/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Medfag here.

The cholesterol meme has really gotten out of hand. Unless your total cholesterol is in the 300's, high cholesterol in and of itself has very little effect on health. You don't get artery clogging (in lieu of disease involvement) until >300mg/dl. Cholesterols, both the "good" and "bad", are necessary for your body to function. Low cholesterol is associated with a number of health risks, depression, heart attacks, and stroke. People tend to have higher LDL because it's more common in food.. The 'ideal' ratio (from what we do know) is <3.5:1 (total to HDL).