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Chunky
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First, I would like to give you credit for this great blog. It appears you’re quite on par with those of us who have adopted to a low carb lifestyle as a way of maintaining weight and good health.

However, a few discrepancies still remain between what you have found and what we think to be true. If you don’t mind, I will post a couple of responses on those issues. I divide them into separate posts so not to confuse each issue with too much information. First out is the fat/heart disease association:

Saturated fat and heart disease
mrthorswold: I got 1,674 hits in the pubmed archives of peer reviewed studies on saturated fats in relation with cardiovascular disease

This vast number of studies sure holds true, but a large number in itself doesn’t necessarily mean anything. In order to determine whether they are relevant to the case, you have to look at the induvidual study, the data behind it, the methodology, quality, and what they actually aim to investigate. One way of doing this is by running a meta-analysis. A meta-analysis published in JAMA last month evaluated the association of saturated fat with CVD. This meta-analysis was conducted by Patty W Siri-Tarino et al, including Ronald M Krauss, former Chairman of the American Nutrition Committee, member of the American Heart Association and Senior Advisor for The National Cholesterol Education Programme. Their analysis of 21 relevant prospective cohort studies with 5-23 years of follow-up and 347000 participants came to the following conclusion:

“A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.”

An abstract of the meta-analysis can be found here: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abst…n.2009.27725v1

The meta-analysis also demonstrated a clear publication bias through funnel plots, i.e. studies showing no relationship between saturated fat and CVD are far less likely to be published. You don’t risk your career publishing a paper going against the mountain of prior “evidence”, right? Secondly, most studies are financed by the food and pharmaceutical industry. If the result of a study doesn’t suit their business, it’s probably not going to be published.

The authors of the meta-analysis actully state: “If unpublished studies with null associations were included in the current analysis, the pooled RR estimate for CVD could be even closer to null”

In fact, a large number of the internal organs depend upon and function better when provided with sufficient amounts of saturated fat, but that’s beside the scope of this post.