Cholesterol - You Can't Live Without it

If cholesterol is so bad for you then why does your body make 80% of the cholesterol it contains. (Cholesterol is made primarily by the liver and secondarily by the brain.)

The fact is that cholesterol is a vital substance, essential for good health. It is integral to both structure and function within the body in myriad ways.

So why then have we so demonized cholesterol? The reason is simple: a lot of money - billions, if not trillions - has been invested over the past 40 years to convince (scare) people that cholesterol is harmful and will kill them.

One of the more obvious such bets are the statin drugs which are intended to lower cholesterol. Lipitor, for example, is Pfizer's best selling drug, representing about 15% of the company's sales.

The problem with statins is, beyond lowering cholesterol which the body depends and thrives on, they create a number of nasty side effects such as liver damage, neuropathy, muscle wasting, and cognitive impairment.

This is a tragedy. If you eat high quality saturated fat you will stimulate the production of high quality cholesterol in your body, which, far from killing you, will keep you healthy.