"Unsaturated Fats Linked To Longer Healthier Life" - Harvard Gazette

[ecstatichamster]

I also think this is why I haven't done well on a very low-fat diet. I think that it mobilizes too many PUFAs, and make me feel sick.

 

[Westside PUFAs]

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic

I'm not. I now only value those studies. I don't even look at mice/other animal and population questionnaire studies anymore.

 

[schultz]

I think this is true.

I always read those stories about people that live to be 100 or hundred and 10, as I'm sure you do too. Many of them eat PUFAs. Maybe not massive amounts, but some.

Thanks for this thread reference, this is helpful.

Full study is here
http://www.jlr.org/content/34/9/1515.full.pdf

I've been doing a lot of research on a few topics lately, going through pubmed and all that (because apparently I have nothing better to do...), and one of the topics I have been researching, and which is most interesting, is lipofuscin. It's quite surprising that nobody really talks about lipofuscin given that it seems so important in aging. Maybe it has to do with the @Westside PUFAs theory of not having a cool sounding name and therefore is not in style. Anyway, I ran across an interesting bit of information had to do with centenarians from a study on lipofuscin and iron.

"Lipofuscin was proposed to have interactions with cellular systems and to display detrimental effects on cellular functionality in the late stages of age, when it occupies large parts of the intracellular volume. In motor neurons of human centenarians it can fill up to 75% of the cytosolic volume"

I thought this was pretty remarkable. Do centenarians have some ability to deal with all this lipofuscin in their body? Less iron maybe? High anti-oxidant levels like vitamin e? Who knows...

Another interesting quote from this particular study...

"... the accumulation of lipofuscin is regarded as one of the best-known markers of aging"

Here is the paper abstract: Lipofuscin-bound iron is a major intracellular source of oxidants: role in senescent cells. - PubMed - NCBI

When lipofuscin incorporates iron it becomes 4 times as damaging, and it's everywhere (in later life)! I even found a study talking about it being in the teeth in the dental pulp and how it reduces autophagy of odontoblasts, which then effects dentin renewal. It is also very difficult to get rid of lipofuscin inside the body. There is evidence it prevents autophagy and cell renewal, and therefore could cause aging simply by preventing regeneration of cells. They even use lipofuscin as a way to tell the age of lobsters!

For those don't know what lipofuscin is, wikipedia says this...

"It appears to be the product of the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids"

... though it's really more than that, but you get the idea

 

[Tarmander]

You can test this for yourself. Down 2 tablespoons of coconut oil one day. Then the next do it with corn/canola/soy oil. God the second is like torture.

 

[Westside PUFAs]

@schultz , yea lipofuscin doesn't sound cool. It sounds ugly. Peoples love of cool sounding names is real. For example, "Ray Peat" is one cool name. Even without knowing anything about him, just hearing his name sounds cool. There's a punch to it and a flow. But if Ray Peat's name was Ray McClinsky, would people still be interested? Would they go to the Ray McClinksky forum? "I'm a McClinskarian. Ever since I've been McClinskying I feel great..."

 

[schultz]

@schultz , yea lipofuscin doesn't sound cool. It sounds ugly. Peoples love of cool sounding names is real. For example, "Ray Peat" is one cool name. Even without knowing anything about him, just hearing his name sounds cool. There's a punch to it and a flow. But if Ray Peat's name was Ray McClinsky, would people still be interested? Would they go to the Ray McClinksky forum? "I'm a McClinskarian. Ever since I've been McClinskying I feel great..."

Haha! You are most definitely right!

 

[damngoodcoffee]

You can test this for yourself. Down 2 tablespoons of coconut oil one day. Then the next do it with corn/canola/soy oil. God the second is like torture.

Agree.

 

[Peata]

I remain interested in it. In fact, was looking stuff up about it this evening.

There have been a few threads on it, but no, it doesn't get a lot of mention yet. I didn't consider it an ugly word until I listened to this:

,

and realized I had been pronouncing it wrong. (I say, "lip-0-fussin", and he said, "lip-o-fuskin" and sometimes another way.)

 

[dibble]

Since I got into Peat around 3 years ago, I have noticed that virtually all pro-PUFA research and media communications stem from Harvard University.
My own view is that for whatever reason the University has an agenda. The amount of research and publications that Harvard releases re PUFA suggests to me that they are actively promoting PUFA so perosnally I would take everything they produce with a pinch of salt.

Harvard is inextricably linked to the US financial establishment and its clear that they would suffer considerably if the US population moved away from using PUFA.

 

[wiggles92]

at the end of the day low fat is the obvious solution to this problem if you are worried about studies like this. it's also likely the most "Peaty", as it maximises carb consumption. Just remember to get them from good sources. And if you feel you can't go low fat, gradually just work yourself down over weeks and months. Your body gets used to it.

 

[damngoodcoffee]

@schultz , yea lipofuscin doesn't sound cool. It sounds ugly. Peoples love of cool sounding names is real. For example, "Ray Peat" is one cool name. Even without knowing anything about him, just hearing his name sounds cool. There's a punch to it and a flow. But if Ray Peat's name was Ray McClinsky, would people still be interested? Would they go to the Ray McClinksky forum? "I'm a McClinskarian. Ever since I've been McClinskying I feel great..."

 

[OldMan]

Unsaturated fats linked to longer, healthier life

@haidut

what is your take on the Harvard study?.. Ive been following Ray Peat religiously for over a year now and to read this latest Harvard study is quite discouraging...... any help or guidance from you or Ray himself would be deeply appreciated....

Ps. Ive been trying to convert many people to Peat.....but with this Harvard study the effort now seems insurmountable...

 

[Blossom]

Unsaturated fats linked to longer, healthier life

@haidut

what is your take on the Harvard study?.. Ive been following Ray Peat religiously for over a year now and to read this latest Harvard study is quite discouraging...... any help or guidance from you or Ray himself would be deeply appreciated....

Ps. Ive been trying to convert many people to Peat.....but with this Harvard study the effort now seems insurmountable...

Hi @OldMan, I was wondering if you've had a chance to read this thread?
A Must-read PUFA Primer (The Haidut Edition)

 

[Agent207]

This study means nothing for me, there are variables like the nature/source of saturated fats, carbs, type of unsaturated not disclosed which is critical and that will bring to useless conclusions.

That said, I think unsaturated fats -mainly mufa- have their place within a healthy balanced diet. Saturated is fine at around 50% total fat in a non high/low fat diet, while keeping pufa to a minimum.

 

[tobieagle]

@schultz , yea lipofuscin doesn't sound cool. It sounds ugly. Peoples love of cool sounding names is real. For example, "Ray Peat" is one cool name. Even without knowing anything about him, just hearing his name sounds cool. There's a punch to it and a flow. But if Ray Peat's name was Ray McClinsky, would people still be interested? Would they go to the Ray McClinksky forum? "I'm a McClinskarian. Ever since I've been McClinskying I feel great..."

Thanks. I enjoyed the laugh.

 

[OldMan]

Hi @OldMan, I was wondering if you've had a chance to read this thread?
A Must-read PUFA Primer (The Haidut Edition)

@Blossom .... i did but I think the Harvard/Hu study should be addressed directly and dealt with point by point the PUFA primer preceded the Harvard study so I think its imperative that the Harvard study is addressed now to keep the "Peat momentum" up..

 

[Jayfish]

Someone tell the French and Swiss...

 

[tankasnowgod]

@Blossom .... i did but I think the Harvard/Hu study should be addressed directly and dealt with point by point the PUFA primer preceded the Harvard study so I think its imperative that the Harvard study is addressed now to keep the "Peat momentum" up..

Okay, I'll address it. According to the article, "The study included 126,233 participants from two large, long-term studies — the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study — who answered survey questions every two to four years about their diet, lifestyle, and health for up to 32 years." Do you really think anyone can recall everything they ate over the past two years?

Let's forget about the entire two years for a second.... do you remember what you ate for lunch on November 16th, 2015? How many calories? Percentage of carbs/fat/protein? Can you break down fatty acids in that meal into saturated/monounsaturated/polyunsaturated?

The idea that you could formulate ANY relationship between any micro or macronutrient and mortality with that infrequent of a dietary questionnaire is beyond ridiculous.

 

[Blossom]

Thanks @tankasnowgod.

 

[OldMan]

Okay, I'll address it. According to the article, "The study included 126,233 participants from two large, long-term studies — the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study — who answered survey questions every two to four years about their diet, lifestyle, and health for up to 32 years." Do you really think anyone can recall everything they ate over the past two years?

Let's forget about the entire two years for a second.... do you remember what you ate for lunch on November 16th, 2015? How many calories? Percentage of carbs/fat/protein? Can you break down fatty acids in that meal into saturated/monounsaturated/polyunsaturated?

The idea that you could formulate ANY relationship between any micro or macronutrient and mortality with that infrequent of a dietary questionnaire is beyond ridiculous.

@tankasnowgod @haidut

Tankasnowgod:

Your answer is "cute" but with the likes of Harvard and a culture that bows down to such brands "cute" with all due respect doesnt cut it....

Heres the Harvard press release on the study.... it in my estimation devastates what Ray @haidut have been saying about PUFA....



"Intake of high amounts of unsaturated fats—both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated—was associated with between 11% and 19% lower overall mortality compared with the same number of calories from carbohydrates. Among the polyunsaturated fats, both omega-6, found in most plant oils, and omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and soy and canola oils, were associated with lower risk of premature death.

The health effects of specific types of fats depended on what people were replacing them with, the researchers found. For example, people who replaced saturated fats with unsaturated fats—especially polyunsaturated fats—had significantly lower risk of death overall during the study period, as well as lower risk of death from CVD, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and respiratory disease, compared with those who maintained high intakes of saturated fats. The findings for cardiovascular disease are consistent with many earlier studies showing reduced total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol when unsaturated fats replace trans or saturated fats.

People who replaced saturated fats with carbohydrates had only slightly lower mortality risk. In addition, replacing total fat with carbohydrates was associated with modestly higher mortality. This was not surprising, the authors said, because carbohydrates in the American diet tend to be primarily refined starch and sugar, which have a similar influence on mortality risk as saturated fats.

“Our study shows the importance of eliminating trans fat and replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fats, including both omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. In practice, this can be achieved by replacing animal fats with a variety of liquid vegetable oils,” said senior author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.