No Stupid Questions

Recent research has shown cholesterol levels aren't really caused by dietary fat intake.

It's largely influenced by genetics, and by other things, especially glucose instability.

When blood glucose levels vary wildly - e.g. eating a high carb meal spikes it, which causes the pancreas to release a lot of insulin at once to cope with the sudden glucose increase, which then signals EVERY cell to "use glucose!", including fat cells which are very efficient at storing glucose as fat. Since carbs are metabolized quickly, glucose levels drop quickly because of that initial insulin spike.

Those sudden high blood glucose levels apparently cause vascular injury, and cholesterol is used to basically form a patch on the artery wall so it's protected while it heals. Keep cycling glucose levels, and you'll have high cholesterol levels as the body heals the vascular system. Looking at the last 40 years (starting in the 80's), what's the dietary advice been? Less fat, more carbs. And we wonder why we're seeing more diabetes and cardiovascular disease?

Also, high cholesterol on its own is only a single metric (just like blood pressure - there've been Olympic athletes with high cholesterol and high blood pressure...) - there's lots more going on, and it all needs to be considered. Franky I don't worry about cholesterol, as the single thing we can all do that has major impact to every system in our bodies, is to eat in a way to keep glucose levels stable.

I say this as someone with Type II diabetes in my immediate family, I have hypoglycemia, and Type I in the extended family. I've had to study up a lot over the last 20 years to keep family and myself healthy and safe.

A good intro on these things is a book by Barry Sears called "The Zone", published in about 1994 (ignore all other Zone books, they're marketing garbage). He's a chemist who saw heart disease in relatively young people in his family, and went back to school for a biochemistry doctorate because he didn't want to die young.

Talk to a dietician, dairy is far from the only source of cholesterol. You'll need to write down a detailed food-diary and log every meal, snack, beverage etc. to receive an informed answer.

Low-fat cheese is horrible, tbh. It's like eating slices of vinyl eraser, and does not spark cheese-joy. Cardio-risk-wise it's like getting healthy by smoking half-length cigarettes: everybody loses.

There's no good alternatives that fill every niche, but humnmus is a damn good start. It's got (good) fat and protein and it's salty and umami, and feels like you've actually eaten something.

I echo the other commenter and recommend speaking with a "registered dietician" (RD degree) about your personal nutrition goals.

Calories in/out, physical activity levels, and genetics are three of the biggest factors with blood cholesterol levels. Would you overall eat fewer calories if you switched to low fat dairy? Maybe then it's a decent strategy for you.

Harvard's Nutrition Source is a great educational resource about nutrition that is science based and uses accessible language.

There are some alternatives to cheese that are pretty good. I’m an omnivore but my wife has convinced me that there are some good vegetarian options out there. Might be worth exploring if the low-fat cheese isn’t palatable.

• Cashew cream on enchiladas is fantastic
• the fake shredded cheese made out of almond isn’t so bad. We use it on salads, chili, etc. It’s expensive though.
• TVP gives things that umami flavor, good in chili, but it more so acts like ground beef. Don’t put too much in.
• Blended tofu with nutritional yeast acts as a very good ricotta substitute (coincidentally tofu also makes for a very good chocolate pie)

With this, and trimming down my meat consumption to just a few times a week, as well as a little exercise, I’ve kept my LDL numbers below my late 20s highs, which were borderline - I’m nearing two decades older now.

Tbh nothing lowered it for me until they put me on a statin. Genetics are a bitch. But maybe I wasn't trying hard enough diet-wise? I don't know.

A short history of saturated fat: the making and unmaking of a scientific consensus

However the rediscovery of rigorous clinical trials testing this hypothesis and the subsequent publication of multiple review papers on these data have provided a new awareness of the fundamental inadequacy of the evidence to support the idea that saturated fats cause heart disease.

From my reading on my own health journey: exercise, stress, and insulin sensitivity are the paramount factors in heart health.

They replace fat with carbs so there's that. I had a very bad experience with low fat subs.

I went vegan and had no change in my cholesterol. I have never had a diet that was high in fat, so that didn't surprise me. My doctor told me I need to give up alcohol for any change to occur. There's definitely a genetic component as well, my dad and his dad seriously struggled with their cholesterol levels.

I had to abstain from alcohol over the summer because I started a medication that is hard on the liver, and I just had a lipid panel today. So I'll find out early next week if my doctor was right lol

It may not. I'd look into other spreads than cheese, like a nut butter.

Wondering if changing my regular dairy and cheese for low fat versions would be enough.

Probly not.

I started getting a lot of Vitamin D (midday sun in the summer, no sunscreen)

Then I did intermediate fasting. Only eting diner.

I wish Australian food nutrition labels had cholesterol on them because most don't and its only if the manufacturer decides to put it on