On Tue, 6 Nov 2001 12:21:20 EST, Sheryl Canter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

me:
>> And this I (venture to) attribute to the bad fat composition of farmed
>> animal's fat.
>>
>

Sheryl:
>Actually, this is not the reason.

You seem to be so shure.
But the theme is a big theme, much disputed everywhere, big in science,
with a great deal of recommendations and diets and theories.
Probably there isn't a easy and convincing theory which is *right*.
You only mention one source for your claim.
Don't forget:
"Complex problems have simple, easy-to-understand wrong answers."

>The human body should never have to
>manufacturer cholesterol.  This is an abnormal condition caused by
>insufficient cholesterol in the diet.

This claim is contradicted by an often quoted source here:
http://www.ravnskov.nu/myth3.htm
sais: "Your body produces three to four times more cholesterol than you eat.
The production of cholesterol increases when you eat little cholesterol and
decreases when you eat much. This explains why the ”prudent” diet cannot
lower cholesterol more than on average a few per cent. "

So, if the body makes 3-4 as much as is eaten (normally), then to
abolish body making cholesterol one ought to 4-fold his or her cholesterol
intake to lower it.

> When the human body manufactures
>cholesterol, it does it without limitation--the natural checks are
>sidestepped.  When the human body is getting adequate dietary cholesterol,
>the body does not manufacture it at all and blood levels stay within a
>normal range.

I also wouldn't beleave that the human cybernetic loops for production of a
very essential stuff in the body are so out of bound that "it does it
without limitation".
In nature every stuff is made in a feedback loop, where the produced enzyme
by some machanism lowers it's  own production, if the concentration is high
enough.
Otherwise all production would go without end.

If the body produces too much cholesterol then the real cause is -must be-
the need which triggers its production.
For cholesterol I can see 2 triggering needs:

- 1.The cell membrane status requires cholesterol, due to unavailability of
fatty acids which would be used normally.
Note that unnatural low PUFA levels and PUFA ratios are directely reflected
in the cell membrane composition. SFAs are used instead of LNA and LA.
SFAs are less flexible and less permeable than natural PUFAs.

- 2.The prostaglandin steering wheel steers towards clotting and
inflammation and this seems to require more cholesterol.
Note that high omega-6 levels and low omega-3 levels promote clotting and
inflamation.

Having said all that I would like to mention that I don't see cholesterol as
the real culprit, but only as an *indicator* of disease.
Cholesterol is in the plaques in the arteries, yes.
But I don't think plaques are made if just enough cholesterol is there,
maybe to "get rid" of it.
The cholesterol is *made*, with a reason.

Amadeus