The path of true knowledge seldom runs smooth.
Ever since people began turning the eye of suspicion on cholesterol,the general public has been subjected to contradictory recommendations about what to eat. A recent blog post in the New York Times draws attention to a study from some 40 years ago that seems to suggest that eating less meat and saturated fats did not necessarily increase your expected length of life. Read the article carefully for yourself; often the studies and their aims are not what you expect from the titles of the articles.
I myself recently almost had a heart attack, and I’m obviously interested in what an ideal diet should be, both from the point of view of eating stuff that tastes good to me, and from the point of view of increasing my chances of avoiding a painful, and potentially harmful heart “event” as much as possible. A full-blown heart-attack can end up restricting your activities, especially in your work, and in your fun, as well. And it is no joke going through an almost attack; I can hardly imagine a complete heart attack.
[Any restriction in blood flow into the heart muscle—in contrast to reduction of blood through the heart, which is also troublesome; when the heart doesn’t do its job, you need to have those little nylon Oxygen tubes going into your nose—causes pain, because the heart needs a constant supply of Oxygen to do its work. A minor reduction is slightly painful, but doesn’t injure the heart. A complete blockage of one of the blood supply vessels (arteries) results is terrible pain, and actual injury to the heart.]
Anyone who has lived through the last three decades has got the general impression that
- Cholesterol is bad generally, and the LDL Cholesterol is the worst.
- A lot of heart artery blockage actually consists of Cholesterol.
- There is something called Plaque in the artery walls that also blocks them.
- Saturated fats are bad.
- Fats in red meats are the worst. Fats in eggs and dairy are also pretty bad.
- Unsaturated fats and monosaturated fats are good for you.
- Omega fatty acids are ... what? Maybe good for you. These are found in eggs, and Avocadoes, and some sorts of fish, e.g. Salmon and Trout.
Now, you’re not supposed to fry under high heat if you can avoid it. High temperatures are bad for most foods, because it changes the chemistry of the foods in a bad way. (It’s supposedly worst when you fry cured meats, e.g. bacon and ham. I’m not completely sure that I’ve got that right.) But I seemed to read that the high temperatures made unsaturated oils themselves dangerous, whereas saturated oils didn’t change very much when heated. This is called the stability of the oil; saturated oils are more stable, precisely because they’re saturated. So Coconut Oil was considered a good oil for frying, stir-frying in a wok, etc. To date I have not seen anything to contradict that belief.
what we found out
The Mayo Clinic has a web page about dietary fats (fats that are parts of your food).
If you’re not frying with the oil, but using them for, say, baking bread, the polyunsaturated, or at least monounsaturated oils are better, because as far as I know, and I’m not really an expert: baking doesn’t damage the oils. The same goes with using a little oil for salads: Olive Oil, which is monounsaturated, is a good choice. As far as I know.
As I understand the article, it says
(1) less fat is better than more fat. Fat is concentrated calories, so (within reason) fewer calories is better than lots of calories.
(2) Omega Fatty Acids, a natural component of salmon and such oily fish, actually helps lower harmful cholesterol, and increase the helpful high-density-lipoproteins which are beneficial. (I’m not sure what they do, but they probably steer bad cholesterol away from trouble-spots.)
(3) Trans Fat is a family of substances that include partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which go into processed foods, e.g. margarine, spreads, etc. These are worse for you than most sorts of other fats.
(4) Monounsaturated fats help to reduce harmful cholesterol, and apparently also help with controlling blood sugar, for those who are Type 2 Diabetics.
(5) Don’t avoid all fats. Some vitamins are soluble only in fats (A, E, D), and without fats, things don’t work well. But liquid oils, e.g. Olive Oil, are better than solid oils, generally. (Remember, I think that a little bit of Coconut Oil is better for cooking your stir-fry with than Olive Oil, but that’s my opinion; the Mayo Clinic has not offered an opinion on that point.)
A Web Page from Harvard Medical Schools echoes the recommendations from the Mayo Clinic page: eat fewer calories altogether, but do eat polyunsaturated fats, which improve your “cholesterol profile,” and monounsaturated fats, which help with cholesterol, and also with diabetes. Omega Fatty Acids are also good for you for the same reasons. But they add an important warning: eating refined carbohydrates is bad for you, and can offset the benefits of eating fewer saturated fats. What are refined carbohydrates? An example is refined white flour used in white bread, and pastries. Wonder Bread, which kids like so much, reduces the good cholesterol, and I think I read somewhere that it can trigger the onset of Type 2 Diabetes.
I have always been aware that refined carbs are generally not good, but never read that they are this bad for anyone. I would take this warning seriously. Whole grain bread is better.
But lately, I’ve been reading that eggs are not only not bad for you, they’re actually good for you. That goes against everything I was taught about eggs. But I’m eager to believe this bit of news, because I love eggs! I’m also reading that butter is better for anyone (in moderation, of course) than spreads and margarine, which contain hydrogenated oils. I don’t think there is any doubt that eating butter in moderation is better than slathering margarine or spreads on your bread, or cooking with it. So I’m off on a quest: what’s the real story about cholesterol, oils and fats, and these Omega things? Inquiring minds want to know.
[To be continued.]
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