Saturated fat: villain and bogeyman in development of cardiovascular disease?

I buy into the counter theory that high fructose corn syrup is killing us all and that arteriosclerosis is one of its manifestations. I think some people are even trying to blame it for osteoporosis. Something to do with blood pH and bones dumping calcium to buffer it.<p>Bullshit or not, my life does seem to be better without cheap soda in it. I drink fancy soda as a treat, instead of being on a hedonic treadmill of several a day. Every time I quit soda in my 20’s and early 30’s I lost 10 lbs. Eventually it stuck.<p>The advent of Kombucha changed that landscape quite a bit. Now I have a beverage that’s &lt; 100 calories and I can’t chug.

I think jumping to conclusions based on this paper is not a good idea:<p><pre><code> * The authors are not experts in this field. They seem to be experts in business management [0], other science fields [1], and the culinary arts [2] but not cardiovascular disease or anything related to it. * Experts in this field have done extensive reviews, and there is a strong link between saturated fat &amp; CVD, especially if you take into account replacing SFA with PUFA. * All the world&#x27;s health bodies agree — from Wikipedia: &quot;Recommendations to reduce, limit or replace dietary intake of trans fats and saturated fats, in favor of unsaturated fats, are made by the World Health Organization, American Heart Association, Health Canada, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the UK National Health Service, the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, the Australian Department of Health and Aging, the Singapore Ministry of Health, the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the New Zealand Ministry of Health, and Hong Kong&#x27;s Department of Health.&quot; [3] * In my observation, many people strongly dispute the link between SFA &amp; CVD usually subscribe to fringe health beliefs like all-meat diets, etc. Note: I do think limiting sugar&#x2F;HFCS is a good idea as well. </code></pre> [0] Reimara Valk: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aud.edu&#x2F;aud-school&#x2F;school-of-business-administration&#x2F;faculty-and-staff&#x2F;reimara-valk&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aud.edu&#x2F;aud-school&#x2F;school-of-business-administra...</a><p>[1] James Hamill: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;scholar.google.com&#x2F;scholar?q=author:%22Hammill%20James%22" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;scholar.google.com&#x2F;scholar?q=author:%22Hammill%20Jam...</a><p>[2] Jonas Grip: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ch.linkedin.com&#x2F;in&#x2F;jonas-karl-grip-89875a12" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ch.linkedin.com&#x2F;in&#x2F;jonas-karl-grip-89875a12</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Saturated_fat" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Saturated_fat</a>

Sure. But what is known about atherosclerosis is that plaques are not _on_ the arterial wall, but _inside_ the arterial wall. For plagues to form, fats have to be pulled into the arterial wall. How does this happen? Inflammation as designed opens up the arterial wall as a way to allow immune cells passage. Atherosclerosis happens when you have a bunch of fat in your arteries and you open them up to go inside. That&#x27;s why cheeseburgers and pizza are the perfect heart disease vectors (Western diet). The bread parts cause inflammation via innate immunity (saccharomyces receptors) and the saturated fat parts (cheese and meat) flow in.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;18163971&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;18163971&#x2F;</a>

While I can accept on the face that saturated fatty acids doesn’t have an effect on cardiovascular disease, their conclusions are near useless without access to the full paper and their methods of analysis.<p>It’s not hard to observe the American diet being high in SFA and Americans leading CVD morbidity.<p>It’s also not hard to find diets high in SFA like keto and paleo and their practitioners being relatively healthy.<p>I suspect it is the combination of high amounts of SFA and sugar that are driving the high rates of CVD.

What is cardiovascular disease? If we dig into that we find things like atherosclerosis and other types of diseases. Something like atherosclerosis happens, in large part due to LDL cholesterol [1]. There are many studies and papers on it. Scientists know a fair amount about what&#x27;s going on here.<p>Saturated Fat is a leading cause of high LDL cholesterol [2]. Dietary cholesterol plays a role in elevated cholesterol but to a lesser extent. A way to think about it is that animals (including humans) produce the LDL cholesterol they need. Cows, pigs, and other animals do too. When you eat them you eat extra LDL cholesterol that ends up in your system.<p>I just grabbed a couple quick links on the topic. There are many podcasts with cardiologists on this, books by dietitians, and papers by researchers.<p>On a personal note, I had high cholesterol and cut out dietary cholesterol and saturated fats (to the level recommended by the american heart association [3]). In a few months my LDL cholesterol dropped about 70 points. I know it&#x27;s anecdotal but it worked for me and several others I know.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;33966809&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;33966809&#x2F;</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mayoclinic.org&#x2F;diseases-conditions&#x2F;high-blood-cholesterol&#x2F;symptoms-causes&#x2F;syc-20350800" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mayoclinic.org&#x2F;diseases-conditions&#x2F;high-blood-ch...</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.heart.org&#x2F;en&#x2F;healthy-living&#x2F;healthy-eating&#x2F;eat-smart&#x2F;fats&#x2F;saturated-fats" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.heart.org&#x2F;en&#x2F;healthy-living&#x2F;healthy-eating&#x2F;eat-s...</a>

No comments on saturated fat vs liver disease (ie fatty liver) though. The common wisdom, I believe, is that you want to avoid sat-fat if you have fatty liver disease. That may not be a killer like cvd, but it is a big deal too.

The way I think about it - the higher your fat content in your diet the likely the higher amount of fat (cholesterol) circulating in your blood veins. It might not be a big deal if your body doesn&#x27;t attach that fat the walls of your arteries however if you have inflammation in your arteries the fat will attach to the arteries and over time that causes a whole host of problems. My unqualified suspicion is that if you manage inflammation you likely won&#x27;t arterial walls lined with cholesterol (which is trying to repair the damage to your arterial walls from inflammation).<p>However I also suspect that as you get older your vein structures change and theres probably a time in your 30s-50s where you biology changes and you start adsorbing more cholesterol (from fat) onto your arteries that cause CVD.

The carnivore books I&#x27;ve read have long lists of citations, it&#x27;s not an unscientific set of positions they&#x27;ve taken.<p>Their choice of bogeyman is seed oils, which has seen a significant increase in consumption over the 20th century compared to most other things (meat has been mostly flat, and has declined over the last 30 years).

So what causes heart disease? Trans-fats, carbohydrates, sugar, lack of fiber? ... I guess it has been evident to me for a while that saturated fat doesn&#x27;t cause heart disease, but it&#x27;s not apparent what does.

There was an interesting study on rabbits done (can&#x27;t find it now):<p>First they gave one batch of rabits only saturated fat -&gt; the developed atherosclerosis.<p>Then they gave the other batch unsaturated fats -&gt; no atherosclerosis.<p>Now you might think, &quot;ok, saturated fat bad.&quot;<p>But wait!<p>Then they removed ALL fat from the 3rd batch of rabbits and you&#x27;d expected no atherosclerosis: but NO! Even at no fat the rabits developed atherosclerosis.

Sugar and fat are the culprits. As in, fatty processed foods everyone eats.<p>Saturated fat alone is not the issue. Heck, your brain is made out of it. Sugar IS the issue. And sugar is a molecule. Fruit and HFCS are the same thing.<p>Keto is the way to lose weight. Low carb&#x2F;high fat is the way to move forward.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.<p>Doesn&#x27;t the preponderance of evidence show that saturated fats aren&#x27;t horrible but still- when people replaced them with unsaturated fats their heart disease risk dropped?

With this kind of uncertainty, is it any wonder that many people don&#x27;t trust medical science when we are told to behave in a certain way, or when we are told to take a certain medical treatment?<p>How many years have we been told that saturated fat is the nutritional devil? This is a great example of why censorship of &quot;misinformation&quot; is not justified- who is to say what constitutes misinformation?

Atkins was saying this 40-50 years ago and continued until his death.

- disclaimer: I am no health expert -<p>Still, personally, the North Korelia Project [1] and the public debates&#x2F;podcasts with its author(s) convinces me of the link<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;30083543&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;30083543&#x2F;</a>