The point has been made ad nauseum in this site: it is not the cholesterol.
It’s what we eat and how food is altered by the microbiome.
Reference
TMAO and Heart Disease: the new red meat risk?
JAMA 2019:321:2149
“A problem has emerged: saturated fat intake may not be as tightly linked to cardiovascular disease and mortality risk as previously thought. Cholesterol content likewise doesn’t appear to adequately explain the hazards of a red meat-rich diet… Some people with low cholesterol develop atherosclerosis and heart disease.”
“Dietary metabolite Trimethyl-Amine-N-Oxide, TMAO is associated with increase risks of cardiovascular disease… from foods high in choline and L-Carnitine.”
“Without the right gut microbes, humans and mice can’t produce TMA, which the live requires to make TMAO. The relationship with gut bugs could be TMAO’s Achilles’ heel… implicating the gut microbiome [was] groundbreaking [in 2011].”
“Unique relationship between food, bacterial metabolism, and human metabolism.”
“TMAO appears to create and upset arterial plaques, increase blood clots, reduce cholesterol clearance, increase cholesterol-laden foam cells… increase cholesterol sensitivity… and inflammatory cytokines.
“It might make more sense to go after TMA production by ‘drugging’ the microbiome… The microbiome is increasingly being seen as an important heart disease player.”
The most obvious approach, dietary modification? Vegetarianism… [at least] reduce red meat.”
