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Dear Natural Health Friends,

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Consider this quote concerning your cholesterol level: “If you’re on the normal distribution, you’re normal – end of. That’s 77 – 387 mg/dL – all normal. Normal means don’t worry.”

Wait, what?

387 mg/dL total cholesterol is normal?!?

This is a quote from a review article I read recently by independent researcher Zoe Harcombe. Her article is titled "Worried about cholesterol?" (updated in 2025), and it aligns perfectly with everything we know about real, ancestral nutrition.

Her core message? Cholesterol is utterly life-vital—and there's zero reason to fear it. I love this article because it breaks down what is known about cholesterol and backs up these assertions with an independent eye on the available data.

Think about this: Your body produces most of its own cholesterol because it's essential for building cells, hormones (including sex hormones!), vitamin D synthesis, brain function, and digestion (via bile). Without it, life wouldn't exist.

Furthermore, your body recycles almost all its cholesterol via resorption by the small intestine, and it is returned to the liver for reuse. If cholesterol were not so critically important, don’t you think your body would be dumping more of it and not trying to hold on to almost every last bit?

Harcombe quotes powerfully: "If you had no cholesterol in your body, you would be dead." Nature doesn't make mistakes—your body isn't trying to harm you by producing this "villain"!

The myth that dietary cholesterol or saturated fat clogs arteries? Thoroughly debunked. Even Ancel Keys (the father of the low-fat era) admitted in his early work that natural dietary cholesterol has "no significant effect" on blood levels or atherosclerosis. Modern data from Europe and 192 countries shows the opposite: higher saturated fat intake and cholesterol levels are linked to lower heart disease and overall mortality.

Did you know that the official recommendation to restrict dietary cholesterol was retired quietly in 2015? No, I didn’t think you did—they were sneaky about it. I would have been sneaky too, after giving everyone the exact wrong advice for 30 years.

Harcombe highlights undeniable paradoxes that shatter the cholesterol-heart disease link:

• Women have higher average cholesterol but far lower heart disease rates than men.
• Cholesterol naturally drops with age, yet heart events skyrocket.
• Most heart attacks happen in people with normal or low cholesterol.

Plus, standard tests are shockingly inaccurate—LDL ("bad" cholesterol) isn't even directly measured; it's an estimate that can vary wildly. Artificial "targets" (like under 200 mg/dL) were lowered to sell more statins, not based on true health norms (pre-statin averages were around 250 mg/dL).

For us in the natural health world, this is liberating! Embrace nourishing animal foods: grass-fed butter, eggs from pastured hens, fatty cuts of meat, coconut oil—these provide bioavailable nutrients our ancestors thrived on. Saturated fats support hormone balance, satiety, and glowing skin.

Focus on real risks: quit smoking if you do, stabilize blood sugar with low-carb/real-food eating (do you hear that, Dr. Sheehan?—he writes a lot on insulin resistance, so you can read more about that here), get sunlight for vitamin D, and manage stress (worry alone can strain the heart!). If your levels seem very high (>380 mg/dL), consider rare factors like genetics (FH) or keto adaptation in lean folks—but for most, it's normal variation.

Bottom line: Let go of cholesterol fear. Eat real food, live joyfully, and trust your body's wisdom.

I highly recommend that you read the full article here: https://www.zoeharcombe.com/2025/06/worried-about-cholesterol/​

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Sincerely yours,

Laura Sheehan

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