By Dr. W. Gifford Jones
December 3, 1995
What would you think if I claimed everyone could wear the same size of shoe? No doubt you'd quickly conclude I'd either gone crazy or had too many Johnnie Walkers, and it was time for me to retire. But for years doctors and the media have been telling everyone to avoid cholesterol like the plague.
Now there's evidence that the consumption of cholesterol has much in common with the practice of buying a pair of shoes. Just as one shoe size doesn't fit all customers, neither is the same amount of dietary cholesterol correct for everyone.
Richard B. Weinberg is professor of medicine at Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston©Salem, North Carolina. He reports that some people absorb more cholesterol than others. Other people are able to excrete more cholesterol.
This has important implications for those who love ham and eggs for breakfast. For instance, one man, a farmer's delight, consumed 25 eggs a day! But he absorbed only 18 per cent of the dietary cholesterol.
He is among 12 to 15 per cent of North Americans who are lucky to inherit the right genes. As the old adage counsels, "You simply can't be too careful who your parents are!"
Italian researchers came across an interesting finding which adds further weight to the importance of genetics. They discovered that residents of a northern Italian village had low levels of high density lipoproteins (the good cholesterol). This helps to remove cholesterol from the blood.
These villagers, lacking this benefit, should be dying from blocked coronary arteries. But they're virtually free of heart disease. Scientists claim it's due to a gene they believe protects them from atherosclerosis.
Current thinking is that most people possess a combination of both good and bad genes that help to control cholesterol metabolism.
How do the rest of us know where we stand? Unfortunately it's easier to buy a pair of shoes that fit than know how often we should enjoy ham and eggs for breakfast. But there are some common sense facts to guide us.
First, there's no point fretting about things you can't control. Remember most blood cholesterol comes from the liver, not from the dinner plate. Ô 0*0*0* Every day the liver produces about 1,000 milligrams (mg) of cholesterol. Men on an average consume about 325 mg of cholesterol and women around 220 mg.
The liver contains a "cholesterolstat" much like the thermostat that controls the heat in our homes. If we consume excessive amounts of cholesterol the liver produces less of this waxy, white material. If we don't consume enough cholesterol it manufactures more of it.
So take a look at your family tree. The ideal situation is to have lean elderly ancestors who devoured bacon and eggs for years without trouble. And ones who didn't suffer from high blood pressure or diabetes. In this situation I'd relax and order ham and eggs whenever I wanted them.
But there's another lesson to be learned from shoes. What fits you and feels comfortable at 18 years of age may pinch the toes at 50. Our feet change in size over the years. So does the rest of us.
It may be acceptable to eat eggs and toast loaded with butter with gay abandon at 18 if you're not overweight. But North Americans have a major problem. They're getting more obese each passing year and developing diseases that should never happen.
It's no secret that overweight people have a greater problem controlling cholesterol metabolism. Following a meal rich in cholesterol they have a greater increase in blood cholesterol than people of normal weight.
But what these people need is to put the brakes on everything they eat. Not simply say no to ham and eggs and naively believe that is the answer to heart disease. Lets put the blame where it belongs, too many calories, smoking and inactivity to name a few.
For years people have been deluged with articles linking cholesterol to coronary heart disease. In the melee farmers, hens and cows have been badly bruised. I'm convinced they've been scapegoats. And most people need not say no to ham and eggs.
In my book, "The Healthy Barmaid", I stress that it's the sum total of our genetic and lifestyle habits that determines whether we succumb to coronary heart disease.
The patients I see who are obese suffer from sore feet, aching backs, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and other degenerative disease that are increasingly related to poor habits.
Don't blame dairy products for heart disease. Blame yourself for not stepping on a scale every day. Keeping a normal weight would save more people from fatal heart attacks than anything else.
Popo was right when he counselled, "we have identified the enemy and the enemy is us!"
W. Gifford-Jones M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken Walker graduate of Harvard. Dr. Walker's website is: Docgiff.com
My book, �90 + How I Got There� can be obtained by sending $19.95 to:
Giff Holdings, 525 Balliol St, Unit # 6,Toronto, Ontario, M4S 1E1
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