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Ok, let’s get to what is true about fat and sugar. First, although some studies have shown that low-fat diets do reduce overall cholesterol, many have shown nothing of the sort. When you replace fat in the diet with carbohydrates, which is exactly what low-fat diets do, you wind up with high blood triglycerides and lower HDL cholesterol, a Double Whammy! Not only do you raise one important independent risk factor for heart disease, triglycerides, at the same lower one protective measure (HDL cholesterol), but you also change the all important ratio if triglycerides to HDL cholesterol in the worst way possible. A higher triglycerides number and a lower HDL cholesterol number means a higher ratio of triglycerides to HDL. You want a low ratio to prevent heart disease. A low-fat, high carbohydrate diet makes the ration higher. Hypertension, high levels of triglycerides, and a high ratio of triglycerides to HDL are all better predictors of heart disease than cholesterol. Sugar, or more specifically fructose, raises every single one of these measures.

Fat raises LDL cholesterol, but it raises the big, fluffy, harmless particles and lowers the nasty little LDL’s that actually do cause heart disease. Sugar, in contrast, has the opposite effect, increasing the number of really bad LDL molecules and decreasing the number of harmless ones. On top of that, high levels of sugar and insulin damage those nasty little LDL particles, making them more likely to start the process of inflammation.

Remember that inflammation, not cholesterol, is at the “Heart” of Heart Disease and the metabolic effects of sugar are highly inflammatory to your artery walls.

Next: What’s so bad about a little sugar?