Recovered Study Fails to Support Replacing Saturated Fat


(G. Andrew Duthie) #1

http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246

Researchers recovered data from a study of nearly 10,000 subjects who were randomly chosen to receive either a control diet high in saturated fat from animal sources, or an intervention diet replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils, in an effort to lower serum cholesterol.

The data show that the intervention diet did, in fact, lower serum cholesterol, but that this did not lead to improved outcomes…in fact, the lower the serum cholesterol of the participants, the higher the risk of mortality.

40 years went by…how many lives would’ve been saved if this data had been made widely available earlier?


Hidden "Dangers" of Keto
Cochrane, I had not heard of this group, interesting "collaboration"
(John) #2

So can we totally ignore cholesterol on blood tests, or is there another area where it may be important?


(G. Andrew Duthie) #3

Not quite. Total cholesterol and LDL (so-called “bad”) cholesterol were traditionally seen as the important markers, but they do not appear to correlate well with good outcomes. For example, lowering total cholesterol does not seem to lead to improvements in mortality rate, as in this study. And the raw LDL number is less important than whether the LDL particle size is of the small, dense type (bad, tends to lead to plaques), or the large, fluffy type (not a problem).

Additionally, it may be useful to look at the HDL/Total Cholesterol ratio. High HDL is definitely a good sign, from what I’ve read.

All of this to be taken with the understanding that I’m not a doctor, so I’m just sharing the best information I have.

@DaveKeto might have additional stuff to share with respect to what you should or shouldn’t care about, in terms of cholesterol. He’s also demonstrated pretty clearly through self-experimentation that cholesterol numbers can vary dramatically depending on whether you are fasting or feasting. There are a couple of 2 Keto Dudes episodes with Dave that discuss his experiments:


#4

Total or even HDL/LDL, yes, ignore. What is important is very small particle LDL’s, and whether they are oxidized (smaller ones oxidize easier in presence of sugar). And Triglycerides are important. Without doing a specialized test for particle sizes or oxidation, the one thing most people can calculate is their HDL/trigliceride ratio, and that is a good marker.


(Bunny) #5

The Cholesterol is what does all the magic with the ketogenic diet and apparently according to this study even on a sugar burner!


(Bunny) #6

Freeze frame: true if your eating high carbohydrates and refined sugar?