Why Doesn't Food Cholesterol Change Blood Cholesterol?

On Huberman Lab, dietary cholesterol plays no role in serum cholesterol and has no bearing on it. Ancel Keys acknowledged the finding in the 1960s, and the American Heart Association acknowledged it another 60 years later. Saturated fat is a separate molecule, and saturated fat consumption raises LDL cholesterol in many people.

Cholesterol in food is esterified, and an esterified cholesterol molecule cannot pass into circulation the way non-esterified body cholesterol can. On Huberman Lab, the body probably de-esterifies ten to fifteen percent of dietary cholesterol. Small amounts do reach circulation, yet they remain a small fraction of the total body pool. Saturated fat is a fully saturated long-chain fatty acid with no double bonds and can sit alone, in a triglyceride, or in a phospholipid. Fat in food is saturated, monounsaturated with one double bond, or polyunsaturated with two or more double bonds.

The observation that eating saturated fat raises cholesterol is generally correct, so serum cholesterol and LDL cholesterol move with saturated fat even though dietary cholesterol does not set the serum level.