LDL isn't bad cholesterol—it's a delivery truck that brings cholesterol where the body needs it.

When your body doesn’t respond well to insulin (like in prediabetes), it makes more of the bad, tiny, sticky cholesterol particles that clog arteries.

When you have too much 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) in your blood, it sticks to the walls of your arteries and builds up like gunk, making them narrow and stiff — which raises your chance of having a heart attack or stroke.

Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol, but mostly the 'bigger, fluffier' kind that doesn't clog arteries as much as the small, sticky kind.

Tiny, dense cholesterol particles stick around longer in the blood and slip more easily into artery walls, where they get damaged and trigger inflammation that leads to clogged arteries.