This is a good talk by professor David M Diamond. Because of health issues of his own he started studying diet and health. Soon he realized that much of what we believe about healthy food today is based on bad science, preconceived notions and economic interests.
I agree with almost everything in the talk, except for one thing.
Cholesterol and eating fat
Diamond claims that eating high fat diets do not raise the cholesterol. For some people there is no change, but on average eating low carb high fat food will increase your cholesterol somewhat. This has been shown clearly in many studies.
However it’s mainly the good cholesterol, the HDL-cholesterol, that increases. And having a lot of HDL-cholesterol means that your risk of heart disease is a lot lower.
The problem with disagreeing too much
I think it’s very important that we do not fall into the trap of disagreeing with every conventional idea (e.g. global warming, vaccines, statins for people with heart disease). The fear of fat has been a mistake, but that obviously doesn’t mean that every conventional idea has been a mistake.
There may be other mistakes too. But even if so it may be wise to focus on one area at a time. Otherwise we make it harder for other people to take us seriously. The most important thing is of course to not contradict conventional ideas when they are correct.
High fat diets raises the cholesterol a little bit on average, high fat diets raises the good cholesterol. And that is a good thing.
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Just a quick comment on disagreeing too much; it's certainly fair enough to only focus on one area at a time, to avoid being seen as a fanatic (if that's even possible!). My personal experience seems to show that many people who have come over to the LCHF side will also gain the ability to question more things than just that. I do find that many, if not most, conventional theories simply aren't worth subscribing to at all. But I tend to deal with the other issues after initially getting through to people. Everybody knows that the world is a corrupt place, after all.
I find that since reading Gary Taubes GCBC I am not willing to simply accept the "authoritative word" of anyone -- no matter their credentials -- without some independent evidence that I can view for myself.
Just a quibble...thank you for your excellent blog.
As I watched, though, I kept hearing the silverware on plates and wondering what exactly, the attendees were being served that evening!
apparently the eaters were eating dessert! including cheesecake, from the comments section as the maker/writer/presenter whatever popped onto the blog to add his comments!
very good watch and brings new sources of information to an already covered subject, which is always good imo
But, for example, Barry Groves, has presented evidence in his books that the more your total cholesterol is, statistically, the longer you will live, which would surprise most people, and that statistically, at no time has it been shown that high total cholesterol in woman is associated with increased mortality (so statins for women are a complete waste of time). Also, higher cholesterol in men after a certain age is statistically associated with reduced mortalility, so statins in men after that age are a complete waste of time.
So, yes, we should be gunning for statins and the people who push them, as well as those who say that animal fats and specifically saturated fats, cause CVD.
And although there is nothing at all wrong with saturated fats, on a point of accuracy, for traditionally-raised animals, the breakdown in their fats is approximately half and half between saturated and mono-unsaturated, with a small amount of polyunsaturated.
Mono-unsaturated fats, as people will no doubt know, are the main constituent of olive oil, the darling of the Mediterranean Diet aficionados.
Of course we know that really, total cholesterol is a very poor indicator of cardio-vascular health or ill-health, and what we need to see is relative amounts of HDL and LDL, but even more importantly, whether it is "pattern A" or "pattern B", and also of course, level of Trigs. Statins don't address any of that, as far as I know.
There is too much hysteria in general over these things.
I agree there is a HUGE problem out there in the media...especially on low carb sites, about disagreement over issues such as statins, etc.
That is why I love your blog! A voice of sanity!