When Oreos Outperformed Statins: The Study That Should Have Changed Medicine
Statins are the most prescribed drug in the world. Doctors hand them out daily to lower cholesterol, often with little explanation beyond “it protects your heart.” But what if one small, overlooked study revealed something that could challenge decades of medical dogma?
Dr. Nick Norwitz, an MD and PhD in metabolism, recently published an experiment that might make you rethink everything you thought you knew about cholesterol and statins. His findings, both provocative and surprising, show just how much diet, not drugs, can shape our health.
The Self-Experiment That Raised Eyebrows
Dr. Norwitz was the perfect test subject. As a lean, healthy man following a ketogenic diet, his LDL cholesterol skyrocketed to over 400 mg/dL. This is a common but poorly understood phenomenon seen in people known as Lean Mass Hyper-Responders (LMHRs), those who are thin, metabolically healthy, but see their LDL rise dramatically on a low-carb diet.
So, he designed a simple crossover experiment, published in the journal Metabolites in 2024:
Phase 1: He ate 12 Oreos per day for just over two weeks, while still staying in ketosis. His LDL plummeted by 71%, from 384 down to 111 mg/dL.
Phase 2: After returning to baseline, he tried six weeks of rosuvastatin (Crestor), 20 mg daily. His LDL dropped by only 32.5%, to 284 mg/dL.
Yes—you read that right. Oreos outperformed one of the strongest statins on the market.
Why Would This Happen? The Lipid Energy Model
The results weren’t random. Dr. Norwitz explained them through the Lipid Energy Model (LEM), a theory that describes why lean people on low-carb diets can see their LDL spike.
When you cut carbs, your liver’s glycogen stores run low.
To keep energy moving, your liver exports triglycerides in VLDL particles.
As VLDL breaks down, it leaves behind LDL cholesterol.
For LMHRs, this means high LDL, high HDL, and low triglycerides, a pattern very different from the classic “bad cholesterol” profile.
Adding back carbohydrates (even Oreos) replenished liver glycogen and stopped the overproduction of VLDL. Statins, on the other hand, work on a different pathway and couldn’t match the dramatic LDL reduction in this unique case.
What This Study Really Means
Let’s be clear: this was an n=1 study, a single-person experiment. It doesn’t mean everyone should throw away their statins and reach for cookies. But it raises critical questions:
Why are some people more sensitive to carbohydrate restriction than others?
Are we misinterpreting high LDL in otherwise healthy, low-carb eaters?
Could dietary strategies sometimes be more effective than drugs in shifting lipid profiles?
A 2023 meta-analysis of 41 clinical trials supports the LEM, showing that lean individuals tend to see LDL increases on low-carb diets, while those with higher body weight do not. This suggests a real, testable phenomenon, not just a fluke.
Why No One’s Talking About It
Despite being published in a peer-reviewed journal, this study hasn’t made headlines. It didn’t come from a pharmaceutical giant, but from an independent doctor testing his own hypothesis. And its results challenge the status quo: the idea that statins are always the answer to cholesterol management.
As Dr. Norwitz wrote in his Substack piece Stay Curious Metabolism:
“Statins, the most prescribed drug in the world, may be quietly disrupting key metabolic pathways. This overlooked research reveals a fix that’s simple, cheap, and almost entirely ignored.”
Food for Thought
The takeaway isn’t that Oreos are health food. It’s that the body is far more complex than drug-based medicine sometimes allows for. Metabolism adapts, pathways interconnect, and diet can profoundly shift outcomes in ways we’re only beginning to understand.
For those exploring low-carb or ketogenic diets, this study is both a caution and a clue. It’s a reminder that context matters, your body weight, your diet, and your metabolic health all interact to create unique outcomes.
And maybe, just maybe, it’s a call for medicine to look beyond the prescription pad.
My Take
In my opinion, this is one of the most fascinating pieces of research I’ve come across in a long time. I hope that Dr. Nick Norwitz, this brilliant man, continues to research, experiment, and write about cholesterol, nutrition, and metabolic health. His curiosity and courage to challenge conventional wisdom are exactly what medicine needs.
By sharing this, I hope to play even a small role in spreading information that pushes back against decades of misinformation. If we can open more conversations like this one, maybe we can help people take a fresh look at their health and the real power of food.
This content is never meant to serve as medical advice.
In crafting this blog post, I aimed to encapsulate the essence of research findings while presenting the information in a reader-friendly format that promotes critical thinking and informed decision-making.
