Stunning: Saturated fat and the European paradox
, medical review by Dr. Bret Scher, MD
in Heart disease, Saturated fat 
Wow. This is mindblowing.
Have you heard about the French Paradox? French people traditionally eat a lot of saturated fat, like butter – yet they generally have less heart disease than other populations. A lot of brainpower has been wasted to explain this – does perhaps the red wine protect them?
But maybe it’s not really a paradox.
That’s it’s been seen as a paradox in the past is probably because older observational studies have shown weak associations between saturated fat consumption and increased risk of heart disease. However, there are many explanations for these findings, such as “the healthy user effect.” People who adhere to other health-related behaviors are also likely to avoid saturated fat because they’ve been told it is “unhealthy.” But there’s no way to know if their good health is due to avoiding saturated fat or is the result of all of those other behaviors – or caused by something else entirely.
That’s because observational studies can only show associations; they can’t show cause-effect relationships. There may be other factors besides dietary choices or health-related behaviors that cause the outcomes seen in these older studies.
I was just shown the diagram above, recently published in the journal Nutrition. It’s based on WHO and FAO statistics over the average intake of saturated fat in 41 European countries in 1998 (the latest available data), and the age-adjusted risk of dying from heart disease. I added some explanations.
More saturated fat, less heart disease
It’s a stunner. The French paradox is actually a French-Swiss-Icelandic-Swedish-German-Austrian-etc.-paradox!
- France eats the most saturated fat and has the lowest rate of heart disease deaths in all of Europe.
- Switzerland eats second-most saturated fat and has the second-lowest mortality.
- The countries eating more saturated fat have less heart disease, period.
Less saturated fat, more heart disease
And the countries eating less saturated fat? Like Georgia, Moldavia, Azerbaijan etc.? Well, they seem to have the highest mortality from heart disease in Europe.
It’s a Pan-European paradox now.
No need to hold the butter?
What does it mean?
Correlations between populations, like these, are known as ecological data. It doesn’t really prove anything. In other words, the diagram above does not prove that saturated fat protects you from heart disease. There are obviously many other differences between these populations, not just the intake of saturated fat.
But a diagram like this can provide a counter-argument to the observational studies mentioned above. It’s unlikely that saturated fat would be a major cause of deaths from heart disease, when European populations stuffing themselves with it have fewer deaths from heart disease, without exception.
Can this possibly be a weird coincidence? Can saturated fat still possibly be bad? What do you say?
PS
When I recently interviewed professor Loren Cordain about our hunter-gatherer ancestors, his guess was that they, on average, got about 15 percent of their calories from saturated fat.
If that’s true, it means that our genes should be well adapted to eating about 15 percent saturated fat. That’s more than twice as much as the maximum set in the advice from the USDA and others. Yet it is about as much as consumed by the populations in Europe today with the best heart health. Coincidence?
More: The Paleo Diet Explained
180 comments
Finding low quallity arguments to support cause resembles blind religious worship.
But we know that this not prove anything.. and mayby one can make others look at the seven country digram in a the same way.. when they compare?
They/we have altso afford to eat what we want.. so we can swith to healtyer food if we got a healt problem of any sort!
And the main energy for Japanese is not rice.. its fish and seafood.. at least for those afford of that!
And on top of that.. it seems that those how is eating moste fat and protein have a longer and healtyer life!
"The present paper examines the relationship of nutritional status to further life expectancy and health status in the Japanese elderly based on 3 epidemiological studies. 1. Nutrient intakes in 94 Japanese centenarians investigated between 1972 and 1973 showed a higher proportion of animal protein to total proteins than in contemporary average Japanese. 2. High intakes of milk and fats and oils had favorable effects on 10-year (1976-1986) survivorship in 422 urban residents aged 69-71. The survivors revealed a longitudinal increase in intakes of animal foods such as eggs, milk, fish and meat over the 10 years. 3. Nutrient intakes were compared, based on 24-hour dietary records, between a sample from Okinawa Prefecture where life expectancies at birth and 65 were the longest in Japan, and a sample from Akita Prefecture where the life expectancies were much shorter. Intakes of Ca, Fe, vitamins A, B1, B2, C, and the proportion of energy from proteins and fats were significantly higher in the former than in the latter. Intakes of carbohydrates and NaCl were lower."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1407826
And I dont think there rice are protecting them.
"Results: A total of 1103 new cases of type 2 diabetes were self-reported. There was a significant association between rice intake and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in women; the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio for the highest compared with lowest quartiles of rice intake was 1.65 (95% CI: 1.06, 2.57; P for trend = 0.005). In men, the association was unclear, although there was a suggestion of a positive association in persons who were not engaged in strenuous physical activity (P for trend = 0.08).
Conclusions: Elevated intake of white rice is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in Japanese women. The finding that is suggestive of a positive association of rice intake in physically inactive men deserves further investigation."
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2010/10/27/ajcn.2010.29512
And I think you are smart enough to understand what its all about?
I can provide more such studies if you like?
"Results
Four articles were identified that included seven distinct prospective cohort analyses in Asian and Western populations for this study. A total of 13,284 incident cases of type 2 diabetes were ascertained among 352,384 participants with follow-up periods ranging from 4 to 22 years. Asian (Chinese and Japanese) populations had much higher white rice consumption levels than did Western populations (average intake levels were three to four servings/day versus one to two servings/week). The pooled relative risk was 1.55 (95% confidence interval 1.20 to 2.01) comparing the highest with the lowest category of white rice intake in Asian populations, whereas the corresponding relative risk was 1.12 (0.94 to 1.33) in Western populations (P for interaction=0.038). In the total population, the dose-response meta-analysis indicated that for each serving per day increment of white rice intake, the relative risk of type 2 diabetes was 1.11 (1.08 to 1.14) (P for linear trend<0.001).
CONCLUSION:
Higher consumption of white rice is associated with a significantly increased risk of type 2 diabetes, especially in Asian (Chinese and Japanese) populations."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22422870
But its all about the conclusions.. and I say its about that they (Asians) are not of a different genetic sort!
They are not protected frome diabetes becuse rice is there staple food.. for thuosand year!
They get diabetes and such diseases when they adapt a modern life style.. whit modern foods!
And Robert got it right.. (I think?) its about other things.. like.. whealty countrys have free or cheap heltcare.. in whealty countrys peopel have aford to eat expensive foods.. like meat/dairys/fish/cheese.. and whit those foods comes fat!
It was that Ancel Keys did find.. but he didnt got the right conclusions!
http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/12/22/the-truth-about-ancel-keys-weve-all-...
And its not about fat that they think befor.. its more about a new life style.. a western life style.. cheap food.. lots of energy, sedentary life and one get old.. if one get old one often get old age related diseases!
Those poor people in poor countryes dies earlyer of all cause illness but not old age illnes!
At first.. there are no questions about that high glycemic load and dependance is one (1) cause to diabetes type 2!
The second is genetic predisposal.. and thats a flaw of being human.. one can never be to careful to choose the right parents!
And it seems that a modern life style excacerbate the problem?
And on top of that.. its not only about to chose what to eat.. its altso about to chose about what your food have eating!
The food today is to cheap.. and its becuse they are grown/feed garbage.. totaly out of that nutrients you need!
And if you have read about the new discussions about K2.. it seems that our ancestors got that frome the food.. but we are forced to by it as pills.. becuse the modern food lacks it!
Soo.. its needed that our food is provided real food altso.. and for K2 they have to eat grass.. not soya beans!
Its rather normal fat.. but to day moste people is scared of fat.. then it seems high for those.
Calcium without magnesium will lead to a calcified coronary. Other health problems will occur too.
Google "chocolate consumption per person by country" and you will see that all these countries have high chocolate consumption per capita, and thereby higher magnesium levels.
We've been led to believe here in North America to avoid a calcium.. ahem...... dairy deficiency and thereby consume lots of dairy without a commensurate increase in magnesium, while magnesium from vegetables and seeds has been declining from depleted soils.
Japan: Pneumonia Becomes Leading Cause of Death - Pacific Bridge ...
http://www.pacificbridgemedical.com/news.../japan-pneumonia-becomes-l....
--- the three causes of death (cancer, hypertension, heart disease) sound a lot like hyperinsulinemia. CARBS + cigarette smoking + alcoholism + environmental toxins + hyperdensity in the population are just more contributing factors to poor health
High consumption of PUFA, trans fat and fruktose (not balanced with glucose) is.
When you combine PUFA or trans fat with carbs like rice and bread you will gain weight, and cause inflammation in the body.
But carbs with saturated fat, or low fat will not cause the same.
Just look at Switzerland, France and Denmark.. we eat real butter and lots of potatoes, bread and rice. (In Denmark, it’s people who eat omega 6 oils, fastfood and margarine that gets fat)
And in Thailand where the obesity is low as well, they eat coconutoil and rice.
Indians were once skinny, when they consumed ghee and butter, but after American fastfood chains arrived and the consumption of PUFA oil increased, they are now suffering from extreme obesity and diabetes.. especially young children.
Monounsaturated fatty acids are not bad either.. but it’s hard to find good quality High oleic olive oil... most are High in PUFA, and therefor cause free radicals.
There’s one more factor though... conventional flour/bread in America is fortified with iron and sometimes other things, thats what’s causing the gluten-belly and weightgain. When sweden banned fortification of flour in 1996, people with gluten intolerance and celiac disease decreased around 92%..
I have found so many people on the internet saying that they suddenly lost weight, and could easily tolerate bread and croissants when they went to france.. some even brought some flour home from france, and had the same experience. But as soon as they ate supermarket bread or used American flour they gained weight and had digestive issues.
Don’t be afraid of carbs or butter! We need both to support a healthy metabolism and hormone synthesis.
I eat around 2500-300 kalories/day.
I only cook with butter or coconutoil, eat lots of cheese and cream, eggs, whole milk, potatoes, white bread, rice, oats vegetables and mostly beef.
I also consume table sugar everyday on oats, in cakes or chokolate.
(No hfcs)
When I eat a croissant from a local bakery I make sure it’s made with real butter, or I won’t eat it.
I have not always been eating like this.
When I ate highly processed food with bad oils, my weight was around 67-73 kg, it peaked in Australia at 73 kg.
The bottom line is that this "study" is meaningless.
The high saturated fat countries have a Dementia problem.
A study shows diabetes of about with an average BMI 29. Another showed high saturated fat cause no diabetes 65years. Dementia increases when plant omega 3 conversion to marine omega 3(EPA/DHA) diminish in elderly people already at 50 years.
Japan with very high fish consumption and high vegetable consumption, the oldest population worlwide has lowest amounts of dementia, heart, lung, prostata and breast cancer.
Still under investigation are plant components e.g. 2% in olive oil, which makes it healthy for brain, bone, muscle and blood pressure as part of the Mediterranean diet, or the high amount of fermented components in Japanese food by Koji fungi like in Miso or natto bacteries in Natto.