The Diet Heart Hypothesis was just that - a Hypothesis.... a thought up scheme, never proven.

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Sunday, January 23, 2011 Here Comes Another $$$ Spinner

Seems there is talk in the food industry that the Fat is bad for you hypothesis is about to lie down and die! Can't say I am sorry, should have happened years ago - sorry Ancel Old Chap!

But why now you may ask...... what could possibly bring on such a huge about face? Couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that patents on some pharmaceuticals like Lipitor are or have already run out could it?

The Diet Heart Hypothesis was just that - a Hypothesis.... a thought up scheme, never proven. But because it was making so much money for the investors and companies involved, they fought long and hard to get everyman (grin) and his dog on board and popping their pills.

Now the pills will not make them so much money, they have to look for the next BIG blockbuster drug, with its own peculiar methodology and religion ... to drum up fervor and zeal, thereby making gazillions for the companies and their investors.

Watch out folks the fat is bad religion is about to have a HUGE about face! (please note italics are from the actual article)

However the very foundation of this hypothesis was shaken to the core at the AHA annual conference in Chicago in 2010. Amid great excitement, the pharmaceutical giant Merck revealed results of a preliminary safety study for a drug that could usher in a new age for treatment and prevention of heart disease: a cholesterol raising drug! In the safety study lasting 18 months with 1,600 participants, total cholesterol was raised 20% by the drug anacetrapib without any side effects. An efficacy trail of 30,000 participants with several cardiovascular end-points is scheduled to begin in 2011 and end in 2015 to verify if cholesterol raising can reduce actual incidence of heart disease. But the search for cholesterol raising drugs is not new. Most of the cholesterol lowering statin drugs have reached the limits of their heart protective capabilities (and are near the end of their patent lives). For several years drug companies have been quietly searching for the next blockbuster that will be more effective than statins. One class of candidates is cholesterol raising drugs.

Get ready to throw away your Lipitor folks, they will have a new drug to prescribe you in the near future. I can't wait to see how this unfolds, how they will explain away the untold damage they have done to humankind, by insisting we lower our cholesterol numbers, to unhealthy levels.

But haven't we been told over and over to lower our cholesterol, not increase it? Yes, but the cholesterol story has been repeatedly oversimplified. Total cholesterol is made up of 2 major components, good cholesterol (LDL) and bad cholesterol (HDL). So when your doctor tells you to lower your cholesterol, he really means lower your bad cholesterol – if you inadvertently lower your good cholesterol you could increase your risk of heart disease. The statin drugs selectively lower the bad cholesterol without lowering the good – and they work, reducing risk of heart attack by about 30%. The new class of drugs is designed to increase the good cholesterol, without increasing the bad. So in this case increasing cholesterol is a good thing. The scientific community is hoping that the upcoming Merck study will show a further reduction in risk of heart attack similar in magnitude to the statins – a real breakthrough.

As far as I am concerned, that statement above in red (coloured by me) is a barefaced lie, manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry to keep doctors pushing these drugs onto their patients!

Where does this leave the diet heart hypothesis, saturated fat and the simplified "lower your cholesterol" story? It leaves it in deep trouble. The advent of drugs that increase good cholesterol and thereby reduce risk of heart disease (yet to be proven), will force scientists to take another look at the effects of food ingredients on good cholesterol, not just the total and the bad. Applying this new approach could have a significant impact on national dietary recommendations that are designed to reduce risk of heart disease.

Ohhhh I can hardly wait to see the advertising campaign they work up for this new scheme. Hopefully they will turn the Food Pyramid upside down, while at the same time telling us that fats are good for us! I can dream can't I?

A large body of data showing the effect of food ingredients on both good and bad cholesterol has already been generated over the last 40 years. So far, the evaluation of this data has mostly focused on the bad cholesterol, while neglecting or even ignoring data for good cholesterol. But a review of the data for saturated fat gives a very unexpected result. The food component that increases good cholesterol the most is saturated fat! Yes, the same "artery clogging" saturated fat that has been demonized for decades. Although saturated fat still raises bad cholesterol, it appears that it raises good cholesterol by an equivalent amount and the effect of the bad cholesterol is mostly cancelled out. In this scenario saturated fat is expected to have little or no effect on risk of heart disease.

UFFE was right folks. Eat fat and live!

But good and bad cholesterol are components of blood, and not actual disease. What about direct evidence for the effect of saturated fat on incidence of heart disease? Early in 2010 a large human study measuring the link between intake of food components and heart disease was published. The study included over 340,000 people spanning 23 years. Here is what the authors said about saturated fat: "…there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD." Or in plain English - saturated fats have no effect on heart disease. Although this statement appears to fly in the face of everything we have been taught for decades, it corresponds exactly with powerful ability of saturated fat to increase good cholesterol. Neglect of the positive effect of saturated fat on good cholesterol has made it look worse that it really is.

A convincing body of evidence already exists that saturated fat is not as bad as once thought. Nevertheless public policy continues to demand further big reductions in saturated fat intake. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) recommended reducing saturates by 5% of the diet. If this huge reduction was ever implemented, the US dairy and meat industries - the main dietary source of saturated fat - would be severely damaged, and all for nothing. Isn't it time to abandon the failed Diet Heart Hypothesis and focus our resources on issues that really make a difference to public health?

The Diet Heart Hypothesis is DEAD folks..... time we buried it and moved on.... be be very very careful, they will make a pill, another blockbuster drug to raise your HDL folks..... when all you need to do is reduce your carbohydrates, white breads, simple starches, junk foods etc, and go back to eating good health fats again.

I wonder how they will breed the fat back into the food chain? Could it be as simple as feeding cattle on grass, and stopping the hormones?

Above Article from: Food Processing.com
Also worth a read:
The Dirty Little Secret of the Diet-Heart Hypothesis
WHY THE CHOLESTEROL-HEART DISEASE THEORY IS WRONG  Dr. Malcolm Kendrick M.D.