This is a true, on Monday at 5am, yes 5am! Lifted a weight at a funny angle, quite a heavy one I might add and I have strained the ligaments in the middle of my back. For those of you in the know, my thoracic spine!

So I’m not superman, which up till this point I was thoroughly convinced that I was, but according to clients I’m still a Disney character! Mmmmm…..

Enough about me! On to the lipid hypothesis and scientists!

This post is article 3 in my cholesterol series. Today we are going to look at fat and it’s role in health and heart disease. If you have not already you may wish to read articles 1 and 2 first so that you don’t miss out anything.

Article 1 – The-truth-about-cholesterol-part1

Article 2 – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Ready?

Let us then look at the lipid hypothesis

What is a hypothesis?

A hypothesis is a theory, suggestion or supposition. It is what somebody thinks should happen and it is then either up to them or others to prove whether this theory is right or wrong. This is how a scientific experiment is started. The scientist starts with a theory and then does a test to see if his theory is correct.

If he/she was correct then the theory becomes a fact, if they weren’t then it is a disprove theory and the result’s become the fact.

Or so you would think, but not in the case of cholesterol and the lipid hypothesis. This is the theory that can’t die no matter how many time’s it is disproved!

What is the lipid Hypothesis?

This is the theory that Saturated (animal) Fat intake is directly linked to blood cholesterol levels, this in turn causes arthrosclerosis (build up of plaque in the arteries), resulting in a heart attack or coronary heart disease (CHD).

This theory sound’s great, right and accurate, but remember it’s a theory until proven to be fact.

And this is where it falls apart…..

We can start by looking at the archaeological record and evidence gathered from surviving hunter gathers. Here we find that animal products, fats have been consumed in far higher quantities as we evolved for the last 3 million years than are consumed now. In fact an average 80% of our daily calories used to come from animal fats.

Dr Weston A Price studied the health and diets of un-modernised tribes back in the 1920 making very detailed findings of diet, health, disease, bone structure and longevity and found time and time again that tribes had a high fat, high protein diet but very low levels of illness and almost no incidences of premature heart disease or stroke. (1/2)

We look slightly deeper at this research in these 2 books on the Personal Nutrition Course

We can trace the origins of the Lipid Hypothesis theory back to 1953 and a study performed by Ancel Keys at the University of Minnesota. Ancel Keys constructed a graph that compared death rates from heart disease with total fat intake in from 6 countries and plotted a correlation between the 2 factors. What he did NOT do was publish the data from all 22 countries that was available to him.

Why not I hear you ask….. Because if you used all the data, it does not show a correlation between high fat intake and coronary heart disease!

Population comparison studies are often fatally flawed.

Calories from fat tend to be more expensive, so the countries that eat more fat also eat more sugar, smoke, drive cars and have DVD players and satellite television. If you look at the studies you could plot the incidences of heart attack against number of TV’s owned and you’ll see that in countries where a high % of the population own TV’s they also have high incidences of heart disease.

Does that mean that having a TV is a risk factor for heart disease?

I have to be honest and say that personally I think the haunted fish tank (TV) is a risk factor of heart disease due to lifestyle decisions it makes us make! But just owning one is not and does not cause heart disease.

So In summary, population comparison studies are great for highlighting RISK FACTORS, but do not prove a hypothesis. They are even less usable when 17 out of 22 (77% of the available data), is left out.

But let’s not stop with one study, let us take a look at some others.

Experts assure us that the lipid hypothesis is backed by scientific proof, but there is very little evidence to support a connection between fat, cholesterol and health problems such as heart disease and stroke.

Before we hit the studies consider this for a moment;

Before the 1920’s heart disease was rare, so rare that when the electrocardiograph was invented the inventor (Paul Dudley White) was told to concentrate on something more profitable.

By the mid 1950’s heart disease had become one of the leading causes of deaths particularly in America.

Today, up to 40% of all deaths are from heart disease. If it was caused by animal/saturated fat you would expect to see a similar rise in the amount consumed, but we don’t. We see a drop of about 20 – 25%, but an increase in the use of refined vegetable oils of about 400% and an increase of sugar and processed foods of about 60%.

Are you ready for some studies?

Framingham Heart Study

This is often quoted as being the study that proves the lipid hypothesis. It is a long range study which started in 1948 and involved 6,000 people who all lived in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The participants of this study were split into 2 groups, those that consumed little saturated fat and cholesterol and those that consumed large amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol. The 2 groups were compared at 5 year intervals over 40 years!

After 40 years the director of the study stated;

“In Framingham, Massachusetts, the more saturated fat one eats, the more cholesterol one eats, the more calories one eats, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol….. We found that the people that ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the LEAST and were the most physically active “

What the Framingham study did show was that people who weighed more had abnormally high blood cholesterol levels and were at slightly more risk for future heart problems. The study also showed that there was an inverse correlation between weight gain and cholesterol levels and the amount of fat and cholesterol intake.

This means people who ate more fat and cholesterol were thinner and had lower cholesterol levels than those that ate less saturated fat and ate less cholesterol!

Multi-year British Heart Study

This study involved several thousand British males who were split into equal half’s. The first half were asked to reduce their saturated fat and cholesterol consumption, to stop smoking and increase their consumption of vegetable oils and margarine. After 1 year those on the lower fat and cholesterol diet had 100% more deaths even though the high fat dieters continued to smoke! The publishers of the study ignored the studies finding and published the following;

“The implication for a public health policy in the UK is that a preventive programme such as we evaluated in this trial is PROBABLY effective…..”

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that ignoring the results in favour of a politically correct answer is particularly scientific and I sure as hell don’t see the word probably as being a good word to base a nation’s health policy on.

But let’s move on and have a look at another trial, MRFIT.

The Multiple Risk Intervention Trial (MRFIT)

Ok, this one was sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood institute (USA), and compared mortality rates and eating habits of over 12,000 men.  Again we have 2 groups those that reduced their intake of saturated fats, cholesterol and smoking and those that didn’t. This study did show a marginal decrease in Heart disease in those that reduced fat cholesterol and stopped smoking, BUT and it is a big BUT their overall mortality rate (Death rate), was a lot higher.

They died from cancer, brain tumours, suicide and violent death (We’ll talk a different day as to why they died of these things on a low cholesterol diet). So the reduction in fats did not mean that they lived longer healthier more full filling lives they just died of something else.

At this point I’d like to tell you about a diet Guru that you may have heard of, Nathan Pritkin of the Pritkin diet.

Nathan Pritkin was a well know advocate of the low fat diet. His diet also focused on whole natural foods eliminating sugar and processed foods and included a strict intensive exercise regime. This diet had a great success rate for lowering blood pressure , cholesterol levels and losing weight, but…

Have you noticed that there always seem to be a but?

BUT,

People had problems staying on it due to low energy, difficulty in concentration, depression, weight gain and mineral deficiencies.

Using this diet Pritkin did manage to save himself from heart disease but it could not help him recover from leukemia. Sadly, he died in the prime of his life of suicide when he realised that his diet was not working.

You may call me old fashioned but I don’t really want to die of heart disease, cancer or depression leading to suicide.

Let’s move on and look at some other population studies;

Population 1 – Yemen/Israel

Jews living in Yemen with diets consisting solely of fats from animal origin V.s Yemenite Jews living in Israel eat margarine and vegetable fats. (4)

This study revealed little heart disease or diabetes in the animal fats group but high levels of both disease in the vegetable oil and margarine group. It was also noted that this group also consumed a high level of sugar.

Population 2 – India

North V.s South India. The population in northern India consume on average 17 times more animal fat but their incidences of coronary heart disease is 7 times lower than that of southern Indians. (4)

Population 3 – Africa

The Masai of Africa mainly eat and drink milk, blood and beef which is all high in fat but they are free from heart disease and have low cholesterol levels. (4)

Population 4 – Eskimo

Eskimo’s when on their native diet of animal fats from Fish and marine animals are free from disease. (4)

Population 5 – Chinese

In a study of 65 Chinese counties it was found that those that consumed large amounts of whole milk had half the rate of heart disease as areas that consumed less animal product. (4)

Population 6 – Mediterranean

We are often told to follow the Mediterranean diet as there is a lower incidence of heart disease. For some reason we think that just adding olive oil to everything is the key ingredient….?

70% of the calories that are consumed are from saturated fat sources coming from goat’s cheese, lamb and sausage. The population of Crete is a great example as they are known for their good health and longevity and their native diet is primarily made from the above ingredients. (4)

Population 7 – Puerto Ricans

Matines. I. Et al (1975) looked at the correlation between cancer and high fat intake. It was found that Puerto Ricans consumed large amounts of animal fat but have very low incidences of colon and breast cancer. (4)

Population 8 – Japanese

The Japanese have the longest life span of any population in the world. This is largely attributed to a low fat diet. The Japanese eat little dairy, but their diet is not low fat! It possible that the Japanese consume more cholesterol than we do in the UK or the Americans! This is due to the amounts of shellfish and fish broth they consume on a daily basis. The diet also contain moderate amounts of egg, beef, pork, chicken, seafood and organ meats. What the Japanese do NOT do is consume a lot of vegetable oil, white flour or processed foods. Since WWII the life span of the Japanese has increase in line with the increase of the amount of animal fat and protein in their diet. (4)

Population 9 – France

The French diet is loaded with saturated fat in the form of butter, eggs, cheese, cream, liver and meats. In Gascony Goose and duck liver for a staple part of the diet. In this region 80 out of 100,000 middle aged men get heart disease. Across France it about 145 in every 100,000 in middle aged men and in America 315 out of every 100,000 middle aged men get heart disease.

Although the French are not suffering from Heart disease they do have a high incidence of degenerative diseases from the large amount of sugar, white flour and the time saving processed foods. (4)

Just to finish I would like to look at the 3 longest living populations in the developed world. First place goes to the Japanese, second to the Swiss and third place is a tie between Austria and Greece. All of the countries have moderate to high saturated fat intakes.

We could go on to look at animal studies but I have to ask you if you were a rabbit would you not keel over and die if you were force fed meats and cholesterol that you body has no idea how to digest because you are designed to process grass and dandelion leaves? I think your own common sense can put that one together without any pushing from me!

Lol

Committed to your health and success

Keith