Oreos Lower Cholesterol Better Than Statins
I am not a doctor, scientist, or expert in anything. This content should not be construed as advice or recommendation, but is intended for entertainment and informational purposes only.
The more I learn, the less I realize I know.
-Socrates
Over the course of this blog I’ve written several posts on the subject of cholesterol and statins. A couple of months ago, I wrote about several studies that further call into question that validity of the argument that high cholesterol causes heart disease and other vascular problems, as well as, the safety and efficacy of the drugs used to treat high cholesterol.
First, I should point out that what we call cholesterol in this context is not really cholesterol, but is usually referring to low density lipoproteins (LDL) which transport cholesterol in the blood to tissues in the body. LDL is commonly referred to as the “bad” cholesterol.
A further point is that cholesterol is critical to the proper development and function of every cell membrane in our bodies, the development of the sterol hormones including the sex hormones, as well as vitamin D production.
In that most recent post on cholesterol, I wrote about people who are referred to as Lean Mass Hyper-Responders (LMHR). These are people who are metabolically healthy and lean, yet have incredibly high LDL levels (greater than 200mg/dL) when consuming higher fat diets such as a ketogenic diet.
The punchline from that ongoing study revealed that these LMHR phenotypes have similar calcium scores, plaque formation, and stenosis as people with LDL levels less than half of the LMHR phenotypes on average. The LMHR group was just as healthy as those with “low” cholesterol.
Another study published earlier this year is really twisting the panties of the “cholesterol = bad” camp into a major knot. The study, Oreo Cookie Treatment Lowers LDL Cholesterol More Than High-Intensity Statin therapy in a Lean Mass Hyper-Responder on a Ketogenic Diet: A Curious Crossover Experiment , was conducted by Nicholas Norwitz and William Cromwell. Norwitz holds a PhD in ketogenic nutrition and metabolism from Oxford University, and is pursuing his MD at Harvard Medical School.
Norwitz is a LMHR phenotype with what would be considered a dangerously high level of LDL due to his ketogenic diet. He was curious to see how much his LDL would drop if he introduced Oreo cookies into his diet.
His baseline LDL was 384mg/dL at the start of the experiment. To put this in perspective, the medical industrial complex recommends that LDL levels should be below 100 mg/dL for someone without heart disease with total cholesterol below 200 mg/dL.
Norwitz supplemented his diet with 12 Oreo cookies per day for 16 days. At the end of the 16 days, his LDL level had dropped to 111mg/dL, a whopping 71%!
For the next three months he resumed his strict ketogenic diet and his LDL returned to 421 mg/dL. He then started the second arm of the trial which involved him taking 20 mg of Crestor, a popular statin, daily for six weeks. The lowest his LDL level dropped during the 6-week treatment period with Crestor was 284mg/dL or a 32.5% reduction.
This experiment obviously has its limitations and is a sample size of 1, but based on the current cholesterol treatment paradigm, people with “high” LDL readings would be better served eating Oreo cookies than taking statins.
What could possibly cause LDL levels to drop so dramatically in this experiment? Norwitz points to the introduction of carbohydrates which can lower LDL, but Oreos also contain another ingredient known for lowering LDL level which I’ve also written about previously.
Here are the ingredients for the classic Oreo cookie - see if you can spot the ingredient(s):
Did you catch the ingredients?
In my post, Ancel Keys Study Data Disproving Cholesterol Hypothesis Hidden for Decades, we found that seed oils such as soybean and canola oil are high in linoleic acid which also lower LDL. Higher consumption of these oils was shown to correlate with lower LDL levels, yet higher cardiac events and deaths in Ancel Keys’ study.
Norwitz is certainly not recommending that people ditch statins and start eating more Oreo cookies. Obviously, Oreo cookies have no redeeming ingredients that actually represent what our bodies recognize as food, and are not remotely good for us in any amount.
But what are we supposed to take away from this unique study?
Is Norwitz simply an exception to the rule?
And what do we do with the other studies that turn the prevailing medical paradigm around cholesterol treatment on its head?
What Norwitz is trying to convey with this study is that the blanket recommendation of treating people with medications that carry significant potential adverse effects to address some arbitrary level of LDL that is deemed high is dubious at best, and needs much more investigation.
Perhaps there are some individuals who may benefit from statin treatment, but should tens, if not hundreds, of millions be receiving these treatments indiscriminately?
Is LDL really the boogey man we’ve been led to believe for the past several decades?
Or, is something else causing the astronomical rates of heart disease we experience in the west?
And how can simple food and other lifestyle changes impact our health for the better regardless of cholesterol readings?
Socrates is credited with the quote, “The more I learn, the less I realize I know.” This is the perpetual state of human existence.
We believe we are so damned smart and have everything figured out when we really know nothing, especially when it comes to infinitely complex systems such as the human body.
In this age of deceit and manipulation, it pays to do your own research and to possess a healthy amount of skepticism about damn near everything.
Cheers to your good health!