Saturated Fat & LDL Cholesterol: Good or Bad? It Depends on This

Do saturated fats cause problems? It depends on carbohydrates

Have you often been told to avoid eating saturated fats? Are you certain that’s good advice? How do saturated fats affect your LDL cholesterol levels, and does that change the risk of heart disease? The answers may surprise you and can determine if you improve your health or risk a heart attack in the future. 

Your Revero low-carbohydrate diet includes meat and saturated fats, and is designed to promote fat-burning and keto-adaptation. These metabolic states have been shown to result in fat and cholesterol profiles with a lower heart disease risk, while treating metabolic disease. 

Fat as Fuel

On your Revero diet, your body will begin to free up body fat and use it for fuel, in a process we call becoming fat-adapted. Your body will be fueled with fat instead of by carbohydrates. It may even change those fats into ketone bodies, providing another level of health benefits. These changes promote health, but may also change your cholesterol and triglyceride levels, requiring some explanation. 

Triglycerides

Triglycerides raise the risk of cardiovascular disease when they are elevated. These are fats being transported in the blood, and eating a high-carbohydrate diet raises triglyceride levels. On the other hand, eating a low-carbohydrate diet that includes more fat results in a lowering of triglycerides. 

Low-carbohydrate diets that include saturated fats have been shown to increase HDL cholesterol, helping to further lower cardiovascular risk. 

LDL Elevation?

These types of diets can sometimes also cause elevated levels of LDL cholesterol, but studies have shown that this is typically not the more dangerous small-particle LDL but instead is a large-particle LDL that is not harmful. So even if LDL levels rise on your Revero diet, it shouldn’t be something to worry about. 

These elevations in LDL may also occur initially due to an increase in the amount of fat that the liver is metabolizing when you become fat-adapted. Over time, the level of LDL may subside somewhat as your body becomes more adept at fat oxidation. 

Effects of Low-Carbohydrate Diet 

Of course, the Revero diet is designed to lower insulin and glucose levels as a treatment for metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes, as well as inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. Successfully treating insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes significantly reduces cardiac risk factors. 

In published studies using low-carbohydrate diets, diabetic and antihypertensive medications needed to be reduced or eliminated because patients had improved sufficiently that overmedication was a risk. 

In some cases these medication changes amounted to eventually discontinuing the prescription. These results were obtained while eating to satiety, without counting calories. 

Revero will personalize the nutrition plan to the individual patient’s needs, adding an additional layer of benefit. 

Your Revero coach and provider are your care team, and will help you to implement your program. With their help, you’ll be working to build a healthier future while reducing your cardiovascular risk. 

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