But what these advocates didn’t realize at the time was that there are two different types of LDL cholesterol. There’s the big, fluffy type, which isn’t harmful, and the small, dense type—called very low-density lipoprotein or vLDL cholesterol—which is quite harmful. Saturated fats increase the not-so-bad type of LDL cholesterol but don’t increase the very bad vLDL cholesterol.
