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Comment by semi-extrinsic | Hacker News Reader

> Other studies have shown that cholesterol-raising factor in coffee does not pass a paper filter.

And yet other studies are increasingly pointing towards dietary cholesterol intake not being such an important causal factor for CVD after all [1], and that important evidence going against the cholesterol-is-bad theory was never published properly [2] since the people doing the studies thought the data was flawed since it went against the prevailing theory.

[1] http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1846638&atab=7

[2] http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2016/04/15/fro...

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Cholesterol increasing effect in coffee is not coming from dietary cholesterol.

It comes from cafestol and kahweol. They seem to affect cholesterol regulation in the body. http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.nutr.17.1.3...

Coffee doesn't contain cholesterol. It contains diterpenes, which are shown to increase "bad cholesterol". How meaningful this effect is, I don't know, but it's not the same as dietary cholesterol.

This study was funded by big Pharma and Nestle... I’d be hard pressed to trust it.

What is especially suspicious is how the study gives the maximum benefits at 3-5 cups, that is what one typically consumes. It looks like threat - continue drinking coffee or you die.

There are people running billion dollar industries that desperately want to obscure the truth about this. The fact is that blood cholesterol rises predictably and reliably in response to ingestion of dietary cholesterol. Your body will eventually clear it but not if you keep downing one cholesterol heavy meal after another:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBtfzd43t8o

Futhermore, you (specifically your brain) needs cholesterol. There is such a thing as not enough cholesterol.

In support: The fact that the 'cholesterol is bad theory' is wrong/outdated is the current state of teaching at German medical schools.

Thank you.

To which I'd like to add: It's sugar and carbs that are doing the damage. The bad reputation of cholesterol is at this point a myth, a myth that more need to be aware of.

I was born in the early 70's. It seems like a good many of the dietary recommendations I was raised on were BS. It's strange.

It's worse than strange. Consider margarine vs butter. I mean, margarine was promoted during WWII to conserve dairy for the military. And it was later promoted as healthy. Gotta cut down on those bad saturated fats! Except ... Except that hydrogenation (to make vegetable oil solid) creates trans partially saturated fats. Which raise LDL more than saturated fats!

I've recently taken to just not having any spread on my bread other than the main ingredient.

Example: toasted slice of yeast bread (my recipe is 50% white, 20% rye, 30% wholemeal) with jam or with a slice of cheese or hummus or fool maddamas or an apple. Just no butter/marge/whatever.

I do now have butter and toast a couple of times a week.

Giving up the bread and keeping the butter would be the more healthy choice.

I take the point, and I do cut the carbs quite often when actively losing weight (actually specifically reducing my waist measurement)

Oh no... you eat bread? ;)

Yup. I even bake my own ;-}

Getting into rye and spelt though.

The gluten in that bread (read: insulin spike) will hurt you a lot more than the butter.

Gluten is protein, which isn't going to cause an insulin spike. I suspect you mean carbs.

What happens in the body when it's consumed?

I'm not sure I follow. Are you saying that eating bread causes an insulin spike, and since bread contains gluten, that's part of the insulin spike? Eating gluten-free carbohydrates also create an insulin spike. If I'm misunderstanding you, please feel free to clarify. I'd rather not be building a straw man inadvertently.

You got it right. They are two different things. Closely tied but none the less separate. Thanks for the reminder.

Sorry. Ignore my previous comment(s).

Try olive oil with a pinch of salt.

Actually, I have found that I don't need any spread at all, just the bread and the main ingredient.

Meta: Downvotes on original post, HN is very touchy on diet. Good heavens.

Most Margarine is no longer hydrogenated.

Right. Because we now know that synthetic trans fats are bad.

I still love eggs fried in butter. But otherwise, I mostly use olive oil. Or almond butter.

You can largely blame the media. Scientific research is always finding new results and refining our knowledge. When a new study is published it's often oversold by the media. Then later more research adds to the original finding, sometimes changing the recommendation. Then the media hypes up the new finding.

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