@te15
So it makes sense to avoid ghee, especially when lipid profile is messed up.
I fully agree with this. I also agree with the fact that we Indians already have high saturated fat foods so avoiding butter/ghee is a good idea. But, I am mainly doubtful in terms of using Ghee as cooking oil for normal people
who have normal LDL to HDL ratio.
There's a podcast of Andrew Heuberman where he says he snacks on butter. The mind pump show podcast also mentioned multiple times that ghee should be used for high heat cooking.
Now looking further into Oxysterols, I found that the enzyme
Cytochromes P450 also oxidizes Cholesterol into Oxysterol. This would mean consumption of any food that have Cholesterol, e.g. egg yolk, will lead to Oxysterol production in our body. Egg yolks in themselves have Oxysterol as well. I also know that consuming Cholesterol is good for the lipids, especially testosterone. Cholesterol is a precursor to most steroid hormons. But, still many Indian doctors suggest avoiding eggs and butter. I know there is a strong correlation with heat patient having higher cholesterol levels, but does Correlation imply causation here? I have a genetic family history of Angina. My father never consumed bad foods, not even too much ghee and butter. Could it be that people with genetic predisposition to heart diseases also get skewed LDL-HDL ratio because of their genes?
I looked into a few studies and all of them just say "
may". E.g.
Wikipedea says:
"Elevated levels of cholesterol in the blood, especially
when bound to low-density lipoprotein (LDL, often referred to as "bad cholesterol"),
may increase the risk of
cardiovascular disease.
[8]"
I remember listening to Joe Rogan and Dr Aseem Malohtra where he questioned the role of Cholesterol in the causation of Heart diseases. Lastly, I don't think current medical science has enough evidence to claim that
Consuming Oxysterols are responsible for heart diseases, although Serum levels of oxysterols could be positively correlated with heart diseases(causation vs correlation!).
"There are a number of
in vivo studies in which investigators have exposed animals to oxysterols through diet or injection, but the overall results are
not conclusive." --
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/oxysterol