NEWS! (Not Really) - AHA hates coconut oil

(Clare) #21

That’s funny. My husband just rang me from his office after reading it and said " what are you doing to me? Coconut oil is as unhealthy as beef fat & butter" I replied, “Yes, I agree!” He was momentarily confused until he realised that I meant Butter & Beef fat are healthy, ergo nothing to worry about LOL

(Ben) #22

Having read “Why we get fat” and “The big fat surprise”, I’m not going to take the AHA’s advice seriously until they drop the $30m/year they get from big pharma

‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.’

(KetoCowboy) #23

Weird that the article doesn’t even mention the role of coconut oil in combating Alzheimer’s.

(Ben) #24

On a more positive note, here’s a recent article taking the opposite view - ie higher LDL = good marker

(Gary Eckman) #25

Thank you @BantingBen for bringing balance back to the universe :slight_smile:

(KetoCowboy) #26

Good article . . . until we reach the “At a Glance” section, which focuses on “fat” rather than “plaque rupture” as the problem:

“If the arteries become completely blocked by a build-up of fat it can cause a heart attack.”

For most readers, that will sound like the same old “bacon grease congealing in a pipe” metaphor that Ancel Keyes cursed us with.

(Aspen Anderson) #27

http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/healthtrending/coconut-oil-is-about-as-healthy-as-beef-fat-or-butter/ar-BBCMaMT?li=BBnb7Kz

[merged - CarolT. Same story different source]

#28

Well, I suppose they are right about it being about as healthy as butter or beef fat. They’re just wrong about those being unhealthy.

I get the impression more and more lately that the American Heart Association is one of the worst places to listen to with regards to health advice, particularly heart health (at least as far as diet is concerned). I recently found out the AHA lowered it’s salt recommendation as well, even after the largest study on salt intake had shown lowing sodium from 4 grams to the aha’s previously recommended 2.4 grams significantly increased heart attack rates.

(Lauren Malhoit) #29

So what is the scientific reply to these studies? Is it that these people were eating a traditional American diet, high on carbs and then also adding a bunch of fat? Is it just completely made up?

#30

The key bit comes down to whether the diet-heart hypothesis is correct. Most studies that “show” something to be heart healthy or heart unhealthy are not actually looking at whether there is an increase or decrease in actual heart events from eating any particular thing, they are looking at how it changes cholesterol levels (sometimes LDL, sometimes total cholesterol, depending on when and what we are looking at).

A big reason for this is kinda understandable: to measure the actual heart attack rates and all type mortality over time takes a long time, and particularly with humans that you can’t keep in a lab controlled setting for decades (in most countries), there will be a lot of confounding factors. But, if you believe that higher LDL levels causes higher heart attack rates, then you can take a short cut and look at that instead. Indeed, in a mixed diet setup (like the standard American diet, etc) you are pretty likely to see increases in LDL by simply adding saturated fat and not adjusting other things much (probably not guaranteed, and in a keto diet we see it going all kinds of directions). This has been pretty strongly called into question in recent years (actually in research from decades ago as well), with indications in things like the Minnesota Coronary Experiment showing lowering LDL by swapping in polyunsaturated fats in place of saturated fats correlated with a significant increase in death due to heart disease and all type mortality.

The topic is complicated, of course, so there’s obviously a lot more to it and some room for debate on either side.

(mike) #31

This is exactly what I just texted to my daughters vegan boyfriend who forwarded this article to me. I gave him Gary Taubes book “Why we get fat” and said this will explain why the AHA is wrong, and not telling the full story.

#32

Yep, saw that on the evening news. I must be getting old because I find myself yelling at the tv more and more. Oh, and to top it off, they added a non sequitur at the end about how obesity rates are rising. SMDH.

(Dustin Cade) #33

Worse for us than animal fats?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/06/16/coconut-oil-isnt-healthy-its-never-been-healthy/402719001/

I do have a love hate relationship with these articles, I love them because they entertain me, I despise them because people will read this and not look any further and take this as fact…

[merged topics]

(James) #34

I saw a similar article online related to this information. It said, “Coconut oil ‘as unhealthy as beef fat and butter’” It’s crap like this that had me wast 30+ years of my life trying to understand why I can’t control my weight. Not anymore!

(Tom T) #35

I would like to hear what @carl or @richard or other @admins have to say about the Coconut Oil. I’ve heard nothing but good about it for years.

(carl) #36

You know the science. You have n=1 evidence. Just because an authority says the sky is green doesn’t mean anything to me. #sciencerules

(Sheri Knauer) #37

It was so much BS. They said a better option would be to choose vegetable oils or olive oil.

(Dustin Cade) #38

It’s all so sad that this stuff gets passed off as health advice… It’s hard to believe that it’s not malicious…

(ianrobo) #39

and even worse they base no evidence for it whatsoever

#40

I didn’t see this already posted…

Gary Taubes’ response

http://www.cardiobrief.org/2017/06/16/guest-post-vegetable-oils-francis-bacon-bing-crosby-and-the-american-heart-association/