The Cholesterol Shuffle

You’ve all heard the Fiber Police cries to eat your fiber…to the tune of 35 grams a day. You’ve all seen the commercials for fiber-this and fiber-that, seen the cereals in grocery stores that look and taste like they’re made from sawdust and horse food, and seen the lady on TV in her minivan trying to eat broccoli like an ice cream cone. Now I can tell you what the hue and cry is all about.

First of all, never mind colon cancer—that can be prevented just by increasing the fresh produce in your diet.

The REAL reason is cholesterol removal from the body. Here’s how I got there:

1. You eat meat and consume dairy products or coconut milk—these foods contain saturated fat, as well as cholesterol.

2. These foods are broken down and eventually get into your blood stream.

3. The liver, in all its infinite glory, filters your blood.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Meanwhile, how does the liver get cleaned out of all that junk it so kindly filtered out of your blood? It doesn’t, unless you consume large quantities of fiber, and maybe consume dandelion leaves in your salads.

Statins serve to lower our cholesterol, but they don’t really lower anything except the amount found in our blood—it all gets sent to the liver for long-term storage (a place with limited capacity). So how do we get rid of the stuff in storage?

We eat grain- and/or vegetable type fiber—it binds with the cholesterol and saturated fat while in the digestive tract and blood stream, ushering it to the nearest exit (the bowels). Without fiber, the fat and cholesterol do nothing but move back and forth from the blood to the liver, and remain in your system until fiber comes along to bind it and send it out. This explains why your cholesterol numbers keep bouncing up and down on blood tests.

We also detox our liver—by eating more fiber from various sources, we feel fuller sooner, and are less likely to put more, new fats and cholesterol into our system.

Like a car’s oil filter and fuel filter, not much will run when the filters are clogged—the engine gets no fuel, and there’s stuff in the oil that prevent it from adequately coating pistons. In other words, the car no longer runs as efficiently as it once did, and is “sick.” There’s lots of improvement to be had by simply changing the filters—and the same goes for us humans. Unfortunately, we came with “permanent filters,” and can only clean them out unless we have major transplant surgery. Good luck finding a donor!

Unfortunately, some people come equipped with a “perpetually-clogging filter,” meaning that their liver produces cholesterol in addition to what they’re taking in through diet.

To solve this dilemma, you can increase your fiber intake, cut back your saturated fat and cholesterol intake, or both. I recommend both—only you know how clogged your liver is. Pep Boys and Napa Auto Parts can’t help you here, unless they feed you. Cutting back on your dairy intake will also help to clean out your gall bladder—important if you have a family history of stone formation (luckily, most stones are merely cholesterol deposits).

If you are dairy, bean, and grain intolerant (like me), there are acceptable low-carb whole grain substitutes for the usual bowl of Kellogg’s Horse-Food-for-Humans or All-Bran-and-Wood-Shavings: chia and flax seeds, as well as coconut flour. Nuts and seeds, the edible skins of fruits and vegetables, beans and legumes, and many dark, leafy salad greens are other non-grain sources of dietary fiber.

The reason why grains are so heavily pushed as THE source of beneficial fiber is because of the convenience—whole grains have higher fiber contents than fruits or vegetables, and it’s easy to put wheat and wheat-derived products into many foods, or create foods with wheat as the primary ingredient. If you could care less about convenience at this point (like me), and would rather cater to your food allergy/low glycemic/low carb needs, go for the antioxidant sources and whole grain alternatives.

Now you know why the Fiber Police are always out with their shrill whistles, the statin salesmen are strangely silent about increasing fiber, lots of people are sick all the time, and many liver transplants could have been avoided. Clean filters and good fuel help ensure tip-top “human engine” performance, and encourage easy weight loss—the liver no longer has fat to hang onto any more, and the body must burn other fat reserves for energy.