THE FATS, AND THE SATURATED FAT QUESTION
GOOD OR BAD FOR US? HOW DOES IT DIGEST?
draft, might be added to, but read it now! However, there are significant conclusions already in it, so it is worth reading.
Follow the universal principle of not overloading any system beyond its normal functioning range, as the excesses can cause significant malfunctioning which can in turn do harm (see the principle and idea behind staying in the well-functioning range: here). For instance, too much saturated fat in one sitting (such as in concentrated supplements taken) will cause saturated fat to be in the blood stream hours after ingestion, causing cells to not be able to function well in absorbing other nutrients, such as oxygen (!) - and presenting more opportunity to convert it into fat storage and cholesterol! (Your body uses saturated fat to make cholesterol...that is proven, not conjecture!)
THE CONCLUSION
Despite wonderful health measure results for the higher saturated fat diet of Atkins, it still makes sense to follow the experts' general consensus of limiting saturated fat to 7-10% of calories. A person who eats 2000 calories a day would therefore eat about 200 calories (at 9 calories per gram that would equal about 21 grams). And it also appears that it could be harmful to have much less than that. (See Saturated Vs. Unsaturated Fats In Lipids, Livestrong.com.)
Reduction in heart disease events comes from a 5% increase in both monounsaturated fats (reduced 16%) and in polyunsaturated fats (reduce by 35%). They reduce LDL cholesterol level. (Both are liquid at room temperature as opposed to saturated fats.)
What they consist of
Polyunsaturated fatty acids include omega-3 and omega 6s, but only omega 3 is recommended (strongly) as a supplement (1,000-2000 mgs usually). Do not cook with these!
Monounsaturated fats are found in olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil, avocados, nuts and seeds. Polyunsaturated fats are found in many vegetable oils, including safflower, corn, sunflower, soy and cottonseed oils, as well as in nuts and seeds. The omega-3 fatty acids can be found in flaxseeds, walnuts and some fatty fish, such as salmon and herring, while omega-6 fatty acids found in pecans, Brazil nuts and sesame oil. Saturated fats: coconut oil not as bad as some. Nonorganic fatty meats and dairy are bad since fat heavily absorbs the added hormones, pesticides and dioxins (cancer causing).
Limits
While they have shown health benefits, monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats are still fats and should not be consumed in overabundance. Like all fats, they have 9 calories per gram. The AHA says evidence has not shown one to be better over the other for health. Fats overall, including these two types, should make up less than 25 percent to 35 percent total daily calorie intake, the AHA says. (That works out to, at 30% of a 2000 calorie diet, to 600 calories divided by 9 to equal 67 grams - a 6 oz. steak is 24, cheeseburger, large is 20, pizza, 2 slices is 13 with about the same for nachos (7 chips), beef taco (2) and chicken wings (6 oz.).
On the downside, it would be unhealthy to have less than 12% of your calories in fat
Transfats are killers, like liquid plastic or embalming fluid, lowering HDL (the good stuff) and raising LDL, with a 2% increase causing a 62% increase in heart disease events... Include hydrogenated fats in that family. Zero is the amount you should eat.
And don't kid yourself about fried foods. Very bad, plus you get too many calories. It would take a miracle to lose weight or even maintain it by eating french fries!
________________________________________
THE BIG, BIG QUESTIONS
Is saturated fat exonerated based on that recent metastudy? (See the detailed discussion of the 2014 study and the conclusion if one looks deeper. Most people have misinterpreted it.) No!
How is it helpful? (Saturated fats are needed in all cells for proper functioning. The question then is how much is needed and how much is too much?)
How much is unhealthy? (And, why?)
Do we naturally stop eating it at some level? (Yes, fat is very satiating so you will naturally tend to stop, but some people carry it beyond satiation, which will, of course, cause some fat to go into adipose tissue.)
Principle #1. Foods are useful only in balance. Too much is too much.
1. If you overeat any macronutrient (Carbohydrates, Protein, or Fat) it will turn into adipose tissue (body fat).
2. Too much fat in the diet can overwhelm the system and interfere with digestion. (True of most macronutrients. The classic is sugar and refined food intake at a high level causes a huge oversecretion of insulin and huge swings in blood sugar, plus alot of storage of fat via the excess insulin.)
Purposely eating lots of saturated fats to satiate your appetite for longer (takes longer to digest) does not seem to make sense, if it is carried too far. Adding bacon, a la the Atkins Diet, does not make sense to me, as I would prefer eating something with more nutrients and value, plus I do not want to overwhelm my system. If my system is so heavy in fats that, if eaten with other fats and/or hard to digest foods, it could overwhelm the system and cause some or alot of malfunction.). .
"Saturated fat is attacked because our bodies can turn it into cholesterol. We get more cholesterol from saturated fat than we do from the cholesterol in our food. But this native cholesterol, which is made by our liver, is the material used to build healthy cells and is not the “oxidized” or damaged cholesterol that finds its way inside artery walls. So eating saturated fat contributes little, if anything, to the development of atherosclerosis and heart disease. Since ordinary cholesterol is not a factor in the development of heart disease, saturated fat, likewise, is not the problem it is made out to be." Source
Yes, basically saturated fat is needed, but not to the point of imbalance, as that would cause other problems. Since fat must be digested by the liver, the limitations of the liver would suggest that we should not overwhelm the system and interfere with digestion.
The classic studies after a very high fat intake show
LONGER TO DIGEST, FEEL FULL LONGER
It takes your stomach longer to digest fats than carbohydrates or protein, so higher fat meals may make you feel fuller, longer.
Absorption of fat into the body takes 10-15 minutes. Straight sugar takes...
RECOMMENDED "BALANCE" AND AMOUNT
Recommended: Polyunsaturated to saturated fat ratio ("P:S") of 0.6:1.0. (2/3 more of saturated)
Recommended: Reducing saturated fat intake to less than 7% of total calories. In other words, do not do the loading of saturated fats recommended in the Atkins diet!
CONVERSION NEEDED
Because fat does not dissolve in water, the fat molecules enter the duodenum in a congealed mass, which makes it impossible for the pancreatic lipase enzymes to attack them, since lipase is a water soluble enzyme and can only attack the surface of the fat molecules.
Bile emulsifies fats - meaning, it disperses them into small droplets which then become suspended in the watery contents of the digestive tract. (Bile is secreted by the liver and stored in the gall bladder and then released for digestion, especially of fats.)
STORAGE OF FATS
Since glucose rather than fat is the body's preferred source of energy, and since only about 5 percent of absorbed fat (the glycerols) can be converted into glucose, a significant proportion of digested fat is typically stored as body fat in the adipose cells. (Versus what?)
The fatty acids are transported through the bloodstream to adipose (fat) cells, where they are stored.
Once your liver reaches its limit for glycogen production, it turns any further surplus into fats for long-term storage.
Fats are a more concentrated fuel than glucose, and your body uses them after its glucose levels begin to subside. As with glucose, any excess is deposited in long-term fat stores. If your body uses up the fats that are circulating through your system, it begins to draw on those reserves.
We get more cholesterol from saturated fat than we do from the cholesterol in our food. But this native cholesterol, which is made by our liver, is the material used to build healthy cells and is not the "oxidized" or damaged cholesterol that finds its way inside artery walls. So eating saturated fat contributes little, if anything, to the development of atherosclerosis and heart disease.
SENSIBLE "SHORTCUT"?
Sensible or just eat right amount? One recently developed product, Mirafit®, is a naturally occurring, soluble fiber that forms a very stable complex or emulsion with fat. Scientific research shows this stable complex appears to prevent the digestive enzyme lipase from breaking down dietary fat in the small intestine, thus preventing it from being absorbed into the blood stream. This, in turn, reduces the number of calories that are absorbed from foods and lowers blood lipid (fat) levels.
(Bad idea, methinks...)
THE BIG SATURATED FAT STUDY - SHOULD I EAT THIS UNRESTRICTED?
The Lancet reported a study of 2,000 men who went on a low saturated fat diet to see how that would affect cardiovascular health. The study found that those participants who went on diets low in saturated fat didn’t experience any reduction in heart attack death risk over a two year period. If eliminating saturated fat didn’t stop heart disease from developing, it is logical to assume there is another cause.
On December 24, 1997, headlines around the world proclaimed that saturated fat lowers the rate of strokes.
This pronouncement came after the publication of a 20-year study performed by Dr. Matthew Gillman and colleagues at Harvard Medical School and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study involved 832 men aged 45 through 65 years of age who were initially free of cardiovascular disease. The results of the study raised howls of protest from health experts who had spent years telling us to eat less saturated fat. Yet many researchers familiar with fat metabolism and cardiovascular disease were not surprised at the results of this study.
The purpose of the Harvard study was to examine the association of stroke incidence with intake of fat and type of fat during 20 years of follow-up among middle-aged men participating in the Framingham Heart Study. In conformity with other studies performed in Japan, intakes of saturated fat were associated with reduced risk of ischemic stroke in men. The study also showed that the highest incidence of stroke was associated with the most polyunsaturated fat consumption.
A 2010 meta-analysis of 21 studies examined the effects of dietary saturated fat intake and found that ″there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD.″[9]
Exonerated?
Meanwhile, a 2014 systematic review and meta-analysis in the Annals of Internal Medicine, of 72 published studies totaling 530,525 participants, looked at observational studies of dietary intake of fatty acids, observational studies of measured fatty acid levels in the blood, and intervention studies of polyunsaturated fat supplementation. The authors of the review concluded that their findings ["current evidence"] ″does not clearly support cardiovascular guidelines that promote high consumption of long-chain omega-3 and omega-6 and polyunsaturated fatty acids and suggest reduced consumption of total saturated fatty acids.″[10]
However, Walter Willett, chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, warns that the conclusions from this study are seriously misleading, as the analysis contains major errors and omissions:
″This paper is bound to cause confusion. A central issue is what replaces saturated fat if someone reduces the amount of saturated fat in their diet. If it is replaced with refined starch or sugar, which are the largest sources of calories in the U.S. diet, then the risk of heart disease remains the same. However, if saturated fat is replaced with polyunsaturated fat or monounsaturated fat in the form of olive oil, nuts and probably other plant oils, we have much evidence that risk will be reduced″.[11]
Separately, it was noted that because some of the pooled studies involved people with cardiovascular risk factors or with cardiovascular disease, the results may not necessarily apply to the population at large.
Researchers acknowledged that despite their results, further research is necessary, especially in people who are initially healthy. Until the picture becomes clearer, experts recommend people stick to the current guidelines on fat consumption.[12] wikipedia
This study hasn’t “proved” that saturated fat isn't bad for the heart, rather that evidence of harm does not appear to be statistically significant. (Long article:
Note the comment "Even if saturated fats don’t directly harm your heart, eating too much can lead to obesity, which in turn can damage it."
Saturated fat is not "exonerated" as not affecting heart disease directly. The association just hasn't been proven in those diverse studies. The intake of higher saturated fat may also have caused a reduced intake of proven-harmful high glucose foods - one less risky item might have pushed out a higher risk item and the net effect may have been to show no higher risk from eating more of the less risky item BECAUSE it pushed out some of the consumption of the higher risk item.
COMMENTS FROM A HEART EXPERT
"...cutting out saturated fats found in rich dairy products (cheese, butter, and high-fat milk, so-called low-fat 2% milk, whole milk yogurt..and meats (red meat, sausage, and bacon) is much more effective in lowering dangerous LDL than watching how much cholesterol you eat. Excessive saturated fat raises your cholesterol and speeds the formation of plaque... But worst of all, this kind of fat actually stimulates your liver to create cholesterol... This kind of fat [produced by the liver] has a huge impact on your LDL level..."
He acknowledges that saturated fats are "not all bad", as they can modestly improve your HDL cholesterol. And dark chocolate has a good form, acting similarly to olive oil. His recommendation is to keep overall saturated fat at 12-20 grams per day (108-180 calories), less than 15 if you have known heart disease.
He also cites a study that shows a 2% increase in transfat increase heart disease event by 62% (!!!!!!!), while a 5% increase in monounsaturated lowers risk by 16%, with a 5% increase in polyunsaturated fats lowering it by 35%. [Just don't cook polyunsaturates or it gets real nasty!]
"...After an unhealthy meal, your LDL cholesterol [which is a "transporter"] becomes filled with bad fat. As soon as your body senses this, white blood cells are sent to attack the LDL cholesterol The damaged, unhealthy LDL particles stick to the lining of your arteries and cause arterial inflammation. It's the inflammation that makes your arteries constrict, blocking blood flow. You actually lose 20% of your circulation for at least six hours after a meal high in unhealthy fats...at elevated risk for a cardiovascular event during this time."
Excessive saturated fat raises your cholesterol and speeds the formation of plaque - but worst of all, this kind of fat actually stimulates your liver to create cholesterol.
Saturated fats in fatty meats and full-fat dairy are worse than those that come from coconut oil. However, note that adding coconut oil, in lieu of replacing other oils may be a nonsensical strategy. See my post on the blog (enter "coconut oil" in the search engine.
----
Unfortunately, if you have too much LDL in the bloodstream, it deposits the cholesterol into the arteries, which can cause blockages and lead to heart attacks. The good news is that the amount of LDL in your blood-stream is related to the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol you eat. So, most people can decrease their LDL if they follow a reduced-fat diet.
As for diet, in general, the high-fat diets (with bad fats, as opposed to healthy fats) that raise LDL also raise HDL, while low-fat diets lower both. However, by carefully choosing the right foods, you can eat a diet that lowers LDL without lowering HDL, as is discussed in Chapter 6 of Sisson's book. Mark Sisson has on his site a free, excellent, to the point book: Primal Blueprint 101. I recommend strongly that you read it as part of your health education..
______________________
From the sidebar, copied here to make sure you read it!:
"What happened after a week on vegan diet?
Anecdotal happening to me: Pictures and analysis of my blood were taken upon entering Tony Robbins' seven day Mastery Course. We were fed vegetarian food the whole time and encouraged to exercise, though staying up til incredibly late.
Upon exiting the workshop at the end, pictures were again taken, and then compared to our entry levels. All greatly improved, but I was struck by the fact that my red blood cells, while originally clumped together, had separated - which meant that more surface area was available in each cell for proper functioning!
