How many mg of cholesterol are you consuming each day?

[kamaboko]

Hi,

I see that the RDA is 300mg per day and I’m hitting 900+. Sort of has me concerned. I eat three eggs per day (one culprit) and maybe six or seven slices of bacon. The rest is cheese and occasional peanut butter.

Thanks,

[Daisy]

Absolutely no idea! Loads probably. We need @DaveKeto or @siobhan to comment on this.

[KBG]

Agree with @Daisy. I just grabbed a random look at 7 days and I’m averaging in the 900’s.

[Daisy]

I wouldn’t even think to look! But I will let the cholesterol geeks explain why it doesn’t matter because they will do it way better than me. Plus I am going to bed!

[siobhan]

Well, basically I’m not sure it matters because about 80% of the cholesterol we have in our bodies is synthesized (via a very intricate process involving fat) with the ~20% coming from diet. However, if you downregulate how much comes from diet your body will upregulate synthesizing cholesterol to balance it out.
But the real point to consider is that your body needs cholesterol (for hormone production, for your brain, for repairing cells, for making new cells, etc). Every single cell in your body needs cholesterol (which is why you can make it yourself). Any excess cholesterol is just excreted as bile salts if it isn’t needed.

One reason you don’t want to “get rid” of cholesterol (in general) is if a cell gets damaged it will call on LDL (the “bad” cholesterol although it isn’t cholesterol in itself, but rather a carrier of energy + cholesterol) specifically to take the cholesterol it is carrying and use it to repair the damage.

Your body is really quite good at keeping homeostasis, and if something isn’t needed right away it’ll either store it or throw it out. So basically, I see no reason to be concerned with cholesterol being vital to life, as well as extra being properly handled if it isn’t needed. Just my opinion, but can provide studies on request about the topic.
Did you have any specific concerns regarding the cholesterol intake? If you’re curious about what does make cholesterol go up (and down) you may give Dave Feldman’s talk a watch… may ease some concerns

[Shortstuff]

No idea. Never track it.

[240lbfatloss]

It’s basically irrelevant. It is not fat, it’s a waxy type of alcohol. One of the biggest fallicies developed was relating dietary cholesterol intake with blood cholesterol. This created the temporary “egg phobia” of the late eighties and early nineties. This was finally dispelled once it was proven that high small particle LDL (via ion mobility analysis) and high triglycerides were in fact caused by carbohydrate intake.

Krause’s work at Children’s Hospital of Oakland, where he headed up the Athero unit was instrumental, he’s the one who determined the existence of at least four types of LDL, the smaller particle types being harmful. It dispelled Goffman’s earlier work, which had caused all LDL to be labeled “bad”. That’s why Docs now use the relationship between HDL and triglycerides to be indicative, rather than a single LDL number since it takes an ion mobility test to break down a true LDL analysis.

[PrimalBrian]

I see that the RDA is 300mg per day

PS - coming a little late to this, but there is no daily RDA for cholesterol. The 300 number is from the 2010 US guidelines. The 2015 guidelines removed the limit entirely.

However, with this caveat:

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommendation to Slised boiled egglimit consumption of dietary cholesterol to 300 mg per day is not included in the 2015 edition, but the new guidelines note that “this change does not suggest that dietary cholesterol is no longer important to consider when building healthy eating patterns. As recommended by the IOM, individuals should eat as little dietary cholesterol as possible while consuming a healthy eating pattern.”

New Dietary Guidelines remove restriction on total fat and set limit for added...

[Edoos]

Consuming cholesterol is not linked to elevate cholesterol in the blood. There is a misunderstanding with cholesterol intake and blood cholesterol levels. You can have a good overview in this article https://breaknutrition.com/does-cholesterol-function-to-harm-or-help-us/

[djindy]

Even Ancel Keys was known for eventually saying that Cholesterol in the diet doesn’t matter unless you are a chicken or a rabbit (the animals experimented on in very early research on the matter, who don’t normally eat anything with much cholesterol).

[ketoteacher1]

Why do our total cholesterol numbers go up on keto, then? I understand they’re often the HDL and large, fluffy LDLs which are both good, but why do our total #s increase if dietary cholesterol does not affect blood levels? Thanks

[Capnbob]

Why do our total cholesterol numbers go up on keto, then?

As I understand it, for most, eventually they go down as we become much more efficient fat burners, but in the meantime (a year or more) we are adapting our bodies to extract fat from adipose tissue, break it down, make ketones, transport them around the body etc. and LDL may well go up. Cholesterol is a big part of these processes (IIRC) so would be expected to be seen in higher amounts until you get totally rebalanced.