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  #1   ^
Old Wed, Mar-11-15, 17:33
JLx's Avatar
JLx JLx is offline
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Plan: High protein, lower fat
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Location: Michigan U.P., USA
Default After shifting fads, time for a clear-eyed look at fat in our diets

Quote:
With national headlines touting the message that low-fat diets are out and high-fat diets are in, people who once shunned butter are slathering it on toast, melting it in sautés and even plopping it into their coffee. And though the media has glorified saturated fat, it turns out that the main problem with the past decades' low-fat trend is that it has been misinterpreted.

"There is no real low-fat controversy," says Dr. David Heber, founding director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition. "The problem wasn't low fat; the problem was that when we lowered fat content, we increased carbohydrate and sugar content." Heber gives the classic example of SnackWells fat-free cookies, popular in the 1990s. With zero fat, SnackWells were considered more healthful than regular cookies, but they were only palatable because they contained high amounts of refined sugar and carbohydrates.

The low-fat fad emerged in the 1980s, following a growing body of research that linked a diet high in fats to increased cardiovascular disease risk. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's food pyramid reflected the wisdom of the time: The base showed bread, rice and cereal, which Americans were urged to eat plentifully; the tip of the pyramid depicted fats and oils to be used sparingly. Breakfasts of eggs and bacon were replaced with bowls of cereal; steak dinners were swapped for plates of pasta.

By the 2000s, mounting evidence showed that different fats had differing health outcomes. Saturated fat in particular was associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk, and unsaturated fats were shown to have a protective benefit.

Then, in 2014, a controversial meta-analysis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine was widely misconstrued to promote a diet high in saturated fat. Newsstands screamed, "Eat butter," and the saturated fat trend gained momentum. But in reality, the analysis showed not that saturated fat is good for us but that, when compared with diets low in fat but high in refined carbohydrates, a diet high in saturated fat is almost a wash in terms of cardiovascular disease risk.

Aside from misinterpretations of study results, the analysis itself had fundamental errors that prompted an international outcry from scientists. The authors had mixed up the results of one study they analyzed, omitted key studies from their analysis and failed to mention what people consumed as replacements when they ate less saturated fat. A corrected version of the paper was posted on the journal's website.

"When talking about diets, we always have to think about what the trade-off is," says Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health. "If you cut back on saturated fat, you're going to replace it with either unsaturated fat or carbohydrates. The type of replacement can have a major impact on health outcomes."

Diets low in fat and high in refined carbohydrates are associated with increased triglycerides and decreased levels of HDL ("good" cholesterol), factors that are linked to metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease. Since the low-fat trend of the 1980s, rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes have skyrocketed, and heart disease is still the No. 1 cause of death in America.

Fats serve important functions in our diet, improving the taste and consistency of foods as well as helping foods maintain heat. Fats also serve vital functions in our bodies, providing efficient calorie storage and supplying building blocks for cell membranes. Different fats have different roles. For example, omega-3 fatty acids are essential for brain development, while omega-6 fatty acids contribute to cholesterol metabolism, cell signaling and skin function.

"It's important to emphasize that not all fats are created equal," says Hu. "You should swap unhealthy fats with healthy fats rather than cut back on dietary fat."

But teasing apart which fats are healthful can be confusing. In spite of the current butter mania, there is still evidence that a diet high in saturated fats (which include the wildly popular coconut oil) increases LDL or "bad" cholesterol, an important risk factor for heart disease. And though fats that contain omega-6 fatty acids (such as many vegetable oils, nuts and seeds) have recently come under fire for fears they may cause inflammation and thus increase the risk of heart disease, there is scant evidence that this is true, says Hu.

A recent meta-analysis Hu co-authored shows that people who swap 5% of the calories they consume from saturated fat sources, such as red meat and butter, with polyunsaturated fat sources containing omega-6 fatty acids lowered their risk of cardiovascular disease by 9% and their risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 13%.

Hu is a member of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a scientific panel that gives recommendations to the USDA for new Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years. Though the official guidelines won't be out until the end of the year, the committee recommends that people limit their intake of saturated fat to no more than 10% of their energy intake and eliminate trans fats from their diet.

The committee also recommends that the primary sources of dietary fat should come from polyunsaturated fats, such as canola and soybean oil, and monounsaturated fats, such as olive and avocado oil. And rather than replacing refined carbohydrates with saturated fat, people should replace them with healthful carbohydrates, including whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits.

Hu adds that, for optimal health, "the consumption of low-fat or nonfat products with high amounts of refined carbohydrates, refined grains or added sugars should be discouraged."


http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he...0307-story.html

My emphasis.

I was actually surprised at some of this. And still with the canola and soybean oil? Scant evidence?
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  #2   ^
Old Wed, Mar-11-15, 18:00
cotonpal's Avatar
cotonpal cotonpal is online now
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Plan: very low carb real food
Stats: 245/125/135 Female 62
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JLx

I was actually surprised at some of this. And still with the canola and soybean oil? Scant evidence?


No matter how many times they whip this dead horse, it is not going to get up and walk.
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  #3   ^
Old Wed, Mar-11-15, 18:30
Meme#1's Avatar
Meme#1 Meme#1 is offline
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Plan: Atkins DANDR
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cotonpal
No matter how many times they whip this dead horse, it is not going to get up and walk.


LOLOL That's a Good One!!
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  #4   ^
Old Wed, Mar-11-15, 21:49
GRB5111's Avatar
GRB5111 GRB5111 is offline
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Plan: Very LC, Higher Protein
Stats: 227/186/185 Male 6' 0"
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Default

Yawwwwnnnnnn. I eat a good amount of saturated fat including coconut oil, beef, pork, omega 3, and butter. My most recent NMR blood panel had the doctor saying, "Whatever you're doing, don't change!" It's very difficult for many people after having been brainwashed for many years about the evils of sat fat to reconcile themselves with the most current information. Especially many in the medical community and the media.
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  #5   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 05:54
WereBear's Avatar
WereBear WereBear is offline
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Plan: EpiPaleo/Primal/LowOx
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And, as happens so often with these kinds of articles, I am left totally baffled by all the contradictory information, and I'm shooed back into the dangerous arms of the seed oil industry.
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  #6   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 07:49
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teaser teaser is offline
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Plan: mostly milkfat
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Default

http://www.meandmydiabetes.com/2013...st-joe-hibbeln/

Audio interview, with transcript. There's stuff about heart disease in there, but this bit's more fun;

Quote:
JOE HIBBELN I don’t know the specific study you’re referring to. But the issue of high fat diets needs to be looked at very carefully. Just as all polyunsaturates are not created equal, all high fat diets are not created equal. A good example of this is an animal study we did where we compared three high fat diets. All with 60% of calories from fat, in mice. We compared high fat diets that resembled the linoleic acid, Omega 6 intakes, comparable to the levels at the beginning of the century, which was about 1 percent of calories, and those high fat diets with 8 percent of calories, more similar to the amount of Omega 6 in the diet simply from soy oil in the U-S diet, today. Moving from 1% to 8% linoleic acid in the mouse diets, not only tripled the levels of arachidonic acids, but also tripled the levels of a critical derivative of arachidonic acids, which is an endogenous cannabinoid, which creates a similar affect to marijuana. So it’s the brains own marijuana like molecules, and we were able to triple the body’s marijuana like hormones, three times higher in the liver and about 20% higher in the brains just by altering the linoleic acid in those two high-fat diets. Normally those high fat diets used for mice in studies are composed of high linoleic acid, found in soybean oil. When we deleted that one single molecule, the Omega 6 fatty acid, we were able to obliterate the ability of a 60% high fat diet to induce obesity in the mice.


I'm not sure marijuana itself is all that fattening, unless baked into brownies.
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  #7   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 08:02
bkloots's Avatar
bkloots bkloots is offline
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Plan: LC--Atkins
Stats: 195/162/150 Female 62in
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I don't know how they come up with these statistics. I know that "meta-analysis" is some kind of statistical shuffle of information across many studies. But as to what people actually eat--and what nutrient substitutes for something else--I find it hard to believe that the conclusions of "meta-analysis" reflect reality.

I'm a fairly well-read and long-time adherent of LC eating. It never occurred to me that I was "substituting" one food group for another, let alone one kind of fat for another kind of fat. I just eat what Atkins says, and the food groups sort themselves out over time, depending on how my body and tastes respond. It doesn't have to be complicated. Who wants to calculate their intake of Omega 6 vs. Omega 3 on a day-to-day basis??

Ultimately, substituting real food for junk is in everyone's favor. Ignoring the Food Pyramid and its clones is not a bad idea either. People thrive on many dietary variations, but avoiding sugar/starch and processed foods, not worrying about fat percentages, seems to be the best starting place for good health.
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  #8   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 10:45
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
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Plan: DDF
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My understanding is that meta-analysis is usually where they throw away badly done studies and then mush together the studies that were done well.

Of course, "done well" may be somewhat subjective. I don't know.
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  #9   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 13:34
deirdra's Avatar
deirdra deirdra is offline
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Plan: vLC/GF,CF,SF
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What always gets me is that diets are called "fads" when they "eliminate a whole food group" (especially when one of them is mainly processed crap), yet in my lifetime there have been 7, 6, 5 and 4 "food groups" depending on the whims of the Agriculture and Food Processing companies that lobby the US government when it is developing guidelines.

Last edited by deirdra : Thu, Mar-12-15 at 13:45.
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  #10   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 13:38
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
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Really... the definition of food group seems to be a moving target. And no one every seems to call shenanigans when the food group to be removed is animal based.
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  #11   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 15:07
WereBear's Avatar
WereBear WereBear is offline
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Plan: EpiPaleo/Primal/LowOx
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nancy LC
Really... the definition of food group seems to be a moving target. And no one every seems to call shenanigans when the food group to be removed is animal based.


Yes, meat is guilty until proven innocent, while they cannot believe a plant like wheat isn't good for you!
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  #12   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 16:29
bkloots's Avatar
bkloots bkloots is offline
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Plan: LC--Atkins
Stats: 195/162/150 Female 62in
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Progress: 73%
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
Yes, meat is guilty until proven innocent, while they cannot believe a plant like wheat isn't good for you!
Good observation.
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  #13   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 19:07
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KDH KDH is offline
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Plan: Atkins/Taubes
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"people who once shunned butter are slathering it on toast, melting it in sautés and even plopping it into their coffee."

Slathering it on what???
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  #14   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 20:37
Dodger's Avatar
Dodger Dodger is offline
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Plan: Paleoish/Keto
Stats: 225/167/175 Male 71.5 inches
BF:18%
Progress: 116%
Location: Longmont, Colorado
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GRB5111
Yawwwwnnnnnn. I eat a good amount of saturated fat including coconut oil, beef, pork, omega 3, and butter. My most recent NMR blood panel had the doctor saying, "Whatever you're doing, don't change!" It's very difficult for many people after having been brainwashed for many years about the evils of sat fat to reconcile themselves with the most current information. Especially many in the medical community and the media.

I quit getting my blood tested for cholesterol years ago. I eat lots of animal saturated fats, coconut oil, etc and have no fears about them being bad for me. I do try to avoid grains (whole or not). I haven't died yet.
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  #15   ^
Old Thu, Mar-12-15, 20:45
Dodger's Avatar
Dodger Dodger is offline
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Plan: Paleoish/Keto
Stats: 225/167/175 Male 71.5 inches
BF:18%
Progress: 116%
Location: Longmont, Colorado
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I've spent many years working in quality control and reliability. If you tell me the results that you want, I can construct an experiment and associated data analysis that will show what you want.

Nutrition should not be dictated by statistical results.
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