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Dietary cholesterol consumption has almost no direct relationship with serum cholesterol and in fact has been removed from dietary guidelines. [1] Also, "A lan

by lhl 8y ago

Dietary cholesterol consumption has almost no direct relationship with serum cholesterol and in fact has been removed from dietary guidelines. [1] Also, "A landmark systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies showed no association between saturated fat consumption and (1) all-cause mortality, (2) coronary heart disease (CHD), (3) CHD mortality, (4) ischaemic stroke or (5) type 2 diabetes in healthy adults.1 Similarly in the secondary prevention of CHD there is no benefit from reduced fat, including saturated fat, on myocardial infarction, cardiovascular or all-cause mortality.2 It is instructive to note that in an angiographic study of postmenopausal women with CHD, greater intake of saturated fat was associated with less progression of atherosclerosis whereas carbohydrate and polyunsaturated fat intake were associated with greater progression.3" [2] There's plenty of evidence, however that sugar is a much more dangerous driver of CVD [3], which is obvious when you look at the pandemic levels of obesity and metabolic syndrome (and co-morbidity and lack of decline in CVD) that coincided with the demonization of saturated fats (and replacement with much worse trans-fats and high n6 PUFAS [4])... [1] https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-you-should-no-longer-worry-about-cholesterol-in-food/ https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-you-should-no-longer-... [2] https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/51/15/1111 https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/51/15/1111 [3] https://openheart.bmj.com/content/4/2/e000729 https://openheart.bmj.com/content/4/2/e000729 [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3335257/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3335257/

will_brown 8y ago
I would also add that hdl (the “healthy cholesterol”) in fact helps: 1. Prevent plaque build up; 2. Lowers risk of heart disease; and 3. Lowers risk of stroke. The problem with industries muddy the water by claiming “cholesterol” is bad without distinguishing between ldl and hdl. It’s similar to what the sugar industry does with “diabeties” when they don’t distinguish between type 1 and type 2.
- lhl 8y ago
  To me, it's interesting to see first hand, having now done tons of primary literature research over the past few months. What I've pieced together is that driven primarily by Ancel Keys and a few other strong personalities (eg McGovern and his aides), the "lipid hypothesis" was implemented as public policy based on scant epidemiological/associational (and no clinical) evidence to try to stem the heart disease crisis. This of course, happened during a time when tobacco companies was actively suppressing the health impacts of smoking. Since then, and because the lipid hypothesis was deemed as institutional truth, we've been chasing a white rabbit that didn't exist. First it was saturated fats, then cholesterol, then LDL, now LP(a) and Ox-LDL... In the meantime, since saturated fat was public enemy number one, even worse replacements (trans-fats, industrial seed oils, even potentially worse and unstudied new FA isomers now) were introduced as replacements and sugar consumption increased dramatically from fat-phobia (as the defacto remaining macro as red meat and protein were also tarred with the same brush), leading to where we are now (a global metabolic disease pandemic). What's interesting is in the past two decades especially, the amount of very interesting nutritional and metabolic research (biomechanistic research in animal models, RCTs and other human trials) has been staggering, and I think there's overwhelming evidence (and now some momentum even) in scientific/medical circles strongly pointing out that nutritional policies and "common wisdom" as being flat out wrong, but in the general public (which includes most medical practitioners, sadly) there's a huge lag. Which is too bad, considering obesity rates are likely above 40% in US adults now (39.8% in 2015-2016 [1]). [1] https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

by lhl 8y ago

will_brown 8y ago

I would also add that hdl (the “healthy cholesterol”) in fact helps: 1. Prevent plaque build up; 2. Lowers risk of heart disease; and 3. Lowers risk of stroke. The problem with industries muddy the water by claiming “cholesterol” is bad without distinguishing between ldl and hdl. It’s similar to what the sugar industry does with “diabeties” when they don’t distinguish between type 1 and type 2.

lhl 8y ago
To me, it's interesting to see first hand, having now done tons of primary literature research over the past few months. What I've pieced together is that driven primarily by Ancel Keys and a few other strong personalities (eg McGovern and his aides), the "lipid hypothesis" was implemented as public policy based on scant epidemiological/associational (and no clinical) evidence to try to stem the heart disease crisis. This of course, happened during a time when tobacco companies was actively suppressing the health impacts of smoking. Since then, and because the lipid hypothesis was deemed as institutional truth, we've been chasing a white rabbit that didn't exist. First it was saturated fats, then cholesterol, then LDL, now LP(a) and Ox-LDL... In the meantime, since saturated fat was public enemy number one, even worse replacements (trans-fats, industrial seed oils, even potentially worse and unstudied new FA isomers now) were introduced as replacements and sugar consumption increased dramatically from fat-phobia (as the defacto remaining macro as red meat and protein were also tarred with the same brush), leading to where we are now (a global metabolic disease pandemic). What's interesting is in the past two decades especially, the amount of very interesting nutritional and metabolic research (biomechanistic research in animal models, RCTs and other human trials) has been staggering, and I think there's overwhelming evidence (and now some momentum even) in scientific/medical circles strongly pointing out that nutritional policies and "common wisdom" as being flat out wrong, but in the general public (which includes most medical practitioners, sadly) there's a huge lag. Which is too bad, considering obesity rates are likely above 40% in US adults now (39.8% in 2015-2016 [1]). [1] https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html