What is fructose? Fruit sugar, right? Well, yes and no. It is found in copious amounts in fruit, of course, but so are other sugars. Free fructose, the monosaccharide form, is 57% of the total sugars found in an average apple, but free glucose, another monosaccharide, is 23% of the total sugar. Sucrose, a disaccharide composed of equal parts fructose and glucose, is the remaining 20% of the sugar. So, combining the free fructose with the fructose bound up in sucrose, the total fructose in an apple is 67% of the sugars. (Trust me on the math here.) The remaining one-third is glucose.
Apples and pears are on the high end of the fructose scale. Apricots, at 39%, are at the low end. The sugar in bananas is 50% fructose, grapes 53%, and peaches 46%. Honey is 50.5% fructose (free and combined). Besides tree and vine fruits, fructose is also found in other foods found in nature, for example, berries, sweet corn and sweet red peppers and most root vegetables (e.g., red beets, carrots, onions and sweet potatoes).Generally, most of the fructose is bound up in sucrose (equal parts fructose and glucose).
Sucrose in its processed form is what we know as table sugar, which is made from refining sugar cane or sugar beets. Table sugar is therefore 50% fructose. So is the sucrose, or simply “sugar,” listed near the top in the ingredients list of more and more processed foods.
According to Wikipedia, “Commercially, fructose is usually derived from sugar cane, sugar beets and corn, and there are 3 commercially important forms:” 1) processed crystalline fructose, 2) high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), as a mixture of both glucose and fructose as monosaccharides, and 3) sucrose. All forms of fructose, according to Wiki, are commonly added to foods and drinks for palatability, taste enhancement and improved browning of foods such as baked goods.
Starting in the early 70’s, as total consumption of sugar rose in the U.S., HFCS eroded the sucrose market. By 2000 they were consumed in the U.S. in equal amounts. HFCS is commonly found in food and drink in two forms: The 55% fructose/41% glucose form is in use in the U.S. in non-dietary soft drinks. The 42% fructose/53% glucose formulation is used primarily in processed foods and baked goods. (The balances in both forms are “other sugars.”)
“The primary reason fructose is used commercially in foods and beverages, besides its low cost, is its high relative sweetness. It is the sweetest of all naturally occurring carbohydrates; at room temperature it is 1.73 times as sweet as sucrose,” but when heated it loses this advantage, again according to Wiki. The sweetness of fructose is “perceived earlier,” has a “higher peak,” “exhibits a synergy effect when used in combination with other sweeteners,” has “greater solubility,” “increases starch viscosity more rapidly and achieves a higher final viscosity than sucrose,” “retains moisture for a long period of time even at low relative humidity,” and therefore “can contribute to improved quality, better texture, and longer shelf life to the food products in which it is used,” all as reported in the Wiki entry. Ever wonder why a Twinkie or a Devil Dog stays soft forever? It’s the HFCS!
If you haven’t noticed how ubiquitous HFCS has become in the processed food supply, let me give you a snapshot. In the bread aisle at my local supermarket I found it in most of the “soft” goods and long shelf life items: Devil Dogs and Twinkies, of course, and fruit pies and muffins; also in hot dog and hamburger rolls and, naturally, in Wonder Bread. I also found it listed as 4th ingredient in Weight Watchers 100% Whole Wheat bread, just before molasses!
Fundamentally, however, regardless of whether the formulation of fructose you consume is 55%, 42%, or 50% fructose as in table sugar (sucrose), we all consume ever increasing amounts of fructose each year, whether we know it or not. We eat much more fructose than we think, and much more than the amount that is found in fresh fruit. Sugar -- ordinary table sugar, made from sugar cane -- remember, is half fructose.
So, why does it matter? Because fructose, in the words of Robert H. Lustig, MD, is “poison.” Dr. Lustig is professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California San Francisco. His research focuses on childhood obesity. He contends that, in the amounts we are eating it, fructose is toxic to the liver.
Want to know why? You can watch his 90 minute 2009 video, “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” from UCSF’s “Mini Med School for the Public” on YouTube. Or stay tuned. In the next installment I will present my ‘Executive Summary’ of his evidence.
By the way, all of my columns are archived on my blog: www://danbrown-thenutritiondebate.blogspot.com.
© Dan Brown 10/30/11
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
The Nutrition Debate #28: Sugar in the Diet: What does it mean?
I ran into a friend at the supermarket the other day and asked her how she was. She replied, “Fine,” but “tired a lot.” Not wanting to miss an opportunity to proselytize, I suggested, “sugar crash.” She protested, “I don’t eat sugar!” So, I asked her what she ate for breakfast. Therein lies a tale of folly that deserves to be more widely known and understood.
Sugar, as she and virtually the “whole world” thinks of it, is table sugar, as in “added sugar” such as that sprinkled on cereal. It is also an ingredient in candy and ice cream. Soft drinks usually are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.
Table sugar, the “added” sugar, is cane sugar and chemically is known as sucrose. It is a disaccharide, meaning it is composed of two simple sugar molecules. One of those molecules is fructose and the other is glucose. All chemical compounds ending in “ose” are sugars. Most break down in the digestion process to glucose, some to fructose, and a few to galactose, the third monosaccharide, before entering the blood stream through the wall of the small intestine.
Sugars in this “whole-world” sense do not include those found in fruits, which are a combination of free fructose, free glucose and sucrose. Fruit sugars are regarded in this “whole-world” view as good for you, because they are an inherent component of this “real” or whole food. Forget that for centuries hybridizers have been making fruits sweeter than those found in nature to appeal to our sweet tooth.
Carbohydrates, one of the three basic elements of nutrition (the other two being protein and fat), are all saccharides. Carbohydrates, including fruits, cereals, bread, potatoes, rice and pasta, are somewhat more complex compounds, meaning composed of many molecules. Nevertheless, they virtually all break down in the digestion process to the simple sugars glucose and fructose. Glucose goes to the cells for quick energy. Fructose goes directly to the liver and is stored.
Back to the question I asked of my friend: “What did you eat for breakfast?” Her answer: “A glass of orange juice, a whole grain cereal ‘with 3 grams of protein’ [in reduced-fat milk, I assumed], toast and jelly.” “All sugar,” I exclaimed! Obnoxiously, I said, “if you eat a lot of ‘sugar’ – read any food except fat and protein -- all at once, your blood stream will be flooded with sugar (glucose) sooner or later (up to a few hours, depending on the food and the condition of your metabolism), and insulin pumped from the pancreas (if it is still working well). And then, after the ‘sugar’ gets delivered to the muscles and organs by the insulin, your blood sugar level will crash and you will ‘feel tired’ (and hungry) again.”
You will feel hungry again because another hormone, ghrelin (first reported in Nature in 1999!), will send a signal from cells lining the fundus of the stomach to the hypothalamus in the center of your brain, that the “quick energy” in your blood (glucose) is low again. So, when your “all sugar” breakfast is digested, in mid-morning your body will again crave “sugar” (anything that will break down to glucose) to “feed the beast.” “Sugary snack” doesn’t mean a candy bar. It means any carbohydrate, including fruit, or a glass of milk (lactose), all of which will break down to glucose and again raise the level of sugar in the blood. It will also overwork the pancreas again to produce more insulin. A vicious cycle.
Over a course of years the cell wall of the destination cells in many people will develop insulin resistance, requiring more insulin to get the job of delivering glucose energy to our muscles done. Eventually, in many of these people, the pancreas will slowly burn out. The islets of langerhans that produce the beta cells in the pancreas will stop working. They will die. By the time your doctor discovers this, up to 80% of your pancreatic function will probably already have been lost. That was the stunning conjecture made by Dr. Ralph DeFronzo, American Diabetes Association keynote speaker at their annual meeting in San Francisco in 2008. You will be diagnosed with full-blown Type 2 Diabetes. You will be drug dependent for the rest of your life. You will then be watchful for, or worse, diagnosed with the “dreaded complications.”
As a result, in recent years the standards and methodology for diagnosing Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 diabetes has evolved. The old standard was two consecutive elevated plasma blood glucose tests above 140mg/dl, lowered to 126 in 1997, where it remains today. Fasting blood glucose between 100 and 125mg/dl is now regarded as pre-diabetes.
The new diagnostic standard for T2 diabetes is the Hemoglobin (Hb) A1c test. The diagnostic standard was formerly 7.0%. A few years ago it was lowered to 6.5%, and a 6.0% level added for pre-diabetes. Some activist endocrinologists, such as Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, use a much lower standard, regarding an A1c of 5.8% as indicating full-blown Type 2.
So, to stay healthy, watch your total sugars and remember: All carbohydrates are sugars. Your body breaks sugars down into glucose, the simplest sugar. Glucose induces insulin secretion. If you still think you don’t eat sugar, read this again!
© Dan Brown 10/23/11
Sugar, as she and virtually the “whole world” thinks of it, is table sugar, as in “added sugar” such as that sprinkled on cereal. It is also an ingredient in candy and ice cream. Soft drinks usually are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.
Table sugar, the “added” sugar, is cane sugar and chemically is known as sucrose. It is a disaccharide, meaning it is composed of two simple sugar molecules. One of those molecules is fructose and the other is glucose. All chemical compounds ending in “ose” are sugars. Most break down in the digestion process to glucose, some to fructose, and a few to galactose, the third monosaccharide, before entering the blood stream through the wall of the small intestine.
Sugars in this “whole-world” sense do not include those found in fruits, which are a combination of free fructose, free glucose and sucrose. Fruit sugars are regarded in this “whole-world” view as good for you, because they are an inherent component of this “real” or whole food. Forget that for centuries hybridizers have been making fruits sweeter than those found in nature to appeal to our sweet tooth.
Carbohydrates, one of the three basic elements of nutrition (the other two being protein and fat), are all saccharides. Carbohydrates, including fruits, cereals, bread, potatoes, rice and pasta, are somewhat more complex compounds, meaning composed of many molecules. Nevertheless, they virtually all break down in the digestion process to the simple sugars glucose and fructose. Glucose goes to the cells for quick energy. Fructose goes directly to the liver and is stored.
Back to the question I asked of my friend: “What did you eat for breakfast?” Her answer: “A glass of orange juice, a whole grain cereal ‘with 3 grams of protein’ [in reduced-fat milk, I assumed], toast and jelly.” “All sugar,” I exclaimed! Obnoxiously, I said, “if you eat a lot of ‘sugar’ – read any food except fat and protein -- all at once, your blood stream will be flooded with sugar (glucose) sooner or later (up to a few hours, depending on the food and the condition of your metabolism), and insulin pumped from the pancreas (if it is still working well). And then, after the ‘sugar’ gets delivered to the muscles and organs by the insulin, your blood sugar level will crash and you will ‘feel tired’ (and hungry) again.”
You will feel hungry again because another hormone, ghrelin (first reported in Nature in 1999!), will send a signal from cells lining the fundus of the stomach to the hypothalamus in the center of your brain, that the “quick energy” in your blood (glucose) is low again. So, when your “all sugar” breakfast is digested, in mid-morning your body will again crave “sugar” (anything that will break down to glucose) to “feed the beast.” “Sugary snack” doesn’t mean a candy bar. It means any carbohydrate, including fruit, or a glass of milk (lactose), all of which will break down to glucose and again raise the level of sugar in the blood. It will also overwork the pancreas again to produce more insulin. A vicious cycle.
Over a course of years the cell wall of the destination cells in many people will develop insulin resistance, requiring more insulin to get the job of delivering glucose energy to our muscles done. Eventually, in many of these people, the pancreas will slowly burn out. The islets of langerhans that produce the beta cells in the pancreas will stop working. They will die. By the time your doctor discovers this, up to 80% of your pancreatic function will probably already have been lost. That was the stunning conjecture made by Dr. Ralph DeFronzo, American Diabetes Association keynote speaker at their annual meeting in San Francisco in 2008. You will be diagnosed with full-blown Type 2 Diabetes. You will be drug dependent for the rest of your life. You will then be watchful for, or worse, diagnosed with the “dreaded complications.”
As a result, in recent years the standards and methodology for diagnosing Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 diabetes has evolved. The old standard was two consecutive elevated plasma blood glucose tests above 140mg/dl, lowered to 126 in 1997, where it remains today. Fasting blood glucose between 100 and 125mg/dl is now regarded as pre-diabetes.
The new diagnostic standard for T2 diabetes is the Hemoglobin (Hb) A1c test. The diagnostic standard was formerly 7.0%. A few years ago it was lowered to 6.5%, and a 6.0% level added for pre-diabetes. Some activist endocrinologists, such as Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, use a much lower standard, regarding an A1c of 5.8% as indicating full-blown Type 2.
So, to stay healthy, watch your total sugars and remember: All carbohydrates are sugars. Your body breaks sugars down into glucose, the simplest sugar. Glucose induces insulin secretion. If you still think you don’t eat sugar, read this again!
© Dan Brown 10/23/11
Sunday, October 9, 2011
The Nutrition Debate #27: “…the strongest predictor of a heart attack”
The contemporary medical literature is replete with macro and other large studies that attempt to extrapolate a correlation between heart attack risk and blood lipids. The last two columns, “Understanding Your Lipid Panel” and “The Cause and Treatment of Heart Disease” address this issue from different directions. In this column we will attempt to put a fine point on the critical matter of lipid ratios.
In the 1960’s Total Cholesterol (TC) became a common and inexpensive test. As the principal metric of “the Lipid Hypothesis” popularized by Ancel Keys and then the American Heart Association, it became the universal marker for predicting heart disease risk. But that was more than half a century ago. We’ve come a long way since then.
The “treatment,” i. e. medical advice, then and now for high TC was to eat less saturated fat and other animal foods with high cholesterol content. This was the modality even though the body needs cholesterol for many essential purposes and makes up what we don’t eat by manufacturing it as needed. The threshold for TC was and remains today 200mg/dl.
Low density lipoprotein (LDL) is a component of TC. Even though the common test used to determine LDL was and is a calculated value, not a direct measurement, it became a popular target in the 80’s when big pharma developed drugs – statins – that lowered it. By lowering LDL, statins also lowered total cholesterol. So, doctors prescribed statins to anyone and everyone whose TC was over 200. Today, Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, and its generic Simvastatin, account for $20 billion in world-wide annual sales.
In recent decades the other components of the Lipid Panel – High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) and Triglycerides (TG) – have taken on increased importance in understanding Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD) risk.Unfortunately, these developments have garnered little attention since the pharmaceutical industry has not yet developed blockbuster drugs to influence them. Fish oil lowers Triglycerides, but fish oil cannot be patented.
Most lipid panel lab results these days do however include a ratio of TC to HDL with a recommendation that it should be less than 5.0. In other words, if TC is 200, then HDL should not be less than 40. While this at least recognizes the importance of HDL, it is hardly a standard to be emulated. It is, in fact, borderline dangerous. Optimal is ≤3.5.
A somewhat higher standard coming into wider use is the inverse of this fraction, i.e. HDL/TC. However, the standard for this fraction is ≥0.24 = ideal. Translated, that is closer to a ratio of 4.0, versus 5.0 in the TC to HDL ratio cited above.
Many enlightened practitioners today, however, use the ratio of Triglycerides to HDL (TG/HDL) as “the single most powerful predictor of extensive coronary heart disease among all the lipid variables examined,” according to just one of many articles in the literature. The study I quote is in Clinics at PubMed Central 2008 August 63(4) 427-432. Note, by the way, that neither TC nor LDL is a factor in this formula. This ratio is considered by informed clinicians today as more reliable than LDL, or TC/HDL, or high sensitivity (hs) C-reactive protein (CRP), the marker my internist/cardiologist uses.
Using this new gold standard, a TG/HDL ≤ 1.0 is considered ideal, a ratio of ≤2.0 is good, a ratio of 4.0 is considered high and 6.0 much too high. My recent TG/HDL = 0.35, which is interpreted to mean a very low probability of heart attack.
As the patent on Lipitor is about to expire, and the other name-brand statin drug patent expirations are not too far behind, big pharma is hard at work looking for the next blockbuster drug to lower Triglycerides or raise HDL. Alas, so far, diet -- that is, our dietary intake (as in, “we are what we eat”) -- is the only thing that seems to work, and big pharma isn’t in that business.
Agribusiness, however, has seen the potential for a big piece of the action here. Unfortunately, there isn’t much profit in “real food.” Ask your local farmer. The increasingly popular processed foods -- the so-called “heart healthy” foods we are being encouraged to eat in large quantities -- do not improve the TG/HDL ratio. They make it worse!
In the coming weeks we will return to the subject of healthy eating. Subjects will include “Sugar: What do we mean?” “Fructose: Where and what is it?,” “Intermittent Fasting: Is it a good idea?,” “Ketosis and Autophagy,” and “Cooking with Oils: good and bad choices,” Our goal will be to help the reader improve their TG/HDL ratio. Of course, to do that, you will need to have a baseline Lipid Profile. If you haven’t had a Lipid Panel done, or don’t know yours, ask your doctor to do one. And ask him to see how yours shapes up using the new gold standard for CVD risk: the TG/HDL ratio.
© Dan Brown 10/9/11
In the 1960’s Total Cholesterol (TC) became a common and inexpensive test. As the principal metric of “the Lipid Hypothesis” popularized by Ancel Keys and then the American Heart Association, it became the universal marker for predicting heart disease risk. But that was more than half a century ago. We’ve come a long way since then.
The “treatment,” i. e. medical advice, then and now for high TC was to eat less saturated fat and other animal foods with high cholesterol content. This was the modality even though the body needs cholesterol for many essential purposes and makes up what we don’t eat by manufacturing it as needed. The threshold for TC was and remains today 200mg/dl.
Low density lipoprotein (LDL) is a component of TC. Even though the common test used to determine LDL was and is a calculated value, not a direct measurement, it became a popular target in the 80’s when big pharma developed drugs – statins – that lowered it. By lowering LDL, statins also lowered total cholesterol. So, doctors prescribed statins to anyone and everyone whose TC was over 200. Today, Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, and its generic Simvastatin, account for $20 billion in world-wide annual sales.
In recent decades the other components of the Lipid Panel – High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) and Triglycerides (TG) – have taken on increased importance in understanding Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD) risk.Unfortunately, these developments have garnered little attention since the pharmaceutical industry has not yet developed blockbuster drugs to influence them. Fish oil lowers Triglycerides, but fish oil cannot be patented.
Most lipid panel lab results these days do however include a ratio of TC to HDL with a recommendation that it should be less than 5.0. In other words, if TC is 200, then HDL should not be less than 40. While this at least recognizes the importance of HDL, it is hardly a standard to be emulated. It is, in fact, borderline dangerous. Optimal is ≤3.5.
A somewhat higher standard coming into wider use is the inverse of this fraction, i.e. HDL/TC. However, the standard for this fraction is ≥0.24 = ideal. Translated, that is closer to a ratio of 4.0, versus 5.0 in the TC to HDL ratio cited above.
Many enlightened practitioners today, however, use the ratio of Triglycerides to HDL (TG/HDL) as “the single most powerful predictor of extensive coronary heart disease among all the lipid variables examined,” according to just one of many articles in the literature. The study I quote is in Clinics at PubMed Central 2008 August 63(4) 427-432. Note, by the way, that neither TC nor LDL is a factor in this formula. This ratio is considered by informed clinicians today as more reliable than LDL, or TC/HDL, or high sensitivity (hs) C-reactive protein (CRP), the marker my internist/cardiologist uses.
Using this new gold standard, a TG/HDL ≤ 1.0 is considered ideal, a ratio of ≤2.0 is good, a ratio of 4.0 is considered high and 6.0 much too high. My recent TG/HDL = 0.35, which is interpreted to mean a very low probability of heart attack.
As the patent on Lipitor is about to expire, and the other name-brand statin drug patent expirations are not too far behind, big pharma is hard at work looking for the next blockbuster drug to lower Triglycerides or raise HDL. Alas, so far, diet -- that is, our dietary intake (as in, “we are what we eat”) -- is the only thing that seems to work, and big pharma isn’t in that business.
Agribusiness, however, has seen the potential for a big piece of the action here. Unfortunately, there isn’t much profit in “real food.” Ask your local farmer. The increasingly popular processed foods -- the so-called “heart healthy” foods we are being encouraged to eat in large quantities -- do not improve the TG/HDL ratio. They make it worse!
In the coming weeks we will return to the subject of healthy eating. Subjects will include “Sugar: What do we mean?” “Fructose: Where and what is it?,” “Intermittent Fasting: Is it a good idea?,” “Ketosis and Autophagy,” and “Cooking with Oils: good and bad choices,” Our goal will be to help the reader improve their TG/HDL ratio. Of course, to do that, you will need to have a baseline Lipid Profile. If you haven’t had a Lipid Panel done, or don’t know yours, ask your doctor to do one. And ask him to see how yours shapes up using the new gold standard for CVD risk: the TG/HDL ratio.
© Dan Brown 10/9/11
Monday, September 5, 2011
The Nutrition Debate #26: The Cause and Treatment of Heart Disease
Just in case the publisher is on vacation this week, let me be the one to state here and again, unequivocally, that I am not a doctor. In fact I have no medical training whatsoever and only took four years of both high school science and high school math on my way to becoming an architect. So, nothing in my columns is intended nor should be construed as medical advice. I offer only my opinions and the opinions of those medical doctors and scientists cited with attribution.
This is the fifth and last in the mini-series on “knowing your fats.” In this series I have quoted extensively, from “The Skinny on Fats,” originally published in 2000 by the Weston A. Price Foundation and then incorporated into a cookbook, “Nourishing Traditions”, by Mary Enig, PhD. and Sally Fallon, president of the Foundation. The quotation that follows is from “The Skinny on Fats.” It is titled, “The Cause and Treatment of Heart Disease.”
“The cause of heart disease is not animal fats and cholesterol but rather a number of factors inherent in modern diets, including excess consumption of vegetables oils and hydrogenated [read “trans”] fats; excess consumption of refined carbohydrates in the form of sugar and white flour; mineral deficiencies, particularly low levels of protective magnesium and iodine; deficiencies of vitamins, particularly of vitamin C, needed for the integrity of the blood vessel walls, and of antioxidants like selenium and vitamin E, which protect us from free radicals; and, finally, the disappearance of antimicrobial fats from the food supply, namely, animal fats and tropical oils.52 These once protected us against the kinds of viruses and bacteria that have been associated with the onset of pathogenic plaque leading to heart disease.
While serum cholesterol levels provide an inaccurate indication of future heart disease, a high level of a substance called homocysteine in the blood has been positively correlated with pathological buildup of plaque in the arteries and the tendency to form clots—a deadly combination. Folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and choline are nutrients that lower serum homocysteine levels.53 These nutrients are found mostly in animal foods.
The best way to treat heart disease, then, is not to focus on lowering cholesterol—either by drugs or diet—but to consume a diet that provides animal foods rich in vitamins B6 and B12; to bolster thyroid function by daily use of natural sea salt, a good source of usable iodine; to avoid vitamin and mineral deficiencies that make the artery walls more prone to ruptures and the buildup of plaque; to include the antimicrobial fats in the diet; and to eliminate processed foods containing refined carbohydrates, oxidized cholesterol and free-radical-containing vegetable oils that cause the body to need constant repair.” End of quote. Please see the Foundation website referred to above for the footnote references.
While there is not perfect concordance among the various leaders in the medical and scientific community (and even popular authors like Michael Pollan) on what to eat to avoid the Diseases of Civilization, there are remarkable similarities. Gary Taubes, and Kurt Harris, M. D., and Mary Enig, PhD, are among my favorites, but they are just a few of hundreds of authoritative resources in this emerging field. If we keep an open mind, we should all benefit from the knowledge that is becoming available. But, sad to say, it is difficult to turn the ship of state from its present course.
This is especially true 1) when convenience dictates labor-saving prepared foods, and fast-food solutions, 2) when cost is the primary driver of decisions we make at the supermarket, 3) when deceptive, misleading advertising influences the food choices we make, and 4) when agri-business has so much at stake in promoting the sale of new versions of processed foods. The result: the very foods that are billed as “heart-healthy” are in fact the ones that will lead us down the path to the modern Diseases of Civilization: metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
To avoid these outcomes, we need to take control of our own health. We have to learn how to “eat healthy.” And then we have to do it. In upcoming columns, we will continue to explore real food: What to eat, what not to eat, and why.
To get started and to monitor your progress, you should have a baseline lipid profile. I urge you to ask your doctor for a copy of your most recent lipid panel, or order one for you. Then show him column #25 in this series: “Understanding Your Lipid Profile” and discuss your profile in that context. Ask your doctor is he agrees with the analysis I offered. And ask if it would matter to him what you ate so long as you achieved that kind of turnaround in the course of say a year. I did, and you could too, if you change what you eat and follow that way of eating carefully.
© Dan Brown 9/5/11
This is the fifth and last in the mini-series on “knowing your fats.” In this series I have quoted extensively, from “The Skinny on Fats,” originally published in 2000 by the Weston A. Price Foundation and then incorporated into a cookbook, “Nourishing Traditions”, by Mary Enig, PhD. and Sally Fallon, president of the Foundation. The quotation that follows is from “The Skinny on Fats.” It is titled, “The Cause and Treatment of Heart Disease.”
“The cause of heart disease is not animal fats and cholesterol but rather a number of factors inherent in modern diets, including excess consumption of vegetables oils and hydrogenated [read “trans”] fats; excess consumption of refined carbohydrates in the form of sugar and white flour; mineral deficiencies, particularly low levels of protective magnesium and iodine; deficiencies of vitamins, particularly of vitamin C, needed for the integrity of the blood vessel walls, and of antioxidants like selenium and vitamin E, which protect us from free radicals; and, finally, the disappearance of antimicrobial fats from the food supply, namely, animal fats and tropical oils.52 These once protected us against the kinds of viruses and bacteria that have been associated with the onset of pathogenic plaque leading to heart disease.
While serum cholesterol levels provide an inaccurate indication of future heart disease, a high level of a substance called homocysteine in the blood has been positively correlated with pathological buildup of plaque in the arteries and the tendency to form clots—a deadly combination. Folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and choline are nutrients that lower serum homocysteine levels.53 These nutrients are found mostly in animal foods.
The best way to treat heart disease, then, is not to focus on lowering cholesterol—either by drugs or diet—but to consume a diet that provides animal foods rich in vitamins B6 and B12; to bolster thyroid function by daily use of natural sea salt, a good source of usable iodine; to avoid vitamin and mineral deficiencies that make the artery walls more prone to ruptures and the buildup of plaque; to include the antimicrobial fats in the diet; and to eliminate processed foods containing refined carbohydrates, oxidized cholesterol and free-radical-containing vegetable oils that cause the body to need constant repair.” End of quote. Please see the Foundation website referred to above for the footnote references.
While there is not perfect concordance among the various leaders in the medical and scientific community (and even popular authors like Michael Pollan) on what to eat to avoid the Diseases of Civilization, there are remarkable similarities. Gary Taubes, and Kurt Harris, M. D., and Mary Enig, PhD, are among my favorites, but they are just a few of hundreds of authoritative resources in this emerging field. If we keep an open mind, we should all benefit from the knowledge that is becoming available. But, sad to say, it is difficult to turn the ship of state from its present course.
This is especially true 1) when convenience dictates labor-saving prepared foods, and fast-food solutions, 2) when cost is the primary driver of decisions we make at the supermarket, 3) when deceptive, misleading advertising influences the food choices we make, and 4) when agri-business has so much at stake in promoting the sale of new versions of processed foods. The result: the very foods that are billed as “heart-healthy” are in fact the ones that will lead us down the path to the modern Diseases of Civilization: metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
To avoid these outcomes, we need to take control of our own health. We have to learn how to “eat healthy.” And then we have to do it. In upcoming columns, we will continue to explore real food: What to eat, what not to eat, and why.
To get started and to monitor your progress, you should have a baseline lipid profile. I urge you to ask your doctor for a copy of your most recent lipid panel, or order one for you. Then show him column #25 in this series: “Understanding Your Lipid Profile” and discuss your profile in that context. Ask your doctor is he agrees with the analysis I offered. And ask if it would matter to him what you ate so long as you achieved that kind of turnaround in the course of say a year. I did, and you could too, if you change what you eat and follow that way of eating carefully.
© Dan Brown 9/5/11
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
The Nutrition Debate #25: Understanding Your Lipid Panel
As has been pointed out with each column, I am not a doctor or a health care professional, and I do not offer dietary or health-related advice. You must draw your own conclusions from my ramblings, and of course you do so at your own risk. Here comes the “however”: I can do simple math and read a lab report, especially one that gives an “IN range,” “OUT range,” and “Reference Range,” plus other guidance, for each test ordered.
At each office visit, my doctor always orders a complete blood count and a comprehensive metabolic panel, including a lipid panel and an Hb A1c, plus, from time to time, other specialty tests (Cardio High Sensitivity CRP, etc.). This column is going to be about understanding the lipid panel. That includes Total Cholesterol, HDL Cholesterol, LDL Cholesterol (calculated), Triglycerides, and the (total) Cholesterol/HDL Ratio. Some panels also include VLDL.
Most people know the drill: “high” total cholesterol is not a good thing, that there is “good” cholesterol (HDL) and “bad” cholesterol (LDL), and that we should try to get our circulating triglyceride levels down. If we aren’t successful at doing this through dietary restriction of saturated fat and cholesterol containing foods (per our doctor’s advice), he is going to prescribe a pharmacological solution to lower our LDL, and thereby our Total Cholesterol as well. We are going to be asked to support the $20 billion dollar annual statin market by taking Crestor, Lipitor, or Zocor (or Simvastatin, its generic equivalent). These are listed with the most recent and most effective first. But, is it that simple?
We shall ignore the efficacy of the dietary advice for purposes of this example, but I want it to be clear that I totally and completely disagree with that advice, based on all the science I am reading and on my own personal (n = 1) experience. Nevertheless, let us suppose that two people (or the same person, in two “snapshots” of lipid panels taken a few years apart) have identical Total Cholesterol, to wit: 200mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter). One has an HDL of 40mg/dl, an LDL of 130mg/dl (calculated), a Triglyceride count of 150mg/dl, and a Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio of 5.0. ALL FIVE OF THESE VALUES ARE BORDERLINE OUT OF RANGE. They would appear in bold in the “OUT range” column on your lab report. Your doctor would tell you, according to my understanding of the “Standards of Practice,” to cut down on all those saturated fat and dietary cholesterol containing foods, and probably to exercise more as well. BAD ADVICE, IMHO.
Now let’s look at another lipid panel: Total Cholesterol also 200mg/dl, HDL = 80mg/dl, LDL = 110mg/dl (calculated), Triglycerides = 50mg/dl, and a Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio of 2.5. The only value that is borderline high in this panel is Total Cholesterol at 200mg/dl. Everything else is textbook WUNDERBAR! It’s true, the LDL is above optimal (<100mg/dl), but remember LDL is a derived (calculated), not a measured value. The formula for LDL in the simple lipid panel is LDL = Total Cholesterol – HDL – Triglycerides/5. And, if your doctor was worried about your less than optimal LDL’s (because of existing heart disease, other cardiac risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, metabolic syndrome or higher than “normal” fasting plasma glucose or Hb A1c scores) he could order the VLDL test, or an even more sophisticated VAP test of LDL particle size (“A”= “large and buoyant” or “B” =“small and dense.”) Regardless, this lipid panel would NOT lead your doctor to prescribe statins or require dietary change. He would tell you to “continue with whatever you are doing.”
Bottom line: a Total Cholesterol test score of 200mg/dl on your lipid panel, with the first subset of values, can put you in the “dog house,” on dietary restrictions, and soon thereafter when dietary changes don’t work, on a diet of statins.
Or, you could have a lipid panel similar to the second example* and become your doctor’s poster boy, as I did after I’d been on a very low carb, high fat and moderate protein way of eating for a year or so. My doctor (a cardiologist) just tells me to keep on doing what I’m doing. Even though he started me on this program, he doesn’t want to know what I eat. For him, it’s no more lectures, just smiles, and when the test results come in, a congratulatory phone call.
For my doctor, my office visit is one of the “high points” of his day, he says. I can believe it. No stress (for him). No more arguments (from me). No latent suspicions or overt charges of “non-compliance” (cheating) with the dietary restrictions he imposed. And, above all, no hypocrisy for having to preach the baloney -- excuse me -- the bad medical advice that the public health, big pharma, media and the medical establishment continue to dish out to the lemmings who put their trust, and their lives, in the hands of “big brother,” the dietary Dictocrats, our nanny state. Sorry – I just had to vent, (and crow, of course)
* My most recent (8/15/11) lipid panel: TC = 209, HDL = 92, LDL (calc.) = 111, TC/HDL = 2.3, Triglycerides = 32
© Dan Brown 8/28/11
At each office visit, my doctor always orders a complete blood count and a comprehensive metabolic panel, including a lipid panel and an Hb A1c, plus, from time to time, other specialty tests (Cardio High Sensitivity CRP, etc.). This column is going to be about understanding the lipid panel. That includes Total Cholesterol, HDL Cholesterol, LDL Cholesterol (calculated), Triglycerides, and the (total) Cholesterol/HDL Ratio. Some panels also include VLDL.
Most people know the drill: “high” total cholesterol is not a good thing, that there is “good” cholesterol (HDL) and “bad” cholesterol (LDL), and that we should try to get our circulating triglyceride levels down. If we aren’t successful at doing this through dietary restriction of saturated fat and cholesterol containing foods (per our doctor’s advice), he is going to prescribe a pharmacological solution to lower our LDL, and thereby our Total Cholesterol as well. We are going to be asked to support the $20 billion dollar annual statin market by taking Crestor, Lipitor, or Zocor (or Simvastatin, its generic equivalent). These are listed with the most recent and most effective first. But, is it that simple?
We shall ignore the efficacy of the dietary advice for purposes of this example, but I want it to be clear that I totally and completely disagree with that advice, based on all the science I am reading and on my own personal (n = 1) experience. Nevertheless, let us suppose that two people (or the same person, in two “snapshots” of lipid panels taken a few years apart) have identical Total Cholesterol, to wit: 200mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter). One has an HDL of 40mg/dl, an LDL of 130mg/dl (calculated), a Triglyceride count of 150mg/dl, and a Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio of 5.0. ALL FIVE OF THESE VALUES ARE BORDERLINE OUT OF RANGE. They would appear in bold in the “OUT range” column on your lab report. Your doctor would tell you, according to my understanding of the “Standards of Practice,” to cut down on all those saturated fat and dietary cholesterol containing foods, and probably to exercise more as well. BAD ADVICE, IMHO.
Now let’s look at another lipid panel: Total Cholesterol also 200mg/dl, HDL = 80mg/dl, LDL = 110mg/dl (calculated), Triglycerides = 50mg/dl, and a Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio of 2.5. The only value that is borderline high in this panel is Total Cholesterol at 200mg/dl. Everything else is textbook WUNDERBAR! It’s true, the LDL is above optimal (<100mg/dl), but remember LDL is a derived (calculated), not a measured value. The formula for LDL in the simple lipid panel is LDL = Total Cholesterol – HDL – Triglycerides/5. And, if your doctor was worried about your less than optimal LDL’s (because of existing heart disease, other cardiac risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, metabolic syndrome or higher than “normal” fasting plasma glucose or Hb A1c scores) he could order the VLDL test, or an even more sophisticated VAP test of LDL particle size (“A”= “large and buoyant” or “B” =“small and dense.”) Regardless, this lipid panel would NOT lead your doctor to prescribe statins or require dietary change. He would tell you to “continue with whatever you are doing.”
Bottom line: a Total Cholesterol test score of 200mg/dl on your lipid panel, with the first subset of values, can put you in the “dog house,” on dietary restrictions, and soon thereafter when dietary changes don’t work, on a diet of statins.
Or, you could have a lipid panel similar to the second example* and become your doctor’s poster boy, as I did after I’d been on a very low carb, high fat and moderate protein way of eating for a year or so. My doctor (a cardiologist) just tells me to keep on doing what I’m doing. Even though he started me on this program, he doesn’t want to know what I eat. For him, it’s no more lectures, just smiles, and when the test results come in, a congratulatory phone call.
For my doctor, my office visit is one of the “high points” of his day, he says. I can believe it. No stress (for him). No more arguments (from me). No latent suspicions or overt charges of “non-compliance” (cheating) with the dietary restrictions he imposed. And, above all, no hypocrisy for having to preach the baloney -- excuse me -- the bad medical advice that the public health, big pharma, media and the medical establishment continue to dish out to the lemmings who put their trust, and their lives, in the hands of “big brother,” the dietary Dictocrats, our nanny state. Sorry – I just had to vent, (and crow, of course)
* My most recent (8/15/11) lipid panel: TC = 209, HDL = 92, LDL (calc.) = 111, TC/HDL = 2.3, Triglycerides = 32
© Dan Brown 8/28/11
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The Nutrition Debate #24: What About Cholesterol?
And what about dietary cholesterol? Again, quoting from Mary Enig, PhD, and Sally Fallon, authors of “The Skinny on Fats, “Here, too, the public has been misinformed. Our blood vessels can become damaged in a number of ways—through irritations caused by free radicals or viruses, or because they are structurally weak—and when this happens, the body's natural healing substance steps in to repair the damage. That substance is cholesterol. Cholesterol is a high-molecular-weight alcohol that is manufactured in the liver and in most human cells. Like saturated fats, the cholesterol we make and consume plays many vital roles:
• Along with saturated fats, cholesterol in the cell membrane gives our cells necessary stiffness and stability. When the diet contains an excess of polyunsaturated fatty acids, these replace saturated fatty acids in the cell membrane, so that the cell walls actually become flabby. When this happens, cholesterol from the blood is "driven" into the tissues to give them structural integrity. This is why serum cholesterol levels may go down temporarily when we replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated oils in the diet.46
• Cholesterol acts as a precursor to vital corticosteroids, hormones that help us deal with stress and protect the body against heart disease and cancer; and to the sex hormones like androgen, testosterone, estrogen and progesterone.
• Cholesterol is a precursor to vitamin D, a very important fat-soluble vitamin needed for healthy bones and nervous system, proper growth, mineral metabolism, muscle tone, insulin production, reproduction and immune system function.
• The bile salts are made from cholesterol. Bile is vital for digestion and assimilation of fats in the diet.
• Recent research shows that cholesterol acts as an antioxidant.47 This is the likely explanation for the fact that cholesterol levels go up with age. As an antioxidant, cholesterol protects us against free radical damage that leads to heart disease and cancer.
• Cholesterol is needed for proper function of serotonin receptors in the brain.48 Serotonin is the body's natural "feel-good" chemical. Low cholesterol levels have been linked to aggressive and violent behavior, depression and suicidal tendencies.
• Mother's milk is especially rich in cholesterol and contains a special enzyme that helps the baby utilize this nutrient. Babies and children need cholesterol-rich foods throughout their growing years to ensure proper development of the brain and nervous system.
• Dietary cholesterol plays an important role in maintaining the health of the intestinal wall.49 This is why low-cholesterol vegetarian diets can lead to leaky gut syndrome and other intestinal disorders.
Cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease but rather a potent antioxidant weapon against free radicals in the blood, and a repair substance that helps heal arterial damage (although the arterial plaques themselves contain very little cholesterol.) However, like fats, cholesterol may be damaged by exposure to heat and oxygen. This damaged or oxidized cholesterol seems to promote both injury to the arterial cells as well as a pathological buildup of plaque in the arteries.50
Damaged cholesterol is found in powdered eggs, in powdered milk (added to reduced-fat milks to give them body) and in meats and fats that have been heated to high temperatures in frying and other high-temperature processes. High serum cholesterol levels often indicate that the body needs cholesterol to protect itself from high levels of altered, free-radical-containing fats. Just as a large police force is needed in a locality where crime occurs frequently, so cholesterol is needed in a poorly nourished body to protect the individual from a tendency to heart disease and cancer. Blaming coronary heart disease on cholesterol is like blaming the police for murder and theft in a high crime area.” End of long quote. Note all the footnotes are in the Weston A. Price website article, “The Skinny on Fats.”
To add insult to injury, remember that we make, i.e. our liver and cells make, cholesterol to “make up” for all those good foods (eggs, butter, cream, marbled beef, shrimp, liver, etc.) that we avoid eating to follow doctor’s orders. It has too. It needs cholesterol to do all the things described above, and it works holistically to get what it needs. It’s a good thing too. Just imagine if the human race were dependent for survival on the vagaries of current government public health policy. I’ll take autonomic homeostatic regulation over Obamacare and Congressional regulation any day. It doesn’t shut down.
© Dan Brown 8/14/11
• Along with saturated fats, cholesterol in the cell membrane gives our cells necessary stiffness and stability. When the diet contains an excess of polyunsaturated fatty acids, these replace saturated fatty acids in the cell membrane, so that the cell walls actually become flabby. When this happens, cholesterol from the blood is "driven" into the tissues to give them structural integrity. This is why serum cholesterol levels may go down temporarily when we replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated oils in the diet.46
• Cholesterol acts as a precursor to vital corticosteroids, hormones that help us deal with stress and protect the body against heart disease and cancer; and to the sex hormones like androgen, testosterone, estrogen and progesterone.
• Cholesterol is a precursor to vitamin D, a very important fat-soluble vitamin needed for healthy bones and nervous system, proper growth, mineral metabolism, muscle tone, insulin production, reproduction and immune system function.
• The bile salts are made from cholesterol. Bile is vital for digestion and assimilation of fats in the diet.
• Recent research shows that cholesterol acts as an antioxidant.47 This is the likely explanation for the fact that cholesterol levels go up with age. As an antioxidant, cholesterol protects us against free radical damage that leads to heart disease and cancer.
• Cholesterol is needed for proper function of serotonin receptors in the brain.48 Serotonin is the body's natural "feel-good" chemical. Low cholesterol levels have been linked to aggressive and violent behavior, depression and suicidal tendencies.
• Mother's milk is especially rich in cholesterol and contains a special enzyme that helps the baby utilize this nutrient. Babies and children need cholesterol-rich foods throughout their growing years to ensure proper development of the brain and nervous system.
• Dietary cholesterol plays an important role in maintaining the health of the intestinal wall.49 This is why low-cholesterol vegetarian diets can lead to leaky gut syndrome and other intestinal disorders.
Cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease but rather a potent antioxidant weapon against free radicals in the blood, and a repair substance that helps heal arterial damage (although the arterial plaques themselves contain very little cholesterol.) However, like fats, cholesterol may be damaged by exposure to heat and oxygen. This damaged or oxidized cholesterol seems to promote both injury to the arterial cells as well as a pathological buildup of plaque in the arteries.50
Damaged cholesterol is found in powdered eggs, in powdered milk (added to reduced-fat milks to give them body) and in meats and fats that have been heated to high temperatures in frying and other high-temperature processes. High serum cholesterol levels often indicate that the body needs cholesterol to protect itself from high levels of altered, free-radical-containing fats. Just as a large police force is needed in a locality where crime occurs frequently, so cholesterol is needed in a poorly nourished body to protect the individual from a tendency to heart disease and cancer. Blaming coronary heart disease on cholesterol is like blaming the police for murder and theft in a high crime area.” End of long quote. Note all the footnotes are in the Weston A. Price website article, “The Skinny on Fats.”
To add insult to injury, remember that we make, i.e. our liver and cells make, cholesterol to “make up” for all those good foods (eggs, butter, cream, marbled beef, shrimp, liver, etc.) that we avoid eating to follow doctor’s orders. It has too. It needs cholesterol to do all the things described above, and it works holistically to get what it needs. It’s a good thing too. Just imagine if the human race were dependent for survival on the vagaries of current government public health policy. I’ll take autonomic homeostatic regulation over Obamacare and Congressional regulation any day. It doesn’t shut down.
© Dan Brown 8/14/11
Sunday, August 7, 2011
The Nutrition Debate #23: The Benefits of Saturated Fats
The benefits of saturated fat? To admit to such a belief is surely heretical, so I do not expect my reader(s) to commit such apostasy “on faith.” But, purely as an observer of another’s fall from grace, you may want to read further to see how this idea develops and is supported by science. If this sounds like a classic battle of orthodoxy vs. the enlightened, you’re right. You certainly won’t hear it spoken of by any of the usual sources of information in our modern society: Government, Agri-Business, and the Mass Media. Who but the small grass-fed beef or pastured chicken egg purveyor would benefit, besides you?
As you already know, one of the apostles of human nutrition that I follow is Mary Enig, PhD, a Director Emeritus of the Weston A. Price Foundation, who with Sally Fallon, President of the Foundation, wrote “The Skinny on Fats.” This really is a “must read” for anyone interested in eating in a healthy way and living a long life. Do yourself a favor and google it.
Because it is more technical than I am qualified to write about, and cites many sources as references, I quote from it directly again here: Note that each of the 8 references are provided at the Foundation “hit” on “The Skinny on Fats.”
“The much-maligned saturated fats—which Americans are trying to avoid—are not the cause of our modern diseases. In fact, they play many important roles in the body chemistry:
• Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes. They are what give our cells necessary stiffness and integrity.
• They play a vital role in the health of our bones. For calcium to be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure, at least 50% of the dietary fats should be saturated.38
• They lower Lp(a), a substance in the blood that indicates proneness to heart disease.39 They protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins, such as Tylenol.40
• They enhance the immune system.41
• They are needed for the proper utilization of essential fatty acids.
Elongated omega-3 fatty acids are better retained in the tissues when the diet is rich in saturated fats. 42
• Saturated 18-carbon stearic acid and 16-carbon palmitic acid are the preferred foods for the heart, which is why the fat around the heart muscle is highly saturated.43 The heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of stress.
• Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial properties. They protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.
The scientific evidence, honestly evaluated, does not support the assertion that "artery-clogging" saturated fats cause heart disease.44 Actually, evaluation of the fat in artery clogs reveals that only about 26% is saturated. The rest is unsaturated, of which more than half is polyunsaturated.45 “(end of quote)
Among the most vilified of animal foods high in saturated fats has been butter. As noted previously it is now enjoying a comeback, while margarine, made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (trans fat), has suffered a sharp decline.
In 2000, before her more than 20 year campaign to bring trans fats to the public’s attention had reached full fruition (she had testified on it at the 1977 McGovern Commission), Dr. Enig wrote (again, in “The Skinny on Fats”), “The Diet Dictocrats have succeeded in convincing Americans that butter is dangerous, when in fact it is a valued component of many traditional diets and a source of…fat-soluble vitamins. These include true vitamin A or retinol, vitamin D, vitamin K and vitamin E as well as all their naturally occurring cofactors needed to obtain maximum effect. Butter is America's best source of these important nutrients. In fact, vitamin A is more easily absorbed and utilized from butter than from other sources.61 Fortunately, these fat-soluble vitamins are relatively stable and survive the pasteurization process.”
But what about cholesterol and heart disease? Well, if you’re still asking these questions, I recommend you go back and read this series from the beginning. All of the articles are archived at http://danbrown-thenutritiondebate.blogspot.com. Or, if you’re just a little skeptical, stay tuned; the next article will be “What About Dietary Cholesterol?” and then the next, “Understanding Your Lipid Panel.” The apostasy goes on unabated, for your reading pleasure.
© Dan Brown 8/7/11
As you already know, one of the apostles of human nutrition that I follow is Mary Enig, PhD, a Director Emeritus of the Weston A. Price Foundation, who with Sally Fallon, President of the Foundation, wrote “The Skinny on Fats.” This really is a “must read” for anyone interested in eating in a healthy way and living a long life. Do yourself a favor and google it.
Because it is more technical than I am qualified to write about, and cites many sources as references, I quote from it directly again here: Note that each of the 8 references are provided at the Foundation “hit” on “The Skinny on Fats.”
“The much-maligned saturated fats—which Americans are trying to avoid—are not the cause of our modern diseases. In fact, they play many important roles in the body chemistry:
• Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes. They are what give our cells necessary stiffness and integrity.
• They play a vital role in the health of our bones. For calcium to be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure, at least 50% of the dietary fats should be saturated.38
• They lower Lp(a), a substance in the blood that indicates proneness to heart disease.39 They protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins, such as Tylenol.40
• They enhance the immune system.41
• They are needed for the proper utilization of essential fatty acids.
Elongated omega-3 fatty acids are better retained in the tissues when the diet is rich in saturated fats. 42
• Saturated 18-carbon stearic acid and 16-carbon palmitic acid are the preferred foods for the heart, which is why the fat around the heart muscle is highly saturated.43 The heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of stress.
• Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial properties. They protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.
The scientific evidence, honestly evaluated, does not support the assertion that "artery-clogging" saturated fats cause heart disease.44 Actually, evaluation of the fat in artery clogs reveals that only about 26% is saturated. The rest is unsaturated, of which more than half is polyunsaturated.45 “(end of quote)
Among the most vilified of animal foods high in saturated fats has been butter. As noted previously it is now enjoying a comeback, while margarine, made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (trans fat), has suffered a sharp decline.
In 2000, before her more than 20 year campaign to bring trans fats to the public’s attention had reached full fruition (she had testified on it at the 1977 McGovern Commission), Dr. Enig wrote (again, in “The Skinny on Fats”), “The Diet Dictocrats have succeeded in convincing Americans that butter is dangerous, when in fact it is a valued component of many traditional diets and a source of…fat-soluble vitamins. These include true vitamin A or retinol, vitamin D, vitamin K and vitamin E as well as all their naturally occurring cofactors needed to obtain maximum effect. Butter is America's best source of these important nutrients. In fact, vitamin A is more easily absorbed and utilized from butter than from other sources.61 Fortunately, these fat-soluble vitamins are relatively stable and survive the pasteurization process.”
But what about cholesterol and heart disease? Well, if you’re still asking these questions, I recommend you go back and read this series from the beginning. All of the articles are archived at http://danbrown-thenutritiondebate.blogspot.com. Or, if you’re just a little skeptical, stay tuned; the next article will be “What About Dietary Cholesterol?” and then the next, “Understanding Your Lipid Panel.” The apostasy goes on unabated, for your reading pleasure.
© Dan Brown 8/7/11
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