A Lifelong Fight Against Transfats (NYTimes article)

J

j.

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This leads him to a controversial conclusion: that the saturated fat in butter, cheese and meats does not contribute to the clogging of arteries — and in fact is beneficial in moderate amounts in the context of a healthy diet (lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other fresh, unprocessed foods).

About eggs:

He cannot remember the last time he ate anything deep-fried. He has never used margarine, and instead scrambles eggs in butter every morning. He calls eggs one of nature’s most perfect foods, something he has been preaching since the 1970s, when the consumption of cholesterol-laden eggs was thought to be a one-way ticket to heart disease.

“Eggs have all of the nine amino acids you need to build cells, plus important vitamins and minerals,” he said. “It’s crazy to just eat egg whites. Not a good practice at all.”
 
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Peata

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PUFA:

...he has published four papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, two of them devoted to another major culprit he has singled out as responsible for atherosclerosis, or the hardening of the arteries: an excess of polyunsaturated vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower — exactly the types of fats Americans have been urged to consume for the past several decades...

...Dr. Kummerow contends that the high temperatures used in commercial frying cause inherently unstable polyunsaturated oils to oxidize, and that these oxidized fatty acids become a destructive part of LDL particles. Even when not oxidized by frying, soybean and corn oils can oxidize inside the body...
 

burtlancast

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Good find.
 

pboy

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if they did away with trans fats, it would probably be better for most people who don't consciously know anything about the food they eat...but in terms of the overall health of the nation? That's like...barely scratching the surface. Its way bigger and deeper than one culprit alone. Its never so simple as to point to one food, nutrient, or molecule...its the essence of the thing itself in a much more detailed matter. People are completely confused and bamboozled as to what nutrition actually is. If stress or sustainability aren't addressed, everything else is sort of a moot point
 

Mittir

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That guy is an amazing scientist. It puzzles me how so called experts in
lipid did not see the danger of PUFA but people like Ray Peat and Fred Kummerow
recognized this early. RP mentioned that he took more courses in
biochemistry than biology in graduate school. Dr Kummerow has PhD
in biochemistry. Then we have Harvard lipid scholar Dr Mozaffarian M.D.
with Ph.D in epidemiology. I have seen a lot of garbage studies done
by M.D. doing epidemiological studies. They do not understand the science
or mathematics to do any good study.
Another strange thing i noticed is that most news outlets covering Dr Kummerow
focused on his view on transfat but not PUFA. But he believes both transfat and
PUFA are involved in atherosclerosis.
This article gives a better description of PUFA's role in plaque formation.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 151254.htm
Original artcile : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... 3-0017.pdf

Fred Kummerow said:
Levels of oxysterols and OxLDL increase primarily as a result of three diet or lifestyle factors:
the consumption of oxysterols from commercially fried foods such as fried chicken, fish, and french fries; oxidation of cholesterol in vivo driven by consumption of excess polyunsaturated fatty acids from vegetable oils; and cigarette smoking. Along with the consumption of trans fatty acids from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, these diet and lifestyle factors likely underlie the persistent national burden of heart disease.
 

tara

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For Kummerow, the increase in sphingomyelin was a prime suspect in the blocked and calcified arteries of the cardiac patients. He had already found that the arteries of the newborn human placenta contained only about 10 percent sphingomyelin and 50 percent phosphatidylcholine (FOSS-fuh-tih-dul-COH-lean), another important phospholipid component of cell membranes.

"But when we looked at the arteries of people who had had bypass operations, we found up to 40 percent sphingomyelin and about 27 percent phosphatidylcholine," Kummerow said. "It took us many more years to discover that when you added large amounts of oxysterols to the cells, then the phosphatidylcholine changed to sphingomyelin."

Further evidence supported sphingomyelin's starring role in atherosclerosis. When Kummerow and his colleagues compared the blocked and unblocked arteries of patients needing second bypass operations, they found that the arteries with blockages contained twice as much sphingomyelin as the unblocked arteries. The calcium content of the blocked arteries (6,345 parts per million) was also much higher than that of the unblocked arteries (182 ppm).

Other studies had demonstrated a link between increases in sphingomyelin and the deposit of calcium in the coronary arteries. The mechanism by which this occurred was unclear, however. Kummerow's team searched the literature and found a 1967 study that showed that in the presence of certain salts (in the blood, for example), lipids like sphingomyelin develop a negative charge. This explains the attraction of the positively charged calcium to the arterial wall when high amounts of sphingomyelin are present, Kummerow said.

"So there was a negative charge on the wall of this artery, and it attracted calcium from the blood until it calcified the whole artery," he said.

Has anyone followed this up or know any more about it? Like which salts? Reams also connected salts with artery stiffening.
 

aguilaroja

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Mittir said:
....It puzzles me how so called experts in
lipid did not see the danger of PUFA but people like Ray Peat and Fred Kummerow
recognized this early. RP mentioned that he took more courses in
biochemistry than biology in graduate school. Dr Kummerow has PhD
in biochemistry. Then we have Harvard lipid scholar Dr Mozaffarian M.D.
with Ph.D in epidemiology.

My recollection is that Broda Barnes' 1976 book "Solved–the Riddle of Heart Attacks" warns about PUFA dangers. I do not have the volume in front of me, and vaguely recall it was not extensively footnoted. My recollection is that Dr. Barnes' works were early sources that helped put PUFA on Dr. Peat's "radar".

Inconveniently, this is one (among others) aspect of Barnes' hypotheses that remained undeveloped, even by anointed and self-appointed Barnes successors.
 
J

j.

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Barnes made the case against PUFAs quite well, the additional information from Peat strengthened Barnes' advice to avoid PUFAs.
 

Mittir

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RP mentioned that he saw abundance of research showing
toxicity of PUFA while he was writing his dissertation.
It was clear then that PUFA causes cancer, heart disease,
degenerative disease, aging etc. He talked about agricultural
studies showing lower metabolism in PUFA fed animals.
His dissertation is about age pigment, vitamin E, estrogen,
fertility, metabolism etc. RP mentioned that Broda Barnes got his M.D.
after he got his Ph.D.That is why he is different than regular M.D.
Things surely would have been different if he got
his M.D first then his PhD. I believe something happens to the brains of
medical students. He did his undergraduate studies in chemistry.
His graduate studies were in physiology, chemistry,
biochemistry and Ph.D in thyroid physiology.
RP's graduate study was in biochemistry, physiology and
reproductive hormones. There is a lot of similarities between these two giants.
Kummerow's Ph.D in biochemistry. Biochemistry seems to be the common thread.
 

aguilaroja

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Mittir said:
RP mentioned that he saw abundance of research showing
toxicity of PUFA while he was writing his dissertation....He talked about agricultural
studies showing lower metabolism in PUFA fed animals.

RP mentioned that Broda Barnes got his M.D. after he got his Ph.D.

Excuse me for nudging things off the trans-fat topic.

William F. Koch also received a Ph.D. prior to medical training. Certainly, it's likely that there is more time for reflection during graduate research work than exhaustive medical duties.

Barnes graduated medical school at age 31, perhaps old enough to be more resilient to indoctrination. He also completed his training before World War II, when before commercial interests accelerated as they have in recent decades.

I have talked to farmers and ranchers who worked in the early and mid-20th century, and their children and grandchildren who recall practices then. They clearly knew and recalled that coconut oil and lard (lard of that era, probably more saturated than 21st century lard) made animals lean, healthy and active.

They understood that if "fatty" "marbled" meat was needed for urban market trends, feeding cattle and poultry seed, grain and vegetable oil would make animals sluggish with fatty "tender" flesh. I recall Dr. Peat mentioning similar accounts. I think such stories are also mentioned in WAPF circles. But it is something to hear them first hand. Each report giver suggested that this was widespread knowledge of that era.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broda_Otto_Barnes
 
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j.

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aguilaroja said:
Certainly, it's likely that there is more time for reflection during graduate research work than exhaustive medical duties.

I don't think it's an issue of free time, but that in the training of a PhD there is relatively higher emphasis on creating new knowledge and thinking creatively over following instructions. Both types of training might encourage to do both things, but in different proportions, and the training of a MD is more intense in the follow instructions aspect.
 

tara

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Yes, it seems PUFA and low metabolism are major factors in heart disease, as Barnes described. Kummerow clearly pointed to PUFAs (and trans fats) too. I'm wondering whether these additional factors referred to by Kummerow - certain salts and sphingomyelin - have been substantiated. Is there anything about that in Barnes book?
 
J

j.

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Mittir said:
I believe something happens to the brains of medical students.

This post reminded me of Dr. Holick. He does provide valuable information, but looking at him, reading his books, or listening to his lectures one gets the feeling he is somewhat of a crazy or psycho person.

But he also is one who is both a PhD and a MD.
 
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Mittir said:
RP mentioned that Broda Barnes got his M.D.
after he got his Ph.D.That is why he is different than regular M.D.

Interesting... Most universities offer combined MD/PhD programs that absolutely require people to do the MD first. You typically get full funding plus a living stipend if you get the MD first, but zero support attempting the reverse, so it's virtually unheard of.
 

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