 Do our bodies produce enough cholesterol without cholesterol from animal foods in the diet? We have been led to believe, by our modern culture, conventional wisdom, that cholesterol is bad for us and that our bodies produce all the cholesterol we need, claiming that getting it from food isn't necessary. More mainstream science has said that the amount of cholesterol in your diet is insignificant compared to the amount of cholesterol your body makes. But if that's the case, wouldn't it make sense to increase cholesterol consumption to take stress off the body's production? A typical North American diet contains about 450 mg of cholesterol, of which 55% is absorbed. The amount of cholesterol your body makes is approximately 12 mg per kg of body weight, so about a quarter to 30% of what we consume on a daily basis. This is highly regulated by an enzyme called HMG-CAO reductase and there is genetic variance in the capabilities of its effectiveness, so some people might be able to handle a cholesterol deficiency for a longer period of time than others. When dietary cholesterol is increased approximately threefold, absorption of cholesterol as well as liver synthesis of cholesterol were reduced. The majority of people have been shown to be able to compensate for increased cholesterol intake. One man who ate 25 eggs per day was found to have normal plasma cholesterol levels because he only absorbed 18% of the cholesterol that he was eating, compared to 55% absorption rate in other groups of people who were consuming less cholesterol in their diet. The Maasai tribe of East Africa have low cholesterol and absence of atherosclerosis despite a high fat high cholesterol diet comprised mostly of milk and blood ranging from 600 mg to 2000 mg of cholesterol per day. But what happens if you don't get enough cholesterol? There was a study done comparing normal healthy people to those that had impaired gut absorption of fat and cholesterol from food due to stomach surgeries. So we have one group of people that's absorbing most of the fat, most of the cholesterol they're eating, the other group not absorbing it efficiently. The cholesterol synthesis in some of these people was increased up to 18 fold so the body can ramp up demand for cholesterol. But keep in mind, these people were still consuming animal foods, fat, cholesterol, various nutrients that can only be obtained from meat. They just had impaired absorption of it. On a vegan diet or any diet really that has very low amounts of fat and animal proteins, the body will not be able to keep up this increased cholesterol synthesis. It would be interesting to see an experiment done on this but this type of deficiency takes months to two years to manifest itself badly in most people and the long term health damage would not be worth it. All of your hormones would be in the dumps. About 20% of the population are hyper responders to dietary cholesterol experiencing an almost three fold greater response to dietary cholesterol compared with the rest of the population. There is a term for these people now coined by some people in the ketogenic community called lean mass hyper responders. I was always wondering why my cholesterol levels measured high sometimes and some guy discovered why. If you're a muscular or athletic person on a low carbohydrate diet, your cholesterol might be sky high. This is because your body requires more energy from fats to function compared to the average person. Now if you have 10, 20, 30 pounds of extra muscle, that's 500, 1,000, 1,500 more calories of energy that your body needs every day. When in a ketogenic metabolism, your body is running on fats that are flowing through your blood. More energy means more fat in the bloodstream, means more cholesterol. A weight lifter or bodybuilder on a carnivore diet that is low body fat is a prime example of this. They have little to no energy source in their body from glycogen or fat tissue so in order to meet the demands of their body mass, you create a pretty uncommon scenario. Some of you might be thinking, weren't hunter-gatherers pretty muscular? Not really. I weigh about 140, 145 pounds and if I was a natural indigenous body weight, I would probably be like 120, 125, 130 pounds. I have a very small bone frame, a very small bone structure. Even though I don't look super muscular like a bodybuilder, just me having 15, 20, 25 extra pounds of muscle results in an unnatural level of energy needed by my body. Is this stressful long-term? Is this conducive to overall health? I think you're fine if you can obtain the animal foods in your diet. So you would never want to really restrict cholesterol consumption. You're putting more stress on the liver, more stress on functions in the body. Please check out my video, why cholesterol is good for you and also why statins are bad for you to understand more about cholesterol. So thank you guys for joining me. If you could please like the video, subscribe, hit that bell icon, share the video if you can. If you guys would like to support me further, definitely go to frankiesfreerangemeet.com. Check out our high quality nutrient dense animal foods. You can also go to frankiesnaturals.com. Animal ingredients, minimally processed hygiene and cosmetic products. Thanks again for joining me guys and enjoy the rest of your day.