After switching to a vegan ketogenic diet, the creator's LDL cholesterol rose 14% despite eating less saturated fat and more fiber. He credits the lipid energy model: when lean, active people shift to fat metabolism, the liver produces more cholesterol-carrying particles to fuel muscles, raising LDL levels.
I just went on a vegan diet and my cholesterol actually went up. In fact, despite eating less saturated fat, more fiber, and even more seed oils, my LDL cholesterol increased by 14%. Our explanation of this phenomenon is, at a high level, the lipid energy model, which explains how when lean people shift from carb burning to fat burning, the liver makes more cholesterol-containing particles to traffic around fat fuel to muscles to fuel muscles and replenish little fat cells. And the leaner you are and/or more active you are, the greater the demands on this system and the higher your LDL goes up on a ketogenic diet. So when I got even leaner from the restricted keto vegan diet, my LDL jumped up. Overpowering the comparatively meager influences of saturated fat and fiber.
