A changing view on SFAs and dairy:
Almost all national dietary guidelines recommend a reduction in [saturated fats] as a key intervention to reduce incidence and mortality of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This has been translated into advice to reduce the intake of the major sources of SFAs, that is, dairy produce, meat products, and eggs. However, recent meta-analyses of both observational studies and randomized controlled trials not only have raised doubts about the scientific substantiation for this advice but have actually undermined it. It has become clear that there is a need for a completely different approach, with advice that is based on foods rather than on nutrients.
Yeah well, I remember all that noise about salt intake raising blood pressure.
Certain elements are still on the low sodium kick despite research which established no co-relation between sodium intake and blood pressure.
I had to point out to my own MD that stomach ulcers were bacterial infections (H Pilori) years after this was re-established. Penicillin was used successfully to treat ulcers soon after it’s introduction…..then the mind benders (shrinks) managed to sell the stress/ulcer thingy to increase there practices. And here we all are…..sorta like AGW…based on BS and hokus pokus…
Now the purported saviours from the ravages of animal fats…..transfats….have been indicted as toxic.
It’s all too much like a Woody Allen movie.
Bear in mind that there never has been any science to show saturated fats or dairy fats cause cardiovascular disease. Scientists like Fred Kummerow and Mary Enig have said this for decades. Indeed, Dr. Kummerow sounded the alarm on the harm of trans fats in the 1950s. Having turned 100 this year after eating eggs for the better part of a century, and still doing active research at University of Illinois, he lived to see the FDA finally concede this past year or so that trans fats are bad, over five decades late.
The two main villains in this piece were Ancel Keyes (the Senator McCarthy of nutrition) and Senator George McGovern, who gave us the chronic-disease causing food pyramid.
Hey Sasquatch, trans fats are not animal fats. Those would be saturated fats (supposedly bad but now found to be OK). Trans fats are mostly unnatural fats created by a hydrolyzing process and found to be not very good at all but were probably created to make large scale processing of food easier.
Ah, Vic, trans fats are indeed not animal fats, but vegetable fats which have been made more stable. Back in the day, when animal fats began to be truly demonized, they were touted as the ‘healthy’ alternative to those horrible animal fats. So out went the tallow for cooking french fries, and in came this tasteless grease. Big explosion of various greasy spreads to replace butter. Etc., etc. Do remember another parent at offsprings’ school warning about these new ‘healthier’ fats: she said actually much worse. So I’ve stuck with butter. Can’t find fish & chips cooked in the ‘real’ thing anywhere, though.
There are several natural trans fats in animal fats, milk fat in particular.
Most body builders are familiar with and many supplement with conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Trans-vaccenic, fumeric, palmitelaidic and myristelaidic acid are four more trans fats in milk fat. Indeed, a recent study that showed dairy consumption correlates with favourable cardiovascular health measured the dairy-unique saturated fats pentadecanoic acid and margaric acid, as well as the trans fat palmitelaidic acid, to verify the amount of dairy each test subject had been consuming (which is far more accurate than previous studies based on self-reported “food recall”). Each of these trans fats is naturally produced in dairy (and human breast milk). CLA is known to have many beneficial health effects and there are several papers on how to enhance the CLA trans fat content in dairy cows. I am not familiar with research on the other trans fats in milk fat.
The anti[animal]fat “science” came to be accepted during my lifetime, apparently based on “if you eat fat you obviously will become fat yourself” with all the associated problems. This sort of thought is responsible for things like grinding up rhinoceros “horn” because obviously it is always erect and will make human males so as well. How magic remains prominent, even overwhelming, I am at a loss to explain.
My food revelation is that wheat is bad for you. Over 2 years ago I was diagnosed Type 2 diabetic. I needed to inject 26 units a day of NPH Insulin at the start. I went to the net and read about carbs and the book Wheat Belly. I stopped all wheat and have dropped 50 lbs in weight down to 170 lbs. I am no longer diabetic and don’t even take Metformin. I eat no processed foods, they often contain wheat. I do eat rice and rice pasta, oatmeal, barley in soups and the odd beer now and again.
I’d suggest getting a new physician. Down here on the Rock (which is not in the avant-garde of medicine) I had a problem which didn’t quite get to ulcers, but was H. pilori. The treatment (antibiotic + antacid) actually comes in kit format. One week and no more problem. And that was over six years ago.
An egg a day is now OK. It hasn’t quite made it back to its virtuous status of 30 years ago, but at least it is not considered bad or deleterious
Eat whatever you want, or don’t. It’s nobody else’s business. If you die earlier because you made poor food choices for your body and level of activity, then it’s nobody’s fault but your own.
I eat the same locally produced, un-contaminated food my grandparents did, and I’m healthier than most people half my age. My BP is 118/75
Plot your BP readings on this chart to see if your diet is healthy for you.
http://www.bloodpressureuk.org/BloodPressureandyou/Thebasics/Bloodpressurechart/main_content/Jm5d/downloadPublication
Just a reminder:
Government policies by their nature are coercion, the opposite of freedom. Always-changing scientific “evidence” should never be used to justify coercive government policies. That’s a flaw in the calls for “evidence-based” policies (there’s also the frequent claims that scientific studies aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, including the dubious status of “peer review”). Maybe we don’t need or want any coercive policies at all. Maybe people can make their own decisions for themselves. Maybe adults should be treated like adults again.
That’s why I’ve said Stephen Harper’s abolition of the mandatory long-form census was a stroke of genius (although he should have explained it much better, a point that unfortunately applies to many things his government does). There is no evidence anyway that the policies the leftists and technocrats advocate actually solve the “social problems” they claim they do, but the absence of census data will make it even harder for them.
Stephen Harper’s abolition of the mandatory long-form census was a stroke of genius
I certainly agree. Making the long form voluntary improved the quality of data, and the short form provides all the private data the government needs or deserves.
re John Lewis: My grandfather at 1-2 eggs a day his whole life. It finally killed him at 96. 😉
Have a good weekend everyone!
Ack! I lost an ‘e’. That was supposed to be ‘ate’, not ‘at’. (Not sure what’s with the unintentional vowel movement….)
“I’d suggest getting a new physician.”
Not so…I just enlightened the current one…..he is one of my better students.
I took this tack because the former GP is a rabid smoke Nazi…..and favours gun banning…..his opinion regarding having an armed home invasion was it was my fault for owning guns….and demanded to know when I would cease smoking….meanwhile the dressings had not been changed after 3 days and discharged with the wounds still uncleaned.
I’ll keep the GP I got.