I believe olive oil provides good cholesterol but what about full fat milk, yogurt and butter etc? The doctor says I need to get from 5.7 to 5.0 cholesterol. It is down from 6.5 last year so healthy choices are making a difference. Should I only be eating olive oil and fish fats is the question?

This is at the heart of this diet conundrum – is cholesterol raised by eating fat, as they’ve told us for a long time, and apparently based on experiments on rabbits in the 1950s OR is it raised by eating too much carbs that lay down fat in your internal organs, as quite a few, are now telling us. Is a, quite normal, level of 5.7 actually a problem, compared to high sugar levels? Pick your expert to believe!
I’ve never quite got the idea that the fat you put in your stomach causes the fat in your blood. I am going with this diet. It has got my weight back to age 21 (I’m 62) and my morning bloods to low normal.
Personally, many years ago, I was told to get my cholesterol down, and went on a very low fat diet. No cheese, very little meat, skimmed milk, more wholemeal carbs. It had no effect. A more recent go at statins gave me double vision.
I, like a lot of others, am feeling the guilt when I tuck into full fat yoghurt, eggs, etc., although enjoying them. Only a cholesterol test will tell. Try a chemist to see. I am hoping for the best – anyway, diabetes is the bigger enemy.

I am currently reading a book by Rose Elliott about low carb vegetarian recipes, which I think was written before the bsd book. She is saying a lot of the same things as Dr Mosley, including that cholesterol in the body is only 30% from the food we eat and 70% would be there naturally no matter what we eat. Some people generate more cholesterol than others and that cant be changed. She also says that the 30% we can affect by food is caused by high carbs and high fat together but we only have to cut the carbs, not the fat in order to reduce cholesterol. Would recommend the book, I got mine for 2 pence off of Amazon!

Fat does get transferred to the blood, I’d refer to Dr Mosley’s participation in a test where he ate a fried breakfast and had his blood measured for the amount of fat in it. He found that exercise reduced the amount of fat alot quicker than no exercise, ie, a better metabolism cleans the blood quicker.

It’s about fat that’s been laid down in the body as a result of excess calories, not about the fat that you eat (unless, of course, you eat so much that that is converted to body fat too).

Oh, and a lot of studies (can’t speak for what Moseley may be using as source material) don’t distinguish between good and bad cholesterol, so can be misleading.

It’s a huge myth – just like the ‘don’t lose weight quickly’ thing. That said, it’s still better to eat some fats over others, but those naturally occurring aren’t the problem (even from animals) – it’s the artificial or trans fats that cause the problems, and these are being phased out/banned on an increased basis.

Hope this makes sense – I’m writing in a rush 🙂

Should make it clear – my post was talking about cholesterol myths – I agree that fat can be carried in the blood, but not that we absorb cholesterol from foods in any significant quantity.

My cholesterol dropped from 6.3 to 2.3 when I started eating seeds in Greek yoghurt for breakfast.
That was before before I started on this diet. Looking forward to many more changes now!

what is the name of the magic seeds ? i sure need to try a few of them , and how much do you use ?

I mix equal parts sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds and milled flaxseed in a tub. Give it a shake to mix them up and then add about a dessert spoon of the mix to Greek yoghurt.