I don't think i know anything anymore.
Admitting ignorance is better than repetition of unfounded "common wisdom". Disbelief in one's own understanding of something is the first step towards developing a better understanding of something.
The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
11–20 of 61 posts
Re: The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
#12Wait a minute... I thought the notion that saturated fat caused heart disease was settled science. That we had a consensus. Now we realize we're wrong? That scientists cherry-picked data, had inadequate controls? That "too much institutional energy and research money had already been spent ... A bias in its favor had grown so strong that the idea just started to seem like common sense." The tragedy is that after gene…
> Now we realize we're wrong? Nope. "We" have realised that there's money to be made in selling contrarian diet books that tell people what they want to hear.
As opposed to selling "Healthy" fat free cookies, breads and meats laced with extra sugar?
I think the point of all this new research is that you can't take out fat and expect your diet to be healthy--the real story is much more complex. Most educated people would realize eating lowfat cookies still isn't a good habit to have, but society seems to think it's ok.
Re: The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
#13In Greg Egan's story Crystal Nights, one of the characters became rich by making a site called "FoodExcuses.com", where you input what you eat and it gathers all of the scientific literature justifying it as a healthy diet. It's just a throwaway joke in the story but I'm convinced it would absolutely work in real life. http://ttapress.com/553/crystal-nights-by-greg-egan/
Every day I find more evidence that the internet mainly serves to confirm for people what they already believe. Just like I always suspected.
Re: The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
#14Wait a minute... I thought the notion that saturated fat caused heart disease was settled science. That we had a consensus. Now we realize we're wrong? That scientists cherry-picked data, had inadequate controls? That "too much institutional energy and research money had already been spent ... A bias in its favor had grown so strong that the idea just started to seem like common sense." The tragedy is that after gene…
This is the same problem I have with the extreme push towards global warming mitigation.
Half a century ago we were worried sick about global cooling. Sure, we know more now than we did then. But that is not a valid response: in any decade we know more than in decades before that.
Most of the measures for global warming mitigation either directly cause massive economic costs (large taxes, etc, etc, which all end up preventing the same sort of progression that is allowing us to bootstrap!), are short-sighted (Carbon credits leading to old-growth forests being cut down), directly cause deaths (banning of CFCs leading to deaths due to the alternative puffer propellants not working as well), etc. Or end up as a combination of both.
For that matter: there are viking farms in what has been permafrost for the last ~500 years. We (assumption here) were not industrialized at the time. So: why was it not permafrost? And for that matter, considering the greenland ice sheet was not the size it is today at that time (again: assumption based on the fact that, you know, it wasn't permafrost at the time), why was the sea level not higher to the extent that people are predicting?
And the question is: for what gain? (For example: a large chunk of the Canadian shield, while good farmland, is primarily growing season limited. It seems plausible that higher temperatures could increase their yields. So: has anyone crunched the numbers? Plants grow better in higher CO2 concentrations. Etc.) And what alternative measures could be taken? (For example: dropping a nuke to trigger a volcano would lower global temperatures. We know this.)
It's my children's world that I'd like to build up here, and my children's children. I'd like to make rather sure that we know what we're doing. There is no rash decision quite like one affecting the entire globe for centuries.
Re: The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
#15In Greg Egan's story Crystal Nights, one of the characters became rich by making a site called "FoodExcuses.com", where you input what you eat and it gathers all of the scientific literature justifying it as a healthy diet. It's just a throwaway joke in the story but I'm convinced it would absolutely work in real life. http://ttapress.com/553/crystal-nights-by-greg-egan/
Every day I find more evidence that the internet mainly serves to confirm for people what they already believe. Just like I always suspected.
I accidentally downvoted you, but this is very clever.
Re: The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Now we realize we're wrong? Nope. "We" have realised that there's money to be made in selling contrarian diet books that tell people what they want to hear.
As opposed to selling "Healthy" fat free cookies, breads and meats laced with extra sugar? I think the point of all this new research is that you can't take out fat and expect your diet to be healthy--the real story is much more complex. Most educated people would realize eating lowfat cookies still isn't a good habit to have, but society seems to think it's ok.
You're conflating two things.
"Eat less saturated fat" means ... eat less saturated fat.
Not: eat more of everything else.
And that advice is still sound. Calorie for calorie, gram for gram, saturated fat is worse for heart health than polyunsaturated fat.
You're blaming the scientists and doctors for being (somewhat wilfully) misunderstood. You might as well blame physicists for plane crashes. After all, they lied to us about gravity!
Re: The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
#17The most recent research still upholds that saturated fats, over and above their contribution to obesity, are a worse risk than polyunsaturated fats. A meta-analysis of 8 randomised controlled trials with 13 thousand subjects showed that a 5% total energy substitution from saturated to polyunsaturated fats reduced risk of coronary heart disease by 10%.[1] The point about substituting hydrogenated fats is good; but it…
A meta analysis of 80 studies involving more than a half million people found no evidence of dangers from saturated fat, or benefits from other kinds of polyunsaturated fats (excluding trans fats, which were shown to be terrible)[1].
[1] http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/study-questions-fat...
Re: The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
#18The most recent research still upholds that saturated fats, over and above their contribution to obesity, are a worse risk than polyunsaturated fats. A meta-analysis of 8 randomised controlled trials with 13 thousand subjects showed that a 5% total energy substitution from saturated to polyunsaturated fats reduced risk of coronary heart disease by 10%.[1] The point about substituting hydrogenated fats is good; but it…
excellent point.
Re: The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
#19The most recent research still upholds that saturated fats, over and above their contribution to obesity, are a worse risk than polyunsaturated fats. A meta-analysis of 8 randomised controlled trials with 13 thousand subjects showed that a 5% total energy substitution from saturated to polyunsaturated fats reduced risk of coronary heart disease by 10%.[1] The point about substituting hydrogenated fats is good; but it…
What if there are other diseases beside heart disease that might be helped by consuming saturated fats?
Re: The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
#20Wait a minute... I thought the notion that saturated fat caused heart disease was settled science. That we had a consensus. Now we realize we're wrong? That scientists cherry-picked data, had inadequate controls? That "too much institutional energy and research money had already been spent ... A bias in its favor had grown so strong that the idea just started to seem like common sense." The tragedy is that after gene…
> raised on a diet of synthetic fats, sugar
The anti-sugar hysteria a la Lustig is the other shoe to drop. The fear mongering is a bunch of baloney when you look into it.