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40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

washingtonpost.com

61–70 of 116 posts

Re: 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

#61
post #17

The subject of the article says as much about the politics of science as it is a comment on the science itself. To the extent the findings have been ignored, or perhaps even shunned, is not at all unique. Many important advances in medicine had a notoriously difficult time being accepted, as an example, the idea that bacterial infection was the cause of stomach ulcers had been around for decades before gaining tracti…

Thanks for the insightful comment. What would be a good substitute oil for cooking?

Cooking spray. Still oil but reduced to a very low quantity so it almost doesn't matter, while still being useful for a lot of things in the kitchen.

Re: 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

#62
The article stops short of highlighting the most explosive detail. The study’s investigators suppressed these data just as one of them, Ancel Keys, was consolidating political power and unifying opinion around his cholesterol hypothesis. And when, twenty years later, the contradictory results were published, they lied about the conclusions.

There has always been suspicion of knowing cherry-picking. But the evidence of fraud, by the central figure of saturated fat phobia, is much clearer now.

Re: 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

#63

The context of the early 70s was that "The Limits To Growth" and "The Population Bomb" had just been published and there was a real concern in the air that the world was going to run out of food quickly unless something drastic was done. I think this created a strong confirmation bias that favored any scientific validation of vegetarianism as good news. Saturated fat being the main component of meats that is not in v…

Vegetarian diet isn't really connected to low-fat. Meat generally decreases your food's average fat content, since most meat is lean. Vegetarians make up lack of lean meat with more fatty dairy and cholesterol raising eggs.

Re: 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

#64
The nearly-unbelievable rigor of astrophysics and particle physics grants too much credibility to dietary and nutrition studies. Until a satisfactory level of rigor is established, these efforts will remain equal in validity to any other nutrition advertisement.

Calling it "science" is harmful.

Re: 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

#65
Continuued promotion of the false premise that, eating saturated fat and cholesterol is unhealthy,has literally killed and caused misery to hundreds of millions. ie Those responsible are mass murderers. Butter was demonised, yet grass fed butter is far healthier than any oil, including olive oil. Ghee has the highest smoke point, many vegetable oils turn to poison when heated because they are unsaturated ie far less stable, they also spoil very easily. I make ghee by gently boiling Rachel's organic butter for 30 minutes, then filtering through cheese cloth, it tastes great and smells lovely and nutty, unlike shop bought ghee which smells off to me.

Re: 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the insightful comment. What would be a good substitute oil for cooking?

Canola oil was bred to have a 1:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3. It's low in saturated fat too. For all the good things people say about the fat composition of olive oil, canola oil is probably better. It also has a more neutral taste. It's all refined though, and a GMO, things which some people don't like.

The problem with Canola oil is largely due to the processing techniques (cold pressed Canola doesn't really exist), and the fact that it DOES have such a high amount of Omega 6 causes it to promote inflammation.

Anti-inflammatory diets is about the only way to survive into old age regularly, in both the length of life, and the quality of life aspects.

Re: 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the insightful comment. What would be a good substitute oil for cooking?

Canola oil was bred to have a 1:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3. It's low in saturated fat too. For all the good things people say about the fat composition of olive oil, canola oil is probably better. It also has a more neutral taste. It's all refined though, and a GMO, things which some people don't like.

Non-GMO canola (and, from that, non-GMO canola oil) exists and is available on the market, as a simple Google search will readily show.

Re: 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

#68
Mental patients didn't have a say on their diet 40 years ago. This experiment says a lot about the level of care for the wellbeing of those who are locked up and are not given a choice (supposedly for their own benefit). I wonder if these kinds of experiments are still being done at mental institutions and elsewhere people are treated like Guinea pigs.

Re: 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

#69
post #47

We don't need scientific studies to figure out what to eat. Just look at what has worked for millennia and avoid newfangled processed food.

Systematic evaluation of what has worked for millennia is science. If you mean just gathering unstructured anecdotes of uncertain provenance about the past and using them to construct just-so stories as guides, well, that's not particularly likely to be more useful than just randomly guessing what you should eat, though it's pretty close to how many diet fads get created.

Re: 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

#70
I had the understanding that individual genetics control response to dietary fats. I never see individual genetics referred to with these diet instructions and studies - which makes me very vary of them. Am I completely wrong (i.e. did my 23 and me test give unscientific advice)?
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