5 ms·

There's an interesting controversy around the lipid hypothesis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_hypothesis#Minority_disagreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

There's an interesting controversy around the lipid hypothesis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_hypothesis#Minority_disagreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_hypothesis#Minority_disag...

protonfish 12y ago
I would like to believe that before a major push from government and health organizations to encourage people to eat less fat, there was strong evidence that reducing dietary fat and cholesterol correlated with significant health improvement. I would like to believe it, but I can't seem to find that strong evidence anywhere.
- StacyC 12y ago
  I would like to believe it, but I can't seem to find that strong evidence anywhere. That’s because it doesn’t exist, of course. We have been tragically misled for about 30 years. This is N=2 but my wife and I switched to a low-carb/high-fat diet last summer and we are both at our ideal weight, higher energy than we have had in many years, and feeling absolutely fantastic. I think this is where the current metabolic science is taking us.
  - bitJericho 12y ago
    Same here, no idea if it's good for my heart or not but I've got lots of energy.
  - adventured 12y ago
    Tragically misled might even be an understatement. The US Government is probably going to end up having killed hundreds of thousands of people through dangerously bad dietary guidelines and the impact they have across the culture over a generation. Their recommendation for consuming 5-12 servings of breads, cereals, pasta, 'whole grains' per day is like telling people they need to drink more soda.
- wffurr 12y ago
  The original evidence was about red meat consumption, but it was changed to dietary fat after an outcry from the beef lobby. Further, the harm in red meat consumption may be related to the use of preventative antibiotics in livestock and their diet in CAFO factories.
- joshdance 12y ago
  The 'low fat diet' was a huge public experiment and it has failed. Fat is not bad for you.
brandonb 12y ago
One warning-- "Cholesterol" tends to get used to mean two different things, and even otherwise clear writers like Gary Taubes don't always explicitly denote which one they mean: 1) the amount of cholesterol in your blood, which is mostly produced by your liver. I.e., if my blood cholesterol is 300 mg/dL, should I be worried? 2) cholesterol in your diet. I.e., should you avoid eggs? I'd say the scientific consensus is that blood cholesterol (particularly small-particle LDL) drives heart disease, but cholesterol (or saturated fat) in your diet doesn't drive blood cholesterol (<10% effect). So low-fat/high-carb diets were a fallacy and are not "heart-healthy," it's fine to eat eggs, but you should still try to reduce your LDL cholesterol if it's high and boost your HDL cholesterol if it's low.
- soneca 12y ago
  Cholesterol means one thing: "blood cholesterol". The doubt is if something in your diet affects your cholesterol. Another point, still not proved, is if high total cholesterol drives heart disease. As far as I know, there is evidence that it doesn't matter at all. As said in other comments, tryglicerids and HDL matters a lot more, according to this evidence. And I strongly disagree with you conclusion that low-fat, high-carb diets are a fallacy according to being "herat-healthy" My impression is that your tool is based on misinformation.
- weinzierl 12y ago
  > [..] but cholesterol (or saturated fat) in your diet > doesn't drive blood cholesterol (<10% effect). > [..] it's fine to eat eggs, but you should still try > to reduce your LDL cholesterol if it's high and boost > your HDL cholesterol if it's low. This is highly interesting but I'm confused. Do you mean that diet doesn't matter when it comes to blood cholesterol and the LDL/HDL ratio can only be affected by medication or that only the ratio but not overall blood cholesterol can be influenced by the diet?
  - beagle3 12y ago
    > Do you mean that diet doesn't matter when it comes to blood cholesterol Diet matters a lot. Apparently, it has been shown that for some people, milk fat in the diet correlates strongly with serum (blood) levels of cholesterol. However, the effect of cholesterol in your diet seems to have little to no effect on your serum levels. Serum cholesterol is actually pretty important: It is the precursor to Vitamin D (the other ingredient being sunlight exposure). For sure, it is an indicator of trouble, but it is unclear if it actually causes trouble itself or is part of the body's attempt to make things right. Statins reduce cholesterol, and reduce the incidence of heart attacks, but they either increase or do not affect all-cause mortality (depending on which study you look at). The science is far from settled on this, despite what most medical professionals would have you believe.

There's an interesting controversy around the lipid hypothesis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_hypothesis#Minority_disagreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_hypothesis#Minority_disag...

protonfish 12y ago

I would like to believe that before a major push from government and health organizations to encourage people to eat less fat, there was strong evidence that reducing dietary fat and cholesterol correlated with significant health improvement. I would like to believe it, but I can't seem to find that strong evidence anywhere.

StacyC 12y ago
I would like to believe it, but I can't seem to find that strong evidence anywhere. That’s because it doesn’t exist, of course. We have been tragically misled for about 30 years. This is N=2 but my wife and I switched to a low-carb/high-fat diet last summer and we are both at our ideal weight, higher energy than we have had in many years, and feeling absolutely fantastic. I think this is where the current metabolic science is taking us.
- bitJericho 12y ago
  Same here, no idea if it's good for my heart or not but I've got lots of energy.
- adventured 12y ago
  Tragically misled might even be an understatement. The US Government is probably going to end up having killed hundreds of thousands of people through dangerously bad dietary guidelines and the impact they have across the culture over a generation. Their recommendation for consuming 5-12 servings of breads, cereals, pasta, 'whole grains' per day is like telling people they need to drink more soda.
wffurr 12y ago
The original evidence was about red meat consumption, but it was changed to dietary fat after an outcry from the beef lobby. Further, the harm in red meat consumption may be related to the use of preventative antibiotics in livestock and their diet in CAFO factories.
joshdance 12y ago
The 'low fat diet' was a huge public experiment and it has failed. Fat is not bad for you.

brandonb 12y ago

One warning-- "Cholesterol" tends to get used to mean two different things, and even otherwise clear writers like Gary Taubes don't always explicitly denote which one they mean: 1) the amount of cholesterol in your blood, which is mostly produced by your liver. I.e., if my blood cholesterol is 300 mg/dL, should I be worried? 2) cholesterol in your diet. I.e., should you avoid eggs? I'd say the scientific consensus is that blood cholesterol (particularly small-particle LDL) drives heart disease, but cholesterol (or saturated fat) in your diet doesn't drive blood cholesterol (<10% effect). So low-fat/high-carb diets were a fallacy and are not "heart-healthy," it's fine to eat eggs, but you should still try to reduce your LDL cholesterol if it's high and boost your HDL cholesterol if it's low.

soneca 12y ago
Cholesterol means one thing: "blood cholesterol". The doubt is if something in your diet affects your cholesterol. Another point, still not proved, is if high total cholesterol drives heart disease. As far as I know, there is evidence that it doesn't matter at all. As said in other comments, tryglicerids and HDL matters a lot more, according to this evidence. And I strongly disagree with you conclusion that low-fat, high-carb diets are a fallacy according to being "herat-healthy" My impression is that your tool is based on misinformation.
weinzierl 12y ago
> [..] but cholesterol (or saturated fat) in your diet > doesn't drive blood cholesterol (<10% effect). > [..] it's fine to eat eggs, but you should still try > to reduce your LDL cholesterol if it's high and boost > your HDL cholesterol if it's low. This is highly interesting but I'm confused. Do you mean that diet doesn't matter when it comes to blood cholesterol and the LDL/HDL ratio can only be affected by medication or that only the ratio but not overall blood cholesterol can be influenced by the diet?
- beagle3 12y ago
  > Do you mean that diet doesn't matter when it comes to blood cholesterol Diet matters a lot. Apparently, it has been shown that for some people, milk fat in the diet correlates strongly with serum (blood) levels of cholesterol. However, the effect of cholesterol in your diet seems to have little to no effect on your serum levels. Serum cholesterol is actually pretty important: It is the precursor to Vitamin D (the other ingredient being sunlight exposure). For sure, it is an indicator of trouble, but it is unclear if it actually causes trouble itself or is part of the body's attempt to make things right. Statins reduce cholesterol, and reduce the incidence of heart attacks, but they either increase or do not affect all-cause mortality (depending on which study you look at). The science is far from settled on this, despite what most medical professionals would have you believe.