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  #1   ^
Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 04:53
JEY100's Avatar
JEY100 JEY100 is online now
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Default Decades-Old Study, Rediscovered, Challenges Advice on Saturated Fat

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR APRIL 13, 2016 12:04 AM

Quote:
A four-decades-old study — recently discovered in a dusty basement — has raised new questions about longstanding dietary advice and the perils of saturated fat in the American diet.

The research, known as the Minnesota Coronary Experiment, was a major controlled clinical trial conducted from 1968 to 1973, which studied the diets of more than 9,000 people at state mental hospitals and a nursing home.

During the study, which was paid for by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and led by Dr. Ivan Frantz Jr. of the University of Minnesota Medical School, researchers were able to tightly regulate the diets of the institutionalized study subjects. Half of those subjects were fed meals rich in saturated fats from milk, cheese and beef. The remaining group ate a diet in which much of the saturated fat was removed and replaced with corn oil, an unsaturated fat that is common in many processed foods today. The study was intended to show that removing saturated fat from people’s diets and replacing it with polyunsaturated fat from vegetable oils would protect them against heart disease and lower their mortality.

So what was the result? Despite being one of the largest controlled clinical dietary trials of its kind ever conducted, the data were never fully analyzed.

Several years ago, Christopher E. Ramsden, a medical investigator at the National Institutes of Health, learned about the long-overlooked study. Intrigued, he contacted the University of Minnesota in hopes of reviewing the unpublished data. Dr. Frantz, who died in 2009, had been a prominent scientist at the university, where he studied the link between saturated fat and heart disease. One of his closest colleagues was Ancel Keys, an influential scientist whose research in the 1950s helped establish saturated fat as public health enemy No. 1, prompting the federal government to recommend low-fat diets to the entire nation.

“My father definitely believed in reducing saturated fats, and I grew up that way,” said Dr. Robert Frantz, the lead researcher’s son and a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic. “We followed a relatively low-fat diet at home, and on Sundays or special occasions, we’d have bacon and eggs.”

The younger Dr. Frantz made three trips to the family home, finally discovering the dusty box marked “Minnesota Coronary Survey,” in his father’s basement. He turned it over to Dr. Ramsden for analysis.

The results were a surprise. Participants who ate a diet low in saturated fat and enriched with corn oil reduced their cholesterol by an average of 14 percent, compared with a change of just 1 percent in the control group. But the low-saturated fat diet did not reduce mortality. In fact, the study found that the greater the drop in cholesterol, the higher the risk of death during the trial.

The findings run counter to conventional dietary recommendations that advise a diet low in saturated fat to decrease heart risk. Current dietary guidelines call for Americans to replace saturated fat, which tends to raise cholesterol, with vegetable oils and other polyunsaturated fats, which lower cholesterol.

While it is unclear why the trial data had not previously been fully analyzed, one possibility is that Dr. Frantz and his colleagues faced resistance from medical journals at a time when questioning the link between saturated fat and disease was deeply unpopular.

“It could be that they tried to publish all of their results but had a hard time getting them published,” said Daisy Zamora, an author of the new study and a research scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The younger Dr. Frantz said his father was probably startled by what seemed to be no benefit in replacing saturated fat with vegetable oil.

“When it turned out that it didn’t reduce risk, it was quite puzzling,” he said. “And since it was effective in lowering cholesterol, it was weird.”

The new analysis, published on Tuesday in the journal BMJ, elicited a sharp response from top nutrition experts, who said the study was flawed. Walter Willett, the chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, called the research “irrelevant to current dietary recommendations” that emphasize replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat.

Frank Hu, a nutrition expert who served on the government’s 2015 dietary guidelines committee, said the Minnesota trial was not long enough to show the cardiovascular benefits of consuming vegetable oil because the patients on average were followed for only about 15 months. He pointed to a major 2010 meta-analysis that found that people had fewer heart attacks when they increased their intake of vegetable oils and other polyunsaturated fats over at least four years.

“I don’t think the authors’ strong conclusions are supported by the data,” he said.

To investigate whether the new findings were a fluke, Dr. Zamora and her colleagues analyzed four similar, rigorous trials that tested the effects of replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils rich in linoleic acid. Those, too, failed to show any reduction in mortality from heart disease.

“One would expect that the more you lowered cholesterol, the better the outcome,” Dr. Ramsden said. “But in this case the opposite association was found. The greater degree of cholesterol-lowering was associated with a higher, rather than a lower, risk of death.”

One explanation for the surprise finding may be omega-6 fatty acids, which are found in high levels in corn, soybean, cottonseed and sunflower oils. While leading nutrition experts point to ample evidence that cooking with these vegetable oils instead of butter improves cholesterol and prevents heart disease, others argue that high levels of omega-6 can simultaneously promote inflammation. This inflammation could outweigh the benefits of cholesterol reduction, they say.

In 2013, Dr. Ramsden and his colleagues published a controversial paper about a large clinical trial that had been carried out in Australia in the 1960s but had never been fully analyzed. The trial found that men who replaced saturated fat with omega-6-rich polyunsaturated fats lowered their cholesterol. But they were also more likely to die from a heart attack than a control group of men who ate more saturated fat.

Ron Krauss, the former chairman of the American Heart Association’s dietary guidelines committee, said the new research was intriguing. But he said there was a vast body of research supporting polyunsaturated fats for heart health, and that the relationship between cholesterol-lowering and mortality could be deceiving.

People who have high LDL cholesterol, the so-called bad kind, typically experience greater drops in cholesterol in response to dietary changes than people with lower LDL. Perhaps people in the new study who had the greatest drop in cholesterol also had higher mortality rates because they had more underlying disease.

“It’s possible that the greater cholesterol response was in people who had more vascular risk related to their higher cholesterol levels,” he said.

Dr. Ramsden stressed that the findings by he and his colleagues should be interpreted cautiously. The research does not show that saturated fats are beneficial, he said: “But maybe they’re not as bad as people thought.”

The research underscores that the science behind dietary fat may be more complex than nutrition recommendations suggest. The body requires omega-6 fats like linoleic acid in small amounts. But emerging research suggests that in excess linoleic acid may play a role in a variety of disorders including liver disease and chronic pain.

A century ago, it was common for Americans to get about 2 percent of their daily calories from linoleic acid. Today, Americans on average consume more than triple that amount, much of it from processed foods like lunch meats, salad dressings, desserts, pizza, french fries and packaged snacks like potato chips. More natural sources of fat such as olive oil, butter and egg yolks contain linoleic acid as well but in smaller quantities.

Eating whole, unprocessed foods and plants may be one way to get all the linoleic acid your body needs, Dr. Ramsden said.


http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/...rated-fat/?_r=0


The BMJ Abstract:

Re-evaluation of the traditional diet-heart hypothesis: analysis of recovered data from Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968-73)

http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246

Last edited by JEY100 : Wed, Apr-13-16 at 05:07.
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  #2   ^
Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 05:00
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JEY100 JEY100 is online now
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The Washington Post:
This study 40 years ago could have reshaped the American diet. But it was never fully published.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...shed/?tid=sm_fb

Science Daily:

Replacing butter with vegetable oils does not cut heart disease risk

New research of old data suggests that using vegetable oils high in linoleic acid failed to reduce heart disease and overall mortality even though the intervention reduced cholesterol levels. And researchers found that consuming vegetable oils might actually be worse for heart health than eating butter.
Source: UNC Health Care.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas...60412211335.htm

Did butter get a bad rap?
Butter might not be a health food, but UNC and NIH researchers unearthed more evidence that replacing it with vegetable oils does not decrease risk of heart disease.

UNC Health care: http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/...r-get-a-bad-rap

CBC:

Benefits of switch from saturated fat to corn oil for longer life challenged

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/satur...hesis-1.3532509

DietDoctor links three others:

New Analysis: Avoiding Butter No Better for Health
http://www.dietdoctor.com/new-analy...o-better-health


And to end this list with the delightful Adele Hite!

Put away the tinfoil hats–but, still, WTF?

https://eathropology.com/2016/04/12...-but-still-wtf/

Last edited by JEY100 : Wed, Apr-13-16 at 07:42.
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  #3   ^
Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 05:02
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ojoj ojoj is offline
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They just wont believe it will they!!

Jo xxx
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  #4   ^
Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 06:51
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Bintang Bintang is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ojoj
They just wont believe it will they!!

Jo xxx


For most of my childhood butter was eaten lavishly - especially at breakfast time. And then one day it all changed. I can't remember the year exactly but I do remember the breakfast time conversation between my parents when they discussed the fact that butter was bad for us and we should henceforth eat margarine instead. My parents did this religiously for the rest of their lives. I never liked the taste of margarine and have largely avoided it but I also avoided butter out of fear (until recently). So for years I ate bread/toast without any margarine or butter but spread it with things like honey or jam. I now know that I should have avoided the bread, honey and jam and eaten slices of butter instead.
Both my parents ended up with CVD which killed them prematurely. My father also suffered severely from gall-stones, which I read somewhere has been linked to the consumption of margarine.
It makes me very angry to discover that the ill-health of my parents like millions of others was likely caused by deceptive dietary advice.
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  #5   ^
Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 08:57
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Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
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Oh dear...

Quote:
But Broste suggested that at least part of the reason for the incomplete publication of the data might have been human nature. The Minnesota investigators had a theory that they believed in — that reducing blood cholesterol would make people healthier. Indeed, the idea was widespread and would soon be adopted by the federal government in the first dietary recommendations. So when the data they collected from the mental patients conflicted with this theory, the scientists may have been reluctant to believe what their experiment had turned up.

“The results flew in the face of what people believed at the time,” said Broste. “Everyone thought cholesterol was the culprit. This theory was so widely held and so firmly believed — and then it wasn’t borne out by the data. The question then became: Was it a bad theory? Or was it bad data? ... My perception was they were hung up trying to understand the results.”
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Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 09:04
MickiSue MickiSue is offline
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There are all sorts of things that can be attributed to human nature. But we have higher function in our brains, that can cause us to override the basic, self-preservative behavior of "human nature."

One of these higher functions, in anyone who calls him/herself a researcher, OUGHT to be the willingness to be proven wrong.

Sadly, that has been missing in most mainstream researchers in nutrition and diet for over 50 years.

Possibly, much longer.
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  #7   ^
Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 09:15
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ojoj ojoj is offline
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What will end up happening is "people power"!! Eventually all of the anecdotal evidence and the hidden studies will overturn the dogma which, lets face it, is only prevailing due to the financial investments and profits - science has nothing to do with it.

Jo xxx
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  #8   ^
Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 10:25
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JEY100 JEY100 is online now
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CBC-TV report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO8...eature=youtu.be

Will be interesting to see how news in the US reports it tonight,
since Willett and Hu sharply criticized the new study, while CBC inerviews Gary Taubes.
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Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 10:52
Bonnie OFS Bonnie OFS is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bintang
I never liked the taste of margarine and have largely avoided it but I also avoided butter out of fear (until recently).


I didn't like the taste of margarine & my mother really suffered when she believed she should eat that instead of butter. Fortunately, we discovered Better Butter, which is mixing equal parts butter & vegetable oil (I think we used canola back then, tho maybe corn oil). Better than straight margarine, but not near as good as 100% butter.

But mom still liked her cream - she could really down that stuff! I thought she was nuts, but now I like cream, too.
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Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 12:30
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Bintang Bintang is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonnie OFS
I didn't like the taste of margarine & my mother really suffered when she believed she should eat that instead of butter. Fortunately, we discovered Better Butter, which is mixing equal parts butter & vegetable oil (I think we used canola back then, tho maybe corn oil). Better than straight margarine, but not near as good as 100% butter.

But mom still liked her cream - she could really down that stuff! I thought she was nuts, but now I like cream, too.

Yes, isn't dietary liberation wonderful. The absence of fear and guilt and the freedom to eat as much cream and butter as we like. Cream is a key staple for me now.
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  #11   ^
Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 12:41
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Bintang Bintang is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JEY100
CBC-TV report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO8...eature=youtu.be

Will be interesting to see how news in the US reports it tonight,
since Willett and Hu sharply criticized the new study, while CBC inerviews Gary Taubes.

I think I now understand from watching the youtube link why the study got buried. The study was led by Ancel Keys himself. I didn't notice that fact when reading the written reports but picked it up from the youtube video.
Ancel Keys has a lot to answer for but was he just indulging in bad and corrupted science or was he guided by a political/commercial agenda?

Last edited by Bintang : Wed, Apr-13-16 at 12:49.
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Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 14:11
MickiSue MickiSue is offline
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From what I know of him, both from books and from first person accounts of people who worked with him at the U, Keys was a charismatic man, who had done stellar work, early in his career.

It appears that he began to believe his own press, as it were, and went from actual science: "It appears this is what happens in these circumstances, let's test it." to pseudo science: "It appears that this is what happens in these circumstances, let's prove it."

The fact that he was handsome, charismatic and aggressive in pushing his own agenda were, as they are for many with those traits, ultimately deadly to his ethics.
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Old Wed, Apr-13-16, 18:47
Zei Zei is offline
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Quote:
Walter Willett, the chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, called the research “irrelevant to current dietary recommendations” that emphasize replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat.

Yup, he's absolutely right. The research really is "irrelevant to current dietary recommendations" because the current dietary recommendations are irrelevant to any actual research.
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Old Thu, Apr-14-16, 02:04
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Bintang Bintang is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MickiSue
It appears that he began to believe his own press, as it were, and went from actual science: "It appears this is what happens in these circumstances, let's test it." to pseudo science: "It appears that this is what happens in these circumstances, let's prove it."

In this video How bad science and big business created the obesity epidemic
the speaker David Diamond PhD is a bit more forthright about Ancel Keys. He says that Keys committed scientific fraud and was in the pay pocket of big food companies.
I wonder how true those accusations are?
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  #15   ^
Old Thu, Apr-14-16, 02:33
Bintang's Avatar
Bintang Bintang is offline
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Plan: MyOwn:CHO<90g/d
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zei
Walter Willett, the chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, called the research “irrelevant to current dietary recommendations” that emphasize replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat.

The deceitfulness of these so-called nutrition experts needs to be exposed. The same article quoting Willet also says:

The new analysis, published on Tuesday in the journal BMJ, elicited a sharp response from top nutrition experts, who said the study was flawed.

and that

Frank Hu, a nutrition expert who served on the government’s 2015 dietary guidelines committee, said “the Minnesota trial was not long enough to show the cardiovascular benefits of consuming vegetable oil because the patients on average were followed for only about 15 months. He pointed to a major 2010 meta-analysis that found that people had fewer heart attacks when they increased their intake of vegetable oils and other polyunsaturated fats over at least four years.

So these ‘experts’ are telling us that the old Minnesota study was flawed and the recent 2010 meta study is better. Is it really?

Let’s have a look at what the 2010 meta-analysis actually says in its editor’s summary:

….. the small number of trials identified in this study all had design faults, so the risk reductions reported here may be inaccurate.

Here is a link to that fantastically reliable 2010 meta-analysis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2843598/

These guys aren't experts. They are charlatans.
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