Eli5 How does cholesterol get from your intestine into your arteries and how does ingested fiber help lower the cholesterol in your arteries?
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First off, some cholesterol you eat and absorb, some you produce naturally. Cholesterol is a required ingredient in a healthy human body but the problem is clearly that too much is bad, and sometimes we get too much from food, or we make too much ourselves.
Long story short, cholesterol gets from our intestine to our arteries the same way all of our nutrients do – our intestine is covered in blood vessels and nutrients move from our intestines, through the walls, and into the blood vessels directly. Our arteries are part of our blood vessel system and there you have it.
Ingesting fiber helps because it shortens the time digested food sits in your intestine before it’s expelled. The more fiber you eat, the less time the cholesterol in your food has to make it’s way into your blood vessels.
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