remain stable, and excessive sugar consumption will disrupt this state. By keeping your blood sugar levels low and steady, you not only prevent inflammation and high cholesterol levels but also reduce the risk of diabetes and unwanted weight gain.
Consuming a substantial amount of healthy fats on the keto diet encourages the body to use its fat stores more efficiently, resulting in greater fat loss and lower cholesterol levels. Therefore, it’s essential to recognize that the keto diet itself is not the problem. In fact, it can be a solution to many health issues, especially when combined with a focus on reducing inflammation and sugar consumption.
