Your LDL may or may not go down, but it is a fairly volatile number, so I wouldn’t worry about it. Recent research tends to suggest that a ratio of triglycerides to HDL under 2.0 is an indicator of low risk for heart disease, and eating saturated fat is the only really effective way to raise HDL. The triglyceride number is also fairly volatile. If you want to manipulate your numbers for the next test, check out www.cholesterolcode.com. Dave Feldman has worked out a way that many people can use to target a test. His take is that it is what he calls “remnant cholesterol” (the number you get by subtracting HDL and LDL from total cholesterol) that is the true indicator of risk.
As for LDL and heart disease, I started a thread that links a video by David Diamond and a podcast in which he is interviewed. He is neurobiologist who got interested in cholesterol and LCHF/keto for personal reasons. You might find it interesting to check out those links. Diamond’s theory is that the real cause of heart disease is clotting factors (fibrinogen and a couple of others) that have been activated by inflammation caused by too much insulin. He feels that a ketogenic diet, which reduces inflammation, is the best treatment for heart disease. I think that researchers in the field, such as Dr. Phinney and Dr. Westman, would agree.
The idea that cholesterol causes heart disease has not been backed up by any scientific research. It was promoted by a couple of authority figures in the medical world and has become official dogma, but all the studies designed to prove that it causes heart disease have not only failed to show it, but instead show that higher cholesterol has a protective effect against heart disease, especially once we are over 60. (Check out the Minnesota Coronary Study, MRFIT, and the Women’s Health Initiative, for starters.)
