What exactly are lipids and how are they related to heart health?. > Lipids are basically fats, when we look at different substances in our body, we have different chemicals and compounds and whatnot and we look at different parts of our diet there are different compounds, the diet is made up of proteins and carbohydrates and fats, fatty acids oils, and our body absorbs those and uses them and packages them in certain ways and lipids are a form of that, so specifically lipids are fatty compounds, they’re not soluble in water, so if you put them in water if they separate, and the two main lipids are cholesterol and triglycerides which we’ll talk about a little bit later, and those are the components of the lipid profile as well. Where does cholesterol come from?. > Cholesterol is actually made by the body, that’s kind of a myth that people think that the amount of cholesterol you eat really makes a big difference, every cell in the body will manufacture cholesterol, it’s necessary, now on the other hand it’s not what’s called an essential nutrient, essential nutrients of foods we must consume as human beings to live, there are omega-3 omega-6 fatty acids, various amino acids, we have to eat those, we don’t manufacture them, but cholesterol is not an essential nutrient, which means if you eat a zero cholesterol diet, you’re perfectly healthy, your body makes all the cholesterol needs, so the cells make cholestero,l the liver the biggest organ in the body has the most cells, so the majority of cholesterol is made in the liver. > You said would you eat a zero cholesterol diet that’s not possible.> It is possible,- really?,- sure absolutely, it’s hard, it’s difficult, – I was gonna say it’s gonna be nearly impossible because you’ve got to really rip through your foods, and you’ve got to only get certain things.> There’s no reason to do it number one, but number two the reality is most foods that contain cholesterol also contain other substances we need, so I explained for example there are essential fatty acids, fats you must consume, omega-3s, omega-6s , cholesterol is found in some of those foods, so if you can eat foods that you need, by definition you can also be getting in cholesterol, but if you ate a man-made diet of nutritional substances, let’s say astronauts in the space station, who are getting just what they need, and it doesn’t include any cholesterol, they’re gonna be perfectly healthy.