What’s the deal with Fat? You need it.
Fat’s an immensely VITAL component of our health. It’s not just a calorie or energy source; good Fats have so many jobs and uses, I couldn’t even begin to list them all. Fats are used to make our brain (60% fat), our bones (weird, but true), our muscles (did you know that? have you seen a heart muscle? it’s striated thru-out with fat ! ), our immune system, our hormones,.. every single cell in our body is built from saturated fat and cholesterol. These nutrients give our cells structure. Vitamins A,D,E, and K, and most minerals, can only be absorbed with fat.
Cholesterol is Vital to our existence: our brain is highly dependent on cholesterol for hundreds of jobs, as a matter of fact, the brain uses about 25% of all the cholesterol your body makes. Babies and growing children, who are developing their brains, use even more. Cholesterol protects you from infection, and if you have low cholesterol, i.e your liver and cells aren’t making enough, you’re more prone to infections and more likely not to heal well from infections. Cholesterol supports immunity by inactivating microbial toxins and assisting various parts of the immune system in fighting infection.
There’s been this very mistaken impression that Cholesterol gets in the arteries and makes a giant plug. That’s inaccurate. PLAQUE gets in the arteries and makes a giant plug. Plaque gets sent, by the liver, to areas of damage. If the plaque wasn’t sent, you’d die a lot sooner, because the plaque is prolonging your condition and saving your life. There’s this great analogy that blaming cholesterol for your heart disease is like blaming the firemen at the fire, for the fire.