spinline.net: The Blog

(When I originally sat down to write this, I somehow ended up watching ten minutes of The Price is Right online. How does that happen? But I’m happy to report that Drew Carey is doing a fine job, and that Taylor won the yellow Mustang.)

Stephan at Whole Health Source has reviewed twelve major trials that purport to “evaluate the relationship between saturated fat and risk of death,” and finds the following:

The first study to show an increase in deaths from replacing saturated animal fat with polyunsaturated vegetable fat was the tragically named Anti-Coronary Club study. After four years, despite lowering their cholesterol substantially, the intervention group saw more than twice the number of deaths as the control group. Amazingly, rather than emphasizing the increased mortality, the study authors instead focused on the cholesterol reduction. This study was not properly controlled, but if anything, that should have biased it in favor of the intervention group.

The second study to show an increase in deaths from replacing saturated animal fats with polyunsaturated vegetable fats was the Sydney Diet-Heart study. This was one of the larger, longer, better-conducted trials. After five years, the intervention group saw about 50% more deaths than the control group.

…

Overall, the data from controlled trials are clear: replacing animal fat with vegetable oil does not reduce your risk of dying! The same is true of reducing total fat. … Proponents of the theory that saturated fat is unhealthy have the burden of proof on their shoulders, and the data have failed to deliver.

Measuring heart disease mortality specifically, rather than total mortality, also yields unimpressive results.

So not only do the best data not support the idea that saturated fat increases the overall risk of death, they don’t even support the idea that it causes heart disease!

In sum,

Eat the fat on your steaks folks. Just like your great-grandparents did, and everyone who came before.

Whooo!

Way back when, Dr. Eades had some informed speculation on the subject of saturated fat and health.

What about saturated fat? How does a decrease in saturated fat cause obesity? First, the decrease in saturated fat has tracked with the increase in vegetable oils, which are typically rich in omega-6 fats. Omega-6 fats have been shown in numerous studies to be proinflammatory. They have also been shown to worsen alcoholic fatty liver disease, and, one would assume, [non-alcoholic fatty liver disorder] as well. …

Saturated fat is a healthful food. Read this article by Mary Enig that describes in detail the health benefits that come from eating saturated fat. …

So how does avoiding saturated fats lead to obesity. In my opinion in a couple of ways. First, indirectly, by having them replaced by vegetable oil, particularly hydrogentated vegetable oil, i.e., trans fat. Due to their stability, saturated fats have cooking properties that no other natural fats have. Food chemists have created trans fats to have the same cooking properties – and in some situations even better cooking properties – as saturated fats. But the addition of trans fats to the diet creates a host of other problems. The medical literature is crawling with studies showing that trans fats drive the development of obesity.

The other reason is that saturated fats compose the lion’s share of normal membranous fats and of the brain. When membranes don’t work as well, especially mitochondrial membranes, our energy storage and regulation system doesn’t work as well. Anything that impairs membrane functioning impairs signaling function. If signaling function falls off, then various hormones, neurotransmitters, etc. lose function. As insulin loses function, more insulin is required, more insulin leads to more downregulation of receptors, all of which ultimately leads to obesity.

Meanwhile, over at Animal Pharm, there’s a post that I must admit I understood little of but it’s entitled “Saturated Fats as Potent Anti-Atherogenic Drugs” which has got to be a good thing, right?

This entry was posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 10:38 pm and is filed under food, health, science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.