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RE: If your doctor tells you to give up saturated fat "because cholesterol" -- or because any reason, really -- RUN!
Saturated fat effects different people in different ways according to genes. If you have high LDL cholesterol then avoiding saturated fat can help lower your LDL. Most Americans do have high LDL cholesterol. LDL should be lower than 70 to be optimal, and never rise about 100 to maintain good health. Most Americans have LDL far above 70.
Saturated fat is not required to be ingested for human health. The body makes the cholesterol it needs. If you consume no saturated fat a day in your life you will make all the cholesterol you need.
Yes, saturated fat is required for human health. Please read the resources.
Of course, IF you are a veg/an, you and I will never see eye-to-eye. That is fine. It's your health and it's still a free country :) At the least you might listen to #2, only 20 minutes and pretty eye-opening.
High LDL is a problem for many people, Chris and Chris talk about that in #4 and how to mitigate it.
Gov agencies and doctors have pushed the lie to avoid saturated fats to lower cholesterol. The resulting chain of events and misinformation has caused a health crisis like no other. Humans in "civilized" cultures are fatter and sicker than they've ever been. There's a YouTube video called "The Oiling of America" that goes into this debacle in depth.
So why are vegetarians who don't consume any saturated fat able to live on average longer than non-vegetarians who consume lots of saturated fat? I'm only looking at the fact that if what you say is true why did Pythagoras live so long? That said, vegetarian and non-vegetarian have the same all cause mortality so my point is only that not consuming saturated fat does not harm human health in any way I could find in my research.
I do not claim vegetarians aren't just as likely to die, just not from heart disease. I also don't claim all people who consume a lot of saturated fat die of heart disease but only it increases the risk of high LDL which is associated with heart disease.
The evidence is that the body makes saturated fat specifically from excess carbs. High carb diets are probably worse than high saturated fat diets but the high saturated fat diet in a person who has genetically high cholesterol is only going to push LDL even higher. None of this proves saturated fat causes heart disease and my argument is only that it's not necessary for humans to consume it in their diet to be healthy. Eating carbs causes the body to generate saturated fat.
The study that proves vegs live longer than omnivores is based on a questionnaire and admits that it doesn't take into account uncontrolled variables. I would NOT bet the farm on that study.
Here's a great article debunking the notion that the centenarians in Costa Rica's "blue zone" were vegetarian: Costa Rica: Land of the Centenarians
Study 2 is flat out wrong on what are bad fats and what are good fats. Read my resources!
Study 3 is great... really makes MY point. Until you get to who funded the study. Lol. Darn it.
Your body doesn't make saturated fat from anything! If you eat too many calories of any kind, your body will store that as BODY fat. Body fat is different from saturated fat.
ALL carbs turn to sugar in the body. All of them. Even broccoli. And sugar causes and/or plays a role in more health problems than anything else.
PLEASE read/listen to the resources I posted before posting anything else for me to peruse. I'm reading your links, you are not reading mine. Play fair.
The LDL discussion is quite complex and there are many factors contributing to heart disease. Pesticides, herbicides, chemicals, environmental toxins, pharmaceuticals -- so many factors that nobody studies because Big Chemical, Big Ag and Big Pharma don't pay for it! To blame high LDL on saturated fat is not taking into account the big picture. By a long shot.