4 ms·

Scurvy and the dangers of high cholesterol. Slaps welcome. But really, and giving you the benefit of the doubt that you’re not a troll, sure beef is more healt

by yladiz 4y ago

Scurvy and the dangers of high cholesterol. Slaps welcome. But really, and giving you the benefit of the doubt that you’re not a troll, sure beef is more healthy than many things and most processed foods but it is definitely not the healthiest single thing you can eat. Stating that it is does not make it so, and also stating that it has all the nutrition you need is pretty disingenuous. If you have proof beyond anecdotes then show it. Edit: I fell for the troll :(

jononomo 4y ago
Ok, I'll be dropping a substack article about this. Stay tuned. Give me until Friday.
- fknorangesite 4y ago
  I'm on the edge of my seat.
  - jononomo 4y ago
    read the comment below for my quick synopsis
jononomo 4y ago
Ok, I'll just give a 2-minute answer here before writing up the Substack article. First, it has been known since the beginning of time that people who eat fresh meat do not get scurvy. There are entire people groups who have been entirely carnivorous for generations -- the Inuit are the most commonly-cited example. They don't get scurvy. The reason sailors got scurvy on long voyages was because they did not have fresh meat to eat. Fresh meat contains vitamin C, but vitamin C is water-soluble so drying out the meat for long voyages removes the vitamin C. Also, vitamin C is required for the synthesis of collagen, but if you have tons of collagen in your diet then you have a reduced need for vitamin C. Long story short: if you eat fresh meat you don't get scurvy because fresh meat contains vitamin C and collagen. (Scurvy is the result of being unable to synthesize collagen). Second, on the question of cholesterol -- there is only an association between having high cholesterol and having heart disease. It is extraordinarily difficult to do double-blind randomized controlled experiments with human diet because people can obviously see and taste what they are eating. So nutrition science is absolutely plagued by poor studies. Often the "science" consists of people filling out food questionnaires that ask them to remember what they ate. There was, however, one extremely high quality double-blind randomized controlled experiment that addressed the question of cholesterol. This experiment was conducted from 1968 - 1973 on a population of over 9400 inmates and it known as the Minnesota Coronary Experiment. It was double-blind because they substituted butter for margarine, which are hard to distinguish and eating margarine instead of butter will lower your cholesterol. It is probably the most rigorous nutrition science experiment ever conducted, and it would be illegal to experiment on inmates according to modern ethical guidelines, so this experiment cannot be repeated. The Minnesota Coronary Experiment was specifically designed to test the hypothesis that lowering a person's cholesterol would prove to be healthful. Here is the bottom line: "There was a 22% higher risk of death for each 30 mg/dL (0.78 mmol/L) reduction in serum cholesterol in covariate adjusted Cox regression models." (https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246 https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246) The results of the Minnesota Coronary Experiment were exactly opposite to what the researchers had hoped to find, so they decided to bury the study instead of publishing it. You can read all about it here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/editorials/ct-science-diet-fats-minnesota-edit-0430-jm-20160428-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/editorials/ct-science... Long story short: lowering your cholesterol increases your chance of dying. Okay, that took me more than 2 minutes to write up -- but, man, I am so frustrated that so many people don't understand this.

by yladiz 4y ago

jononomo 4y ago

Ok, I'll be dropping a substack article about this. Stay tuned. Give me until Friday.

fknorangesite 4y ago
I'm on the edge of my seat.
- jononomo 4y ago
  read the comment below for my quick synopsis

jononomo 4y ago

Ok, I'll just give a 2-minute answer here before writing up the Substack article. First, it has been known since the beginning of time that people who eat fresh meat do not get scurvy. There are entire people groups who have been entirely carnivorous for generations -- the Inuit are the most commonly-cited example. They don't get scurvy. The reason sailors got scurvy on long voyages was because they did not have fresh meat to eat. Fresh meat contains vitamin C, but vitamin C is water-soluble so drying out the meat for long voyages removes the vitamin C. Also, vitamin C is required for the synthesis of collagen, but if you have tons of collagen in your diet then you have a reduced need for vitamin C. Long story short: if you eat fresh meat you don't get scurvy because fresh meat contains vitamin C and collagen. (Scurvy is the result of being unable to synthesize collagen). Second, on the question of cholesterol -- there is only an association between having high cholesterol and having heart disease. It is extraordinarily difficult to do double-blind randomized controlled experiments with human diet because people can obviously see and taste what they are eating. So nutrition science is absolutely plagued by poor studies. Often the "science" consists of people filling out food questionnaires that ask them to remember what they ate. There was, however, one extremely high quality double-blind randomized controlled experiment that addressed the question of cholesterol. This experiment was conducted from 1968 - 1973 on a population of over 9400 inmates and it known as the Minnesota Coronary Experiment. It was double-blind because they substituted butter for margarine, which are hard to distinguish and eating margarine instead of butter will lower your cholesterol. It is probably the most rigorous nutrition science experiment ever conducted, and it would be illegal to experiment on inmates according to modern ethical guidelines, so this experiment cannot be repeated. The Minnesota Coronary Experiment was specifically designed to test the hypothesis that lowering a person's cholesterol would prove to be healthful. Here is the bottom line: "There was a 22% higher risk of death for each 30 mg/dL (0.78 mmol/L) reduction in serum cholesterol in covariate adjusted Cox regression models." (https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246 https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246) The results of the Minnesota Coronary Experiment were exactly opposite to what the researchers had hoped to find, so they decided to bury the study instead of publishing it. You can read all about it here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/editorials/ct-science-diet-fats-minnesota-edit-0430-jm-20160428-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/editorials/ct-science... Long story short: lowering your cholesterol increases your chance of dying. Okay, that took me more than 2 minutes to write up -- but, man, I am so frustrated that so many people don't understand this.