I recently read an interesting article about a young man who ate 720 eggs in a month to prove a point. If you have been told one of the common myths about cholesterol that eggs are bad for you, then you probably expect the next sentence to talk about the heart attack that followed.

Nope.

After one month this man’s LDL went down 18%. That’s right — it went down. If you think that eating fat is what makes you gain weight or that low-fat is healthier, you’re not alone. It’s what we’ve been told since the 1970s — that things like skim milk, margarine, low-fat dressing, and low-fat anything is better. The truth is, that information is flat-out wrong. We’ve actually known since the ‘90s that this information is wrong, but when any information like these myths about cholesterol are shared often enough and loud enough, it’s easy to believe it.

Many people still think that eating fat makes you fat and that eating fat raises cholesterol and leads to atherosclerosis. This all started with a researcher named Dr. Ansel Keys. He had this thought that high-fat diets caused atherosclerosis, so he conducted a massive study of twenty-two countries to see if this was true. He then published a study called the “Seven Country Study” which did indeed confirm his hypothesis that fat makes you fat and raises cholesterol.

But wait; read that last sentence again. His published article was called the “Seven Country Study” even though he researched twenty-two countries. What happened to the other fifteen? Their results did not fit his hypothesis so he tossed them out. In the world of research, this is called fraud. Nevertheless, his study caught on and the medical world preached the evils of fat from then on. I actually had a patient recently share that her cardiologist told her to avoid butter and eat margarine. So, the “low fat” belief persists today despite over 30 years of published research showing it is a fallacy.

The truth is that there are good fats and bad fats. Olive oil, avocados, and butter are all good for you. Vegetable oil, margarine, soybean oil, and most seed oils are bad. Most low-fat products are bad for you as they replace fat with some synthetic compound to make it taste better.

Think about this: you have probably heard how good salmon is for you. It is a fatty fish! Olive oil is good for you. It’s pure fat! What about bacon and other fatty meat like ribeye? They’re good for you in general (though a lot of bacon is high in nitrites, which are not so good). Grass-fed beef is quite good for you as well — it actually has more omega-3s than farm-raised salmon (which is one reason that grass-fed is better).

So then what about your cholesterol, LDLs, and triglycerides? Triglycerides are elevated after eating too many carbs. Your body can only store so much sugar as glycogen before it starts to convert it into triglycerides. That raises your LDL because your body uses LDL to transport all those triglycerides to your belly.

One more related thought: you can’t get fat eating fat because you can never consume enough fat to do that. Think of how full you get eating bacon or a big steak or anything fatty. It fills you up fast! Now think about eating carbs — for example cereal, grains, or donuts. It’s easy to pig out on those, isn’t it?

So the skinny on fat is this: you’ve been lied to about cholesterol for a long time and some well-meaning professionals have kept these myths about cholesterol going. You don’t have to eat 720 eggs, but you should eat more healthy fat. Your heart, your waistline, your brain health, and the overall health of your body will thank you.

Dr. Burtis, D.C., M.S., CFMP, DACBN, has been providing natural healthcare to the Fairmont area at Burtis Chiropractic Center for over 35 years. He uses a combination of chiropractic, nutrition, and functional medicine to help individuals restore and maintain health and healing through individualized care plans. The mission of Burtis Chiropractic Center is to provide transformational healthcare that takes an individual’s life to the next level. We strive to be a solution for families to experience transformational healthcare and help create vibrant and resilient lifestyles that can be passed to future generations.