11 replies to this topic

[DeAntonio]

http://blog.nutritiondata.com/ndblog/2008/...nking-chol.html


Shame that people were lied to so much in the past

[SweetJade1980]

Actually....get a load of this one:

Is wheat killing us?


Introduction

Maybe you've heard someone say, "Well, in Asian countries they eat low fat diets and they don't have many heart attacks." This is mainly, mostly true. But interestingly, "The China Study", a recently published book by T. Colin Campbell, a leading researcher into diet and disease in China has one chapter about heart disease and it doesn't even MENTION China.

..................It is a truly epic study and I think it is far more interesting than most Western health studies because of certain factors in China:

1) The people in rural China eat what they grow, so the majority of people in the study have presumably eaten the same diet from birth to death. This contrasts with American diets which tend to change with the dietary breeze.

2) Due to wide variations in climate and therefore which crops can be grown, dietary staples differ by region. Rice is the staple in Southern China, wheat, corn and millet are staples in the middle latitudes and wheat and dairy predominate in the far North. There are pig-raising areas and sweet-potato raising areas. Therefore, we can see correlations of disease patterns among dramatically different diets.

3) There are dramatic differences in disease rates in different areas in China. The disease rates from region to region differ far more than they do in the US.


.............OK, enough teasing. Here are the relevant correlations between dietary factors and MI[myocardial infarction]:

Factors Correlated to Heart Attack Risk (MI)

Factor Correlation ____________________Score _________________Significance
Meat Consumption ___________________ -28 _____________________none
Dairy Consumption ____________________6 ______________________none
Rice Consumption ____________________-58 ___________Strong Negative Correlation
Wheat Consumption ___________________67 ___________Strong Positive Correlation
Other Grain Consumption _______________39 __________Moderate Positive Correlation
Green Vegetable Consumption ___________5 ______________________none
Blood Cholesterol _____________________4 _______________________none


Whoah!! Did you catch that? I'll state it as plainly as I can:

The main dietary predictor of heart disease rates in China is the TYPE of grain you eat.

Rice eaters seem protected from heart attacks while wheat, corn and millet eaters are much more prone (the corn link is debatable). Meat, dairy and vegetable consumption play no obvious role. Blood Cholesterol plays no role.

The author of the China study wrote, THE study that I loved so much and it was published in 1996! So, while I still bought the book earlier this week for it's data, I was VERY disappointed that he doesn't suggest the elimination of wheat from the diet given the data collected!!!

Cornell-China study suggests rice-based diet
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March....wheat.ssl.html



Here's another excerpt from the blog:

The Forgotten Ones

There are populations in China in and around the steppe whose diets are more American than here in the good ole US of A. They eat wheat, dairy products and meat. And nothing else. You can read about some of them here, but I'll give you this quote as a prelude:

"The vegetables were, incidentally, an accommodation to the visiting lowlander. Self-respecting nomads don't eat plants; it's just not their place on the food chain."

I don't think the people studied in the China Health Study are actually nomadic, but they eat far more saturated fat than we do in America - most of it from dairy and meat. Yet, as you can see by the location of the yellow triangle in the graph, their rates of heart disease seem to be determined solely by how much wheat they eat.

Why do I refer to them as the forgotten ones? In this interview, Dr. campbell had this to say, "Firstly, the kind of diet that was consumed in China is very low in total fat. The range was between 6-24% of calories, for example, whereas in this country the range is more of the order of the high 20s-high 40s. " Actually, the fat content of the diet of the people of Tuoli, according to Dr. Campbell's study, was 45%. Has he forgotten them? My guess is that he simply prefers not to think about them. They don't support his views, you see.

Here's a table comparing three wheat eating areas and the Chinese averages. I have picked three areas with extreme diets to prove my point. The first is Longxian county, the area of China with the highest wheat consumption and below average meat and vegetable consumption, a very tedious diet by American standards. The next is Tuoli, where wheat is eaten along with large portions of meat and dairy but no vegetables. This area represents the stereotypical american diet. The final is Jingxing, an essentially vegan area where they eat a variety of grains other than rice and gorge themselves on green vegetables. Jingxing had by far the highest consumption of green vegetables of any county in this study. I suppose it represents the ideal vegan diet of low fat consumption with lots of vegetables and grains (except rice).

Three Chinese Counties
__________________Longxian______ Tuoli ________Jingxing______ Chinese Median
Rice Cons (g/day)-------0 ----------------3.9 --------------6.1 -----------------398
Wheat (g/day) ---------629 --------------372-------------- 126 -----------------22.4
Other Grain (g/day) --75.1 --------------6.8 --------------342.1 -----------------1.1
Meat (g/day) -----------6.1 --------------121--------------- 0 --------------------20.3
Dairy (g/day)----------- 0 ----------------857 ---------------0----------------------- 0
Green Veg (g/day) ----36.3 ----------------0---------------- 691---------------- 76.8
MI/CHD ----------------18.7 --------------5.53-------------- 11.9 ------------------3.16
Stroke -----------------61.2 ---------------34.3 --------------42.3 ------------------25.2


As you can see, Tuoli county had the lowest levels of heart disease and stroke (which is also correlated with wheat consumption) of the three. The three counties followed the general trend:

In China, the more non-rice grain you eat, the higher your risk of heart disease (and stroke). Eating meat, dairy and vegetables don't affect your risk.

Discussion

Correlation does not imply causation. What this study does NOT tell us is that wheat categorically causes heart disease. It tells us that there is something different about wheat eating people in China that predisposes them to heart disease, which may or not be the wheat itself. For instance, in the study the number of times per year than one ate green vegetables had a strong negative correlation with heart disease risk while the number of times per year that one ate carrots had a strong positive correlation correlation. Should we conclude from this that green vegetables prevent heart disease while carrots cause it? No. First off, the actual amounts of carrots or green vegetables consumed have no correlation with heart disease risk. These two parameters are actually telling us about the length of the growing season in an area. In the South, green vegetables can be grown for more of the year, while in the North carrots have to be grown since they can be kept in a root cellar during the longer winter. Rice growing is confined to the warmer South. So the reason that there is a strong correlation between how often you eat carrots and heart disease risk is that carrots are eaten in wheat growing areas. Wheat is the REAL correlation.
But if you want to show that wheat is really the cause of elevated heart disease risk and not just a marker for something else, you have to look a little deeper. And in China, there are a whole bunch of differences between wheat and rice eating peoples. Wheat eating people are taller and heavier. They tend to have higher levels of blood triglycerides, associated with increased risk of heart disease in the US, and sex hormone-binding globulin(shbg), which the authors of the study claim is a sensitive indicator of insulin resistance. Cholesterol levels were the same in both populations. Wheat eaters had lower levels of monounsaturated fats (like in olive oil) in their blood cell membranes and higher levels of omega 6 fats (like in soybean oil).

So a reasonable possibility, based on the triglyceride and shbg data is that eating wheat and certain other grains leads to insulin resistance, which is associated with increased heart disease risk. But the really interesting thing is why that should be. Why does eating wheat, but not rice, seemingly lead to insulin resistance in China? I don't know. That, my friends, is the million dollar question that we should be asking but aren't.

Where is T. Colin Campbell on this? He doesn't even MENTION the fact in his book! It's not like he didn't notice. His name is on the paper about it from 1996. The only reasonable explanation is that Dr. Campbell is more interested in pushing his agenda than on doing good science.
http://bradmarshall.blogspot.com/2005/12/i...tion-maybe.html

Oh, and there's even more data since 1996!

Gluten-free vegan diet induces decreased LDL and oxidized LDL levels and raised atheroprotective natural antibodies against phosphorylcholine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized study. (2008)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1834871...Pubmed_RVDocSum

Metabolic improvement of male prisoners with type 2 diabetes in Fukushima Prison, Japan. (2007) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1720832...Pubmed_RVDocSum


A rice diet is associated with less fat synthesis/accumulation than a bread diet before exercise therapy. (2007)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1639270...Pubmed_RVDocSum

Carbohydrate-induced hypertriglyceridaemia among West Indian diabetic and non-diabetic subjects after ingestion of three local carbohydrate foods. (2005) http://www.icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2005/January/0102.pdf (Full Text)


Association of dietary factors and selected plasma variables with sex hormone-binding globulin in rural Chinese women. (1996)
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/63/1/22 (Full Text)

Comparative effects of three cereal brans on plasma lipids, blood pressure, and glucose metabolism in mildly hypercholesterolemic men (1990)
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/52/4/661 (Full Text)


Now I'll be fair and say that for there are some studies showing that Wheat Gluten or other Wheat Proteins is somewhat beneficial for heart disease, but as I showed above, there are a few more studies that dare to show the effects of specific grains, involving Whole Wheat, Refined, Wheat, Gluten that...don't turn out so well.
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/74/1/57

I wonder why... Perhaps it had to do with what else was/wasn't in the diet or the sample populations they used.

[LiliVG]

On the Wheat - Heart attack coorelation, you have to consider, wheat is not eaten like most other grains. With most grains, they're boiled, and eaten whole once soft enough. Wheat is very bitter when cooked this way. So when wheat is eaten, it's usually in some processed refined form. The study makes no mention of the refined sugar levels in those diets. Wheat products frequently go hand-in-hand with refined sugars, and refined carbs alone are always worse than whole grains.

[LiliVG]

http://blog.nutritiondata.com/ndblog/2008/...nking-chol.html


Shame that people were lied to so much in the past

This info has been out there for a while, it just takes time for the mainstream media, and mainstream medical community to catch up. But this fact has been known for a while now.

[SweetJade1980]

http://blog.nutritiondata.com/ndblog/2008/...nking-chol.html


Shame that people were lied to so much in the past

This info has been out there for a while, it just takes time for the mainstream media, and mainstream medical community to catch up. But this fact has been known for a while now.

LOL, it's one of the first things I learned in my dietetics courses and yet...the myth still persists. Anyway check this out:

Heart disease took off in the early part of the twentieth century, and doctors frantically searched for the cause throughout the next several decades. Tests in the fifties initially showed an association between early death by heart disease and fat deposits and lesions along artery walls. Because cholesterol was found to be present in those deposits (of course it would!) and because researchers had previously associated familial hypercholesterolaemia (hereditary high blood cholesterol) with heart disease, they concluded that cholesterol must be the culprit. In fact, what happens is that in response to an inflammatory situation, the body uses cholesterol as a “band-aid” to temporarily cover any lesions in the arterial wall. In the event the inflammation is resolved, the band-aid goes away and repair takes place. No harm, no foul. Unfortunately, in most cases, the inflammation proceeds, the cholesterol plaque is eventually acted on by macrophages and is oxidized to a point at which it takes up more space in the artery, slows arterial flow and eventually can break loose to form a clot. And all this time the cholesterol was just trying to be the good guy! Blaming cholesterol for all this is like blaming a cut finger on all the band-aids you have lying around your house. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/cholesterol/

I've heard of this happening before, but I couldn't recall where I read it at. So...keeping the above in mind...Cholesterol acts as a bandaid.....let's open our minds a little more

Did anyone figure out possible reasons why the studies would show wheat favorably in some and not in other studies? Well I haven't quite either, BUT for those studies that it's shown unfavorably...they are all "minorties" in the U.S., which of course tend to be high risk groups for Syndrome X and other complications, once they are introduced to the "American Diet".

Futhermore, there's this theory that certain ethnic groups haven't evolved enough to properly handle certain foods (wheat perhaps?). Or over time, are not able to further digest certain foods (i.e. lactose in milk)....So what about Celiacs?

Celiac Sprue Disease, an immune disease, is a severe form of Gluten Intolerance (more common in Europeans), specifically gluten dependent enteropathy where the body doesn't produce the enzyme neccessary to breakdown gluten. As a result, this protein leads to a serious of events, causing damage along the intestinal lining, which can result in a myriad of growth problems (also linked to ADHD, Autism, Type I Diabetes), skin problems (dermatitis herpetiformis) and even stomach cancer....wait...let me back up a second here.... The inabiltiy to digest gluten causes damage along the intestinal lining....interesting

Soo....I wonder...if the studies are showing that wheat consumption increases your risk for heart disease...what about Celiacs who, when following the Gluten-Free Diet (no wheat, barley or rye), are not consuming wheat. What is their risk factor for heart disease?

Long-term follow-up of celiac adults on gluten-free diet: prevalence and correlates of intestinal damage. (2002)

Ciacci C, Cirillo M, Cavallaro R, Mazzacca G.
Department of Internal Medicine, Gastrointestinal Unit, Federico II University of Naples, Naples, Italy. ciacci@unina.it

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Celiac disease is the most common severe food intolerance in the Western world and is due to gluten ingestion in genetically susceptible children and adults. Intestinal biopsy is the golden standard for evaluation of mucosal damage associated with celiac disease. Gluten-free diet is the key treatment for celiac disease. Data on the long-term control of celiac disease are few and limited to small series of patients. The study reports data on the control of celiac disease and on its correlates in a large cohort of celiac adults during long-term treatment with gluten-free diet.

METHODS: The study cohort comprises 91 men and 299 women having undergone treatment with a gluten-free diet for at least 2 years and with complete records for visits at the time of diagnosis of celiac disease (baseline). Data collection included gender, age, education, weight, bowel habit, blood hemoglobin, plasma albumin and cholesterol, serum antiendomysium antibodies (EMA), dietary compliance to gluten-free diet (coded as good, low, or very low), and intestinal damage at biopsy (coded as absent, mild, or severe).

RESULTS: The duration of follow-up was 6.9 +/- 7.5 years (mean +/- SD, range 2-22 years). At follow-up visit, intestinal damage was absent in 170 patients (43.6%), mild in 127 (32.6%), and severe in 93 (23.8%). At follow-up, intestinal damage was significantly associated with dietary compliance, EMA, and plasma albumin (follow-up value and change value from baseline to follow-up). Baseline education significantly predicted dietary compliance and intestinal damage at follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS: Celiac disease is often poorly controlled in the majority of patients on long-term treatment with a gluten-free diet as demonstrated by intestinal biopsy. Lack of adherence to strict gluten-free diet is the main reason of poorly controlled disease in adults. Laboratory and clinical information have a high positive predictive value and low negative predictive value for intestinal damage on long-term treatment. Dietary compliance as assessed by interview is the best marker of celiac disease control due to low cost, noninvasivity, and strong correlation with intestinal damage. Copyright 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel

Risk of vascular disease in adults with diagnosed coeliac disease: a population-based study. (2004)

West J, Logan RF, Card TR, Smith C, Hubbard R.
Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, Medical School, Queen's Medical Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK. joe.west@nottingham.ac.uk

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that vascular disease mortality may be reduced in coeliac disease because of lower levels of blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass.

AIM: To examine whether people with coeliac disease are at reduced risk of various vascular diseases.

METHODS: We identified 3,790 adults with diagnosed coeliac disease and 17,925 age- and sex-matched controls in the General Practice Research Database. We estimated odds ratios for diagnosed hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia and atrial fibrillation and hazard ratios for myocardial infarction and stroke.

RESULTS: Adults with coeliac disease, compared with controls, were less likely to have had a diagnosis of hypertension [11% vs. 15%, odds ratio 0.68 (95% confidence interval: 0.60-0.76)] or hypercholesterolaemia [3.0% vs. 4.8%, odds ration 0.58 (95% confidence interval: 0.47-0.72)] but slightly more likely to have had atrial fibrillation [2.1% vs. 1.7%, odds ratio 1.26 (95% confidence interval: 0.97-1.64)]. The hazard ratio for myocardial infarction was 0.85 (95% confidence interval: 0.63-1.13), while the hazard ratio for stroke was 1.29 (95% confidence interval: 0.98-1.70).

CONCLUSIONS: Although rates of myocardial infarction and stroke were not substantially different, adults with coeliac disease do have a lower prevalence of hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia compared with the general population. The effect of a gluten-free diet on cardiovascular risk factors should be determined before any screening programmes for coeliac disease are instituted.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1522517...Pubmed_RVDocSum

Change in lipid profile in celiac disease: beneficial effect of gluten-free diet. (2006)

Brar P, Kwon GY, Holleran S, Bai D, Tall AR, Ramakrishnan R, Green PH.
Department of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA.

PURPOSE: Celiac disease is associated with hypocholesterolemia, which is thought to contribute to a favorable cardiovascular risk profile. This led to suggestions that the diagnosis of celiac disease and its treatment with a gluten-free diet may result in elevation of the serum cholesterol level and worsen this risk profile. However, no study proves this in adults. We therefore examined the effect of a gluten-free diet on the lipid profile in patients with celiac disease.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We identified 132 patients with celiac disease who adhered to a gluten-free diet and had lipid profiles performed before and after a median of 20.5 months on the diet. The patients lacked diseases that may affect serum lipids.

RESULTS: There were significant increases in total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (P < .0001) but not low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (P=.06). The LDL/HDL ratio decreased by 0.36+/-0.7 (P < .0001). Both men and women had a significant increase in total cholesterol and HDL and a significant decrease in the LDL/HDL ratio. Only men had increases in LDL (P=.02). The greatest increase in lipid values was seen in those with the lowest initial values. The largest increase in HDL was seen in subjects with more severe disease as indicated by low albumin level and presence of total villous atrophy.

CONCLUSIONS: Diagnosis of celiac disease and its treatment with a gluten-free diet resulted in improvement in the lipoprotein profile, which included an increase in HDL and a decrease in the LDL/HDL ratio. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1694561...Pubmed_RVDocSum

Reversible hypertension following coeliac disease treatment: the role of moderate hyperhomocysteinaemia and vascular endothelial dysfunction

............Initial assessments revealed raised homocysteine levels with low normal vitamin B12 level. It was likely that she had impaired absorption of essential cofactors for normal homocysteine metabolism. She adhered to a gluten-free diet and was give oral iron, folate and B6 supplementations as well as B12 injections for 3 months. Her BP had improved by 6 months and normalised by 15 months (daytime ABPM mean 128/80 mm Hg). There was parallel restoration of normal endothelial function with normalisation of her homocysteine levels. These observations suggest that sub-clinical coeliac disease related hyperhomocysteinaemia might cause endothelial dysfunction, potentially giving rise to a reversible form of hypertension. In addition, this case study supports the notion that irrespective of aetiology, endothelial dysfunction may be the precursor of hypertension. This highlights the need to resolve co-existing vascular risk factors in patients with hypertension.
http://www.nature.com/jhh/journal/v16/n6/full/1001404a.html

1: J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 1991 May;12(4):459-60. Links

Serum lipids in celiac children.
Ciampolini M, Bini S.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Florence, Italy.

The plasma lipid levels were investigated in 45 celiac children under 3 years of age and 49 over this age at diagnosis (untreated groups), after gluten-free diet and in comparison with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) groups matched for size, gender, and age. Total and HDL cholesterol levels were significantly lower and triglycerides higher in celiac untreated children than in IBS control children in both age groups. HDL cholesterol significantly increased in both age groups after some months of gluten-free diet. Total and LDL cholesterol significantly increased and triglycerides decreased in the younger group of subjects after the period of gluten-free diet. These results may be useful for diagnostic purposes and to motivate a strict gluten-free diet in celiac children. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1865279...Pubmed_RVDocSum

Interesting....and yet...why didn't any of the doctors and, unfortunately, dietitians ever think that if Gluten-Free worked to produce normal and actually above normal lipid profiles, in reducing hypertension, raising HDL cholesterol, and in lowering LDL cholesterol that the same diet might work for other "at risk" patients?

[SweetJade1980]

Since there was so much talk about wheat, I thought I'd see how the other gluten containing grains fared:

Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Dec;84(6):1385-92. Links

Interaction between cholesterol and glucose metabolism during dietary carbohydrate

modification in subjects with the metabolic syndrome.Hallikainen M, Toppinen L, Mykkänen H, Agren JJ, Laaksonen DE, Miettinen TA, Niskanen L, Poutanen KS, Gylling H.
Department of Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland. maarit.hallikainen@uku.fi

BACKGROUND: Carbohydrate modification based on rye bread and pasta enhances early insulin secretion in subjects with the metabolic syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: Because the actions of insulin and cholesterol metabolism are interrelated, the question is raised of whether it is possible to alter cholesterol metabolism by means of dietary carbohydrate modification.

DESIGN: We investigated the 12-wk effects of dietary carbohydrate modification on cholesterol synthesis and absorption by measuring the ratios of surrogate markers of precursor (cholestenol, desmosterol, and lathosterol) and absorption (cholestanol and plant sterols) sterols to cholesterol and their association to glucose metabolism in 74 subjects with the metabolic syndrome. The subjects were randomly assigned to diets with rye bread and pasta (RPa) or oat, wheat bread, and potato (OWPo) as the main carbohydrate source (34% and 37% of energy intake, respectively).

RESULTS: During the study, serum cholesterol concentrations remained unchanged. cholesterol synthesis was lower (6-10% for cholestenol and lathosterol; P < 0.05) and absorption higher (9%; P < 0.05 for sitosterol) with the OWPo diet than at baseline. With the RPa diet, cholesterol absorption was lower and synthesis higher than with the OWPo diet. The increment in the glucose area under the curve with the RPa diet was positively related to baseline cholesterol synthesis (eg, lathosterol; r = 0.480, P < 0.05) and negatively to absorption (for cholestanol; r = -0.520, P < 0.05). In the combined group, the changes in the cholestanol ratio and the insulinogenic index were interrelated (r = -0.464, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Carbohydrate modifications had dissimilar effects on cholesterol metabolism. Consumption of RPa, as compared with OWPo, may be clinically more favorable because it seems to inhibit the absorption of cholesterol, a factor crucial in the development of arterial atherosclerosis . http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/84/6/1385 (Full Text)

Rye bread decreases serum total and LDL cholesterol in men with moderately elevated serum cholesterol. (2000)

Leinonen KS, Poutanen KS, Mykkänen HM.
Department of Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio, Finland.

The objective of this study was to determine the hypocholesterolemic effects of whole meal rye and white wheat breads in healthy humans with elevated serum cholesterol concentrations, and the changes in plasma glucose and insulin concentrations during rye and wheat bread periods. The subjects were 18 men and 22 women with baseline serum cholesterol concentration of 6.4+/-0.2 mmol/L. The study design was a 2x4-wk crossover trial during which each subject randomly consumed rye and wheat breads (20% of daily energy) as part of their usual diet for 4 wk. The bread periods were separated by a 4-wk washout period. Blood samples (after fasting) were collected on two consecutive days at the beginning and end of the bread periods. Serum total cholesterol decreased by 8% (P = 0.002) in men but was not significantly altered in women during the rye bread period. The wheat bread period did not affect any of the variables studied. Analysis of the serum lipids in tertiles of rye bread consumption confirmed the reduction in total cholesterol (P = 0.048) in men and revealed the reduction in LDL cholesterol (P = 0.032); both were dependent on the amount of rye bread consumed (-2, -14 and -10% in total cholesterol and 0, -12 and -12% in LDL cholesterol). Neither rye nor wheat bread influenced the concentrations of glucose and insulin. In conclusion, rye bread is effective in reducing serum total and LDL cholesterol concentrations in men with elevated serum cholesterol. Good compliance with consuming a relatively large amount of rye bread in the usual diet indicates that rye bread offers a practical dietary means of reducing serum cholesterol in men.

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/130/2/164 (Full Text)

Barley (and Oats) came out favorably as well, due to it's high beta glucan content!

[rakbs]

I've read that the so-called rise in blood cholesterol from eating foods high in saturated fat were actually from foods that contained hydrogenated fats, i.e. trans fats.

In other words, unhydrogenated saturated fat, like from coconut oil or dairy, has never been tested for how it affects cholesterol--it's only been tested in the unhealthier, hydrogenated form.

Any truth to this?

[SweetJade1980]

I've read that the so-called rise in blood cholesterol from eating foods high in saturated fat were actually from foods that contained hydrogenated fats, i.e. trans fats.

In other words, unhydrogenated saturated fat, like from coconut oil or dairy, has never been tested for how it affects cholesterol--it's only been tested in the unhealthier, hydrogenated form.

Any truth to this?

There's a website I came across that discussed the benefits of coconut oil. Yes there's a HUGE misconception that ALL saturated fats are bad for us. However, the studies I've found have consistently mentioned ANIMAL saturated fats as the problem (keep in mind all of the previously mentioned studies) and the studies are usually showing it, in conjunction with Dairy (animal product), Trans Fats, and Refined Carbohydrates....


That said Trans Fats aren't good for us because of the way our body handles them. Basically it's not a natural version of Saturated fat so it does process it quite differently. It's more problematic and inflammatory and some things I've read is that it causes people to be Insulin Resistant because it helps produce "defective" insulin. I need to read further into that....but the alternative being used in MORE foods know is Palm Oil.

I'll also have to see what the studies say about Palm Oil, a vegetable saturated fat, but as for coconut oil...

COCONUT OIL AND HEART DISEASE

By Bruce Fife, N.D.


Scientists have recently discovered a powerful new weapon against heart disease. As surprising as it may seem, this new weapon is coconut oil. Yes, ordinary coconut oil. Eating coconut oil on a regular basis can reduce your chances of suffering a heart attack!

Coconut oil is composed of a group of unique fat molecules known as medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA). Although they are technically classified as saturated fats, this fat can actually protect you from getting a heart attack or suffering a stroke.

Although coconut oil is predominately a saturated fat, it does not have a negative effect on cholesterol. Natural, nonhydrogenated coconut oil tends to increase HDL cholesterol and improve the cholesterol profile. HDL is the good cholesterol that helps protect against heart disease. Total blood cholesterol, which includes both HDL (good) and LDL (bad) cholesterol, is a very inaccurate indicator of heart disease risk. A much more accurate way to judge heart disease risk is to separate the two types of cholesterol. Therefore, the ratio of the bad to good cholesterol (LDL/HDL) is universally recognized as a far more accurate indicator of heart disease risk. Because of coconut oil's tendency to increase HDL, the cholesterol ratio improves and thus decreases risk of heart disease.

People who traditionally consume large quantities of coconut oil as part of their ordinary diet have a very low incidence of heart disease and have normal blood cholesterol levels. This has been well supported by numerous population studies. The research shows that those people who consume large quantities of coconut oil have remarkably good cardiovascular health.

At first, this observation confused many researchers. They did not recognize the difference between the MCFA in coconut oil and other saturated fats. New research, however, has demonstrated that medium-chain fats in coconut oil protect against heart disease and may one day even be used as a treatment to cure it.

Studies in the 1970s and 1980s indicated that coconut oil is heart friendly even though saturated fat at the time was being accused of promoting heart disease. Coconut oil consumption was found to have many factors associated with a reduced risk of heart disease compared to other dietary oils namely, improved cholesterol readings, lower body fat deposition, higher survival rate, reduced tendency to form blood clots, fewer uncontrolled free radicals in cells, low levels of blood and liver cholesterol, higher antioxidant reserves in cells, and lower incidence of heart disease in population studies.1

From this evidence alone coconut oil should be viewed as heart healthy or at least benign as far as heart disease is concerned. But there is another factor, that is even more important, that reveals coconut oil as not simply a benign bystander but a very important player in the battle against heart disease. So remarkable is it, that it may soon become a powerful new weapon used against heart disease.

Heart disease is caused by atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) which is manifest by the formation of plaque in the arteries. According to current thought atherosclerosis initially develops as a result of injury to the inner lining of the arterial wall. The injury can be the result of a number of factors such as toxins, free radicals, viruses, or bacteria. If the cause of the injury is not removed further damage may result. As long as irritation and inflammation persist scar tissue continues to develop.

Special blood clotting proteins called platelets circulate freely in the blood. Whenever they encounter an injury they become sticky and adhere to each other and to the damaged tissue acting somewhat like a bandage to facilitate healing. This is how blood clots are formed. Injury from any source triggers platelets to clump together or clot and arterial cells to release protein growth factors that stimulate growth of the muscle cells within the artery walls. A complex mixture of scar tissue, platelets, calcium, cholesterol, and triglycerides are incorporated into the site to heal the injury. This mass of tissue forms arterial plaque. When this process occurs in the coronary artery, which feeds the heart, it is referred to as coronary heart disease-the most common cause of death in the United States. http://www.rcentre.utm.my/news.php?cod=147

(I stopped here because ithen it starts talking about the link between Heart Disease and Infection....which is an temporary Inflammatory state, but it's only looking at bacteria as cause of it being prolonged, and not other ways to have chronic low-grade inflammation)

The Latest Studies on Coconut Oil
By Mary G. Enig, PhD

One of the very useful oils in the food supply comes from the coconut. Coconut oil has suffered from unjust criticism for more than 30 years in the United States because some of the governmental and food oil organizations, as well as consumer activist organizations such as Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), have claimed that coconut oil as a "saturated fat" is shown to be atherogenic. This is not true.

There is a variety of supportive research published in 2003, 2004, and 2005, which shows the importance of coconut oil. Also, information on coconut oil is currently coming into the research literature from numerous countries, including India, Norway, Iran and the United States.

The following are some of the most recent studies showing the benefits of coconut oil. These studies contradict claims that coconut oil contributes to heart disease and also support earlier research showing an antimicrobial role for the fatty acids in this traditional fat.

BENEFICIAL FOR HEART DISEASE
Recent research contradicts claims that coconut oil causes atherosclerosis and heart disease. In a study published in Clinical Biochemistry, 2004,1 researchers looked at coconut oil as a component of diet in laboratory animals (Sprague-Dawley rats). In this study, virgin coconut oil, which was obtained by wet process, had a beneficial effect in lowering total cholesterol, triglycerides, phospholipids and low density lipoproteins (LDL). The effects were uniformly beneficial. In serum and tissues, very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol levels were lowered and HDL-cholesterol was increased. The polyphenol fraction of virgin coconut oil was also found to prevent in vitro LDL-oxidation. We know that oxidized cholesterol can initiate the process of atherosclerosis—the fatty acids in coconut oil prevent this oxidation. The results in this study were interpreted as due to the biologically active polyphenol components present in the oil.

LOWERS LP(A)
Another study dealing with lipoproteins and cholesterol was carried out in women. Researchers found that coconut oil-based diets lowered post-prandial tissue plasminogen activator and lipoprotein (a).2 Lp(a) is a blood marker that is a much more accurate indication of proneness to heart attack than cholesterol levels. Researchers had believed that levels of Lp(a) were unaffected by various forms of dietary fat intake. However, in this study, Lp(a) was lowered when the subjects consumed a high-saturated fat diet and somewhat lowered when they consumed a slightly lowered-saturated fat diet. The saturated fat used in both of these diets was coconut oil. The control diet was based on a monounsaturated oil.

POISON ANTIDOTE
One of the more interesting uses of coconut oil found in the human toxicology literature involves the beneficial use of coconut oil as a successful treatment for acute aluminium phosphide poisoning. This poison is used to control pests in grain storage facilities where it functions as a poisonous gas, namely phosphine gas, which is a mitochondrial poison. There is no known antidote for aluminium phosphide. The patient described in this case study survived following rapid treatment which included taking baking soda and coconut oil, as well as supportive care, and it was concluded that coconut oil had a significant use as an added part of the treatment protocol in this type of poisoning.3

ANTI-MICROBIAL
A few researchers have known for some time that a derivative of coconut oil, lauric acid and monolaurin, are safe antimicrobial agents that can either kill completely or stop the growth of some of the most dangerous viruses and bacteria. Many bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics but herbal oils such as the oils of oregano and the major fatty acid from coconut oil, lauric acid, which the body turns into the monoglyceride, monolaurin, are showing great promise as anti-bacterial and anti-viral agents. Monolaurin, in particular, is being shown to be useful in the prevention and treatment of severe bacterial infections, especially those that are difficult to treat or are antibiotic resistant. Difficult bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus as well as other bacteria have been studied here in the United States in research groups such as Dr. H.G. Preuss’s group at Georgetown University. They found that monolaurin combined with herbal essential oils inhibited pathogenic bacteria both in the petri dish (in vitro) and also in mice (in vivo).4 http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/c...il-studies.html

A Diet Rich in Coconut Oil Reduces Diurnal Postprandial Variations in Circulating Tissue Plasminogen Activator Antigen and Fasting Lipoprotein (a) Compared with a Diet Rich in Unsaturated Fat in Women (2003)
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/11/3422 (Full Text)




Unfortunately, if I'm not taking it for cleansing purposes (liquid state is THE way to down this) the only thing I'd ever do with Coconut Oil is bake with it occassionaly or use as a moisturizer....can't not tolerate (the taste) it in my daily foods.

I will say though that, MCFA (or maybe it was MCTs) is something that is produced in our colon by GOOD BACTERIA! Just as those studies above have shown it's healthy, so have others. Indicating that it can be used to heal a damaged intestinal lining....and prevent...colon cancer.

[rakbs]

Thanks for all the studies, Sweet Jade!

Have you ever seen one that conclusively proves animal saturated fat is really that bad for us? Most of the studies that I've seen aren't done very well because they leave other variables wide open.

[john1234]

hmmm...looking at my studies just makes me realize how we are all different. I truly have wheat sensitivity. Since quitting wheat, I no longer have allergies, bloating, or comedones.

One of my best friends, on the other hand, carries a bag of wheat bread with him, wherever he goes. On average, he eats 25-30 slices of wheat bread everyday. His skin is perfect and his health is great...

If only diet could be a one-size-fit-all kind of thing....

[LiliVG]

hmmm...looking at my studies just makes me realize how we are all different. I truly have wheat sensitivity. Since quitting wheat, I no longer have allergies, bloating, or comedones.

One of my best friends, on the other hand, carries a bag of wheat bread with him, wherever he goes. On average, he eats 25-30 slices of wheat bread everyday. His skin is perfect and his health is great...

If only diet could be a one-size-fit-all kind of thing....

lol, that's a really weird thing to do, so I'd have to think he's either got an unusually quirky personality, or he has some other condition he hasn't told you about which requires him to do this. Diabetics often will carry around soda wherever they go. Acne is one person's problem, another person has got a whole different set of problems.

[evibaby]

Hello, I have been reading posts at Acne.org for several years now and thanks to this amazing site and the information I found here I was able to significantly improve my condition. I would like to share my experience and my findings.
I am convinced that my acne was a way for my body to get rid of triglycerides. I found this quite by chance when I started taking (on a trial and error basis) vitamin C (several grams per day). I understood that vitamin C is a very powerful agent for reducing triglycerides. Then I continued by adding magnesium, vitamin D and calcium, vitamin b-complex and L-carnitine.
After researching even further I learned that these vitamins activate a key enzyme that clears triglycerides from the bloodstream. This enzyme is called lipoprotein lipase.
Fish oil is also known for stimulating lipoprotein lipase.
I hope that this will be helpful for you too.