Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You [Paperback]

A rare talent is to be able to describe subject matter that requires a deep technical knowledge while making it accessible and easy to understand for the lay person. Dr Ravnskov is the expert's own expert. He describes the cholesterol/heart disease hypothesis and explains it in very clear terms, so that ordinary people can understand what is involved. With the trained eye of a scientist, he assembles all of the available evidence, both positive and negative, and gently leads the reader through the experiments and the clinical research, that either supports the wholesale use of toxic medications or warns us of the consequences if we continue to ignore the irrefutable mountain of scientific data that underpins the benefits of cholesterol to the human body.

Every study, to which Dr Ravnskov refers, in this meticulously referenced book, is broken down and explained in terms with which the lay reader will be familiar. We learn of the research of Landé and Sperry (a pathologist and a biochemist) which was published in 1936. The surprise at their finding, that there was no association between cholesterol in the blood and atherosclerosis (the hardening and thickening of the artery walls), is as fresh for me today as it must have been for Landé and Sperry, perhaps because the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry don't usually let the poor consumers have any access to these simple truths. Dr Ravnskov manages to convey the excitement of scientific discovery by documenting such important events in clear language.

Moving to the research of the 1950s, we learn of Ancel Keys and how he tailored the facts fit his own pet theories, while conveniently ignoring anything that would spoil a good story. The story of 'bad' and 'good' cholesterol is unravelled piece by piece and I found it hard to put the book down. It was like reading a good detective novel, with small clues being found throughout the plot. The conclusions do not have to be drawn for the reader, by Dr Ravnskov, for the obvious answers are stark, once the confusion is cleared away. The reader can easily see that 'bad' cholesterol is a convenient fairy-tale, that would not have looked out of place if it were sitting on the library shelf of Hans Christian Andersen, next to Thumbelina, The Red Shoes. The Snow Queen and The Ugly Duckling.

Dr Ravnskov goes on to explain the role of cholesterol in the body and then he details how different cholesterol values in different nations, do not produce the expected results. There is no rabid denunciation of people who are mistaken in their researches. Unlike the manner in which the establishment decry this solid and honest attempt to understand a specific piece of biochemistry, in order to prevent people from suffering needless infirmity or more serious consequences.

If you are concerned about heart disease and the relationship that cholesterol may have in its beginnings, you owe it to yourself to become better informed. It is unlikely that your medical practitioner will be as well-informed as this book. You, in turn, will be able to ask your family doctor some crucial questions because of the knowledge that you will gain from reading this book. If it prevents you from poisoning yourself with cholesterol reducing medicines and stops you worrying about heart disease, so that you are less prone to being stressed, then Dr Ravnskov will have rendered a much needed service to you, without you being one of his own fortunate patients. If nothing else, reading this book will remind you of the joy of eating foods that contain fat. I am considerably happier now that I can eat fat containing foods again. Full fat cheeses, Meats, Jersey Cream milk, Eggs and Fried Bacon. Mmmmm.... lovely! :-)

This is one of the most important and ground-breaking health/scientific books I have read. It is particularly significant because it proves beyond a doubt that we have been deliberately, totally and utterly deceived in the last decades by the misleadingly interpreted scientific studies of researchers in the pocket of the medicinal industry, which capitalizes on skyrocketing sales of statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs).

The author examines a number of studies into the implications of high cholesterol and its relation to atherosclerosis (stiffening of the arteries), analyzes the results in detail and then tears the conclusions apart. It turns out that the studies/tests have been erroneously interpreted, unwanted results have been left out, the results arrived at and presented in the conclusion having only been those supporting the interests of the investigators.

In actual fact, despite what the researchers, doctors, drug producers and the food industry have been deceiving us for decades into believing, there is no etiological connection between high cholesterol and atherosclerosis. Older people with high cholesterol live longer than older people with low cholesterol. Those treated with statins may suffer fewer deaths from heart disease, but have a higher general mortality - they die more from cancer, for instance. Statins also cause memory loss, dementia, impotence, polyneuropathy, violent behaviour and mental disturbances.

LDL (the "bad" cholesterol - ha!) has useful and essential functions - for instance, it "binds and inactivates 90% of alfatoxin, one of the most toxic chemicals produced by the staphylococcus bacterias". It has a direct beneficial effect on the immune system - people with low LDL-cholesterol are shown to have a much lower number of white blood cells.

High LDL-cholesterol protects against allergy. Only half as many people with high LDL die from cancer - thus the high cancer mortality in those taking statins, which lower the LDL.

Another basic fact that is not generally known is that eating cholesterol does not increase your blood cholesterol. The author actually experimented on himself. When eating one egg per day, which he generally did, his cholesterol was 275 mg/dl. When he increased this amount to 8 per day, his cholesterol level decreased to 246 mg/dl. My own doctor recently informed me that my LDL was too high. This despite the fact that I eat only vegetables, a few eggs and a little fish - no meat or dairy products at all. I'm convinced that it is "too high" because I eat so little of it, and the body naturally rectifies matters. The doctor didn't want to hear about Ravnskov's book. Doctors generally don't like their patients to know more than they do on a given health subject!

Now, as regards saturated fat. The author informs us that the Masai people in Kenya consume nothing but meat, blood and milk, drinking half a gallon of milk a day. Their intake of animal fat is much higher than that of most Western people. But they don't die of heart disease, and their cholesterol is among the lowest measured in the world.

Moreover, studies have shown that patients with heart disease have not consumed more saturated fat than healthy people.

These are just a few highlights of the facts regarding cholesterol and saturated fats presented in this book.

The cholesterol myth having been demolished, the author tackles the matter of the real cause of atherosclerosis - inflammation, bacterial and virus infections, and an excess level of homocysteine in the blood.

In order to avoid an excess of homocysteine, it is necessary to make the conversion of methionine to cysteine more effective, and for this an adequate anount of B6, B12 and folic acid must be present. (Nice to get some useful information about how to avoid atherosclerosis, now we know lowering our cholesterol won't do the trick!)

The author is not the only one with these views about the fallacy of the dangers of high cholesterol. Many are in agreement with him and a separate chapter is devoted to listing the names of these other "brave researchers", as he terms them, and referring to their scientific studies in support of said views.

Though Ravnskov's native language is not English, and he makes numerous grammatical mistakes, he explains the whole thing clearly and concisely. This has been one of the most easily understood scientific books for me to read.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone interested in learning the truth about the matter in hand, thus enabling him- or herself to seize greater control of his/her own health.

I first read "The Great Cholesterol Con" by Dr. Kendrik but I wasn't too impressed with his joking tone (I suppose many people will love it but for me this subject is too important to lose too much time with jokes!). And I found the message a bit confusing. After researching a bit further I found "Fat and Cholesterol are good for you" and the title is so controversial that I had to read it. My interest in cholesterol and fats came from the fact that a while ago I found coconut oil in a health shop and thought that I should only use it on my skin as I believed that saturated fats were very bad for your health. Then someone on a site suggested I start cooking with it but I needed to read more about the subject before adding it to our daily menu. The first book I read was "Coconut Cures" by Dr. Bruce Fife, which gave me a lot of valuable information and then I moved on to read more about cholesterol, a subject I knew nothing about although I know that mine is on the high side. The only thing you usually hear about cholesterol is that it is something bad which will shorten your life, something to be afraid of. Well, in the meanwhile I know that this is not true especially for me as a woman.

I find it a pity that this book is badly edited. Even if the author had to publish it on a small budget maybe a friend could have had a look through... but the message is there! At times all the studies were a bit much for me but I can't say that they are not interesting. What I found very weird, coming from a country considered Mediterranean was the Mediterranean diet used in one of the studies which included margarine made with rapeseed oil while everybody knows that in Mediterranean countries people cook mostly with olive oil. And also the fact that people were encouraged to eat poultry instead of pork. People in Mediterranean countries do eat quite a bit of pork, beef and lam.... this goes to show that these studies are often based on errors and therefore their conclusions can't be taken seriously!

I can't agree with the author when he says that many people realize that statins are toxic. I know quite a few elderly people on statins or similar drugs who show all the symptoms of their side effects but who have no idea of what is going on. Very sad that our health is used for financial gain and not many doctors seem to care about what happens to us. Weather we live a miserable life or die it doesn't matter, we are just a statistic and a way to get rich even quicker!

This book demystifies a lot of concepts which exist in our society about the dangers (or not) of cholesterol and the author, having done a thorough research, presents his point of view in a scientific way. He also explains thoroughly how studies are misinterpreted in order to fit the directors' goals and how badly studies often are set up. He is also very clear about the financial links between the directors' and the pharmaceutical industry who as a rule finance the whole thing anyway.

Too bad that people are still being misled but then aren't we being misled on a lot of important subjects anyway? I want to read more about the use of coconut oil and the benefits for one's health but for the time being I am convinced that we have made the right choice and I don't think that I will let any doctor lower my cholesterol! After all women with higher cholesterol seem to be the ones who live the longest! But... wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to go to your doctor and be able to trust him with your wellbeing instead of having to dig around and try to find the truth yourself?