[ExI] new nutrition thread

[Brian Manning Delaney]

El 2015-08-30 a las 20:18, Jason Resch escribió:
>
> On Sun, Aug 30, 2015 at 2:29 AM, Brian Manning Delaney
> <listsb at infinitefaculty.org <mailto:listsb at infinitefaculty.org>> wrote:
>
>     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22331686
>
> This study confirms that eating saturated fat raises HDL and LDL levels,
> which is true. But what wasn't appreciated at the time of the diet-heart
> hypothesis is that there are many types of LDL, and that the kind of LDL
> particle that is raised by intake of saturated fat isn't one of the
> harmful ones.

Not clear, but could be.

>     Another worth reading:
>
>     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4475777/
>
> Interesting. Thanks for sharing.  I am of the opinion that MCT's (medium
> chain length triglycerides) are among the healthiest calorie sources
> available to us, and also that PUFA are in-general less healthy than
> SFA. PUFA are longer chain lengths than most SFA, so there is perhaps
> something to longer chain fatty acids being progressively less healthy.

That's my educated guess, but there might be a "sour" (that is, opposite 
of sweet) spot around 14:0 and 16:0, with longer-chained SFAs actually 
not being /quite/ as bad as 14:0 and (especially) 16:0. But context may 
also matter. (Search PubMed for [ palmitic acid cholesterol ] and note 
the studies indicating how context -- presence of non-animal ω-6, for 
ex. -- alters the hypercholesterolemic effect of palmitic acid.)

We don't know very much. In a few decades there'll likely be another 
Gary Taubes-like "oops we were drinking Kool-Aid" moment, but this time 
about something else, or in the opposite direction of Taubes's schtick.

In any event, like I've been suggesting, looking at individual studies 
doesn't seem very productive. I think we need a broader framework to 
make sense of the aggregate data about diet and health.

And, far more importantly, at least for me -- as I noted in the thread 
"Online health trackers/storage [Was: Old Nutrition Studies]" -- I would 
love a health tracking system that could handle tons of data and find 
correlations I miss between dietary changes and markers of health. Then, 
the interpretation of the studies becomes less important (to the extent 
that the markers of health I'm using have been sufficiently validated, 
for which, of course, some of those difficult to interpret studies are 
needed!).

- Brian