I don’t believe so.
The problem with the recent report is that most people still think cholesterol is bad for people. NO! we need it to make up our hormones, neurons and cell membranes in general. The issue is OXIDIZED cholesterol from a liver laboring under too much sugar (See blog “Could it be Sugar?”) True, there are genetic variances that affect the liver’s processing of cholesterol.
Once we understand this, it does not matter if chicken and red meat raise your cholesterol, does it? Well, it does, in that the best diet is vegetarian, IF you can stay away from processed sugar. Since most Americans are addicted to it, I recommend lean meat (organic chicken, turkey and fish) so that patients don’t feel so deprived that they turn to sugar. It is better to eat lean meat than to eat refined sugar.
Further, how a particular food affects us is determined by our Microbiome, or the bacteria in our gut. It has been amply demonstrated that read meat has a much more negative effect on our gut than chicken.
Bottom line, don’t be chicken: eat some chicken if it will keep you from eating processed sugars and transfats.
Reference
White meat, red meat have similar impact on cholesterol levels
CNN (6/4, Scutti) reports research indicates “eating white meat, such as poultry, will have an identical effect on your cholesterol level as eating red beef.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
NBC News (6/4, Edwards, Charles) reports on its website that the “study found that consuming high levels of red meat or white poultry resulted in higher blood cholesterol levels than consuming an equal amount of plant protein.” NBC News adds that “the findings held even when diets contained high levels of saturated fat, which increased blood cholesterol to the same extent as all three protein sources.”
