Low Fat Does Not Automatically Mean Healthy

Dietary cholesterol is the cholesterol in food. Blood cholesterol is carried in your circulating lipoproteins and reflects absorption, synthesis and clearance. These are related, but they are not the same measurement.

• Eggs, meat and seafood contain cholesterol along with other nutrients; their effects depend on the overall dietary pattern and individual metabolism.
• Whole-food fats should be considered in the context of the food they come from, portion size and the fats they replace.
• Sugar, refined flour and processed low-fat foods can supply large amounts of refined carbohydrate despite a low-fat label.
• Industrially altered fats and repeatedly heated oils are different from intact foods; overall dietary quality matters.

Replacing whole-food fats with large quantities of refined carbohydrates may worsen triglycerides and metabolic health. Replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fats is a different dietary change from replacing it with refined sugar or starch.

LOW FAT DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN HEALTHY.

STOP FEARING WHOLE FOODS BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN CHOLESTEROL.

FOOD QUALITY MATTERS.

Dietary cholesterol responses and cardiovascular effects vary with overall dietary composition and individual metabolism. The message is not that all foods or fats have identical effects, or that unlimited intake is safe.