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23 April, 2006
Further to and all those brainwashed fat phobics here
is more data on the importance of saturated fats and the wisdom
of traditional
diets.
For example healthy lungs require saturated fats to function properly
avoiding "the very important phospholipid class called lung
surfactant is a special phospholipid with 100 percent saturated
fatty acids. It is called dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine and there
are two saturated palmitic acid molecules attached to it. When people
consume a lot of partially hydrogenated fats and oils, the trans
fatty acids are put into the phospholipids where the body normally
wants to have saturated fatty acids and the lungs may not work effectively.
Some research has suggested that trans fatty acids are causing asthma
in children.
Recent research shows that having enough saturated fat prevents
stroke; and to protect our kidneys from disease, research shows
we need certain kinds of saturated fatty acids, which are found
only in the natural fats such as animal fats and coconut and palm
kernel oils."
The following extracts/article should help destroy the myths surrounding
Saturated fats and allow many to regain their health through the
use of of this healthy fat such as organic
grass fed butter....
Chris Gupta
http://tinyurl.com/fwcaf
See also: Saturated
Fat To The Rescue
The Benefits of Saturated Fats
The much-maligned saturated fatswhich Americans are trying
to avoidare not the cause of our modern diseases. In fact,
they play many important roles in the body chemistry:
• Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50%
of the cell membranes. They are what gives our cells necessary stiffness
and integrity.
•They play a vital role in the health of our bones. For calcium to
be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure, at least
50% of the dietary fats should be saturated. (38)
• They lower Lp(a), a substance in the blood that indicates proneness
to heart disease. (39) They protect the liver from alcohol and other
toxins, such as Tylenol. (40)
•
They enhance the immune system. (41)
•
They are needed for the proper utilization of essential fatty acids.
•
Elongated omega-3 fatty acids are better retained in the tissues
when the diet is rich in saturated fats. (42)
•
Saturated 18-carbon stearic acid and 16-carbon palmitic acid are
the preferred foods for the heart, which is why the fat around the
heart muscle is highly saturated. (43) The heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of stress.
•
Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial
properties. They protect us against harmful microorganisms in the
digestive tract.
The scientific evidence, honestly evaluated, does not support the
assertion that "artery-clogging" saturated fats cause
heart disease. (44) Actually, evaluation of the fat in artery clogs
reveals that only about 26% is saturated. The rest is unsaturated,
of which more than half is polyunsaturated. (45)
(38) Watkins, B A, et al, "Importance of Vitamin E in
Bone Formation and in Chrondrocyte Function" Purdue University,
Lafayette, IN, AOCS Proceedings, 1996; Watkins, B A, and M F Seifert,
"Food Lipids and Bone Health," Food Lipids and Health,
R E McDonald and D B Min, eds, p 101, Marcel Dekker, Inc, New York,
NY, 1996
(39) Dahlen, G H, et al, J Intern Med, Nov 1998, 244(5):417-24;
Khosla, P, and K C Hayes, J Am Coll Nutr, 1996, 15:325-339; Clevidence,
B A, et al, Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, 1997, 17:1657-1661
(40) Nanji, A A, et al, Gastroenterology, Aug 1995, 109(2):547-54;
Cha, Y S, and D S Sachan, J Am Coll Nutr, Aug 1994, 13(4):338-43;
Hargrove, H L, et al, FASEB Journal, Meeting Abstracts, Mar 1999,
#204.1, p A222.
(41) Kabara, J J, The Pharmacological Effects of Lipids, The
American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, IL, 1978, 1-14; Cohen,
L A, et al, J Natl Cancer Inst, 1986, 77:43
(42) Garg, M L, et al, FASEB Journal, 1988, 2:4:A852; Oliart
Ros, R M, et al, "Meeting Abstracts," AOCS Proceedings,
May 1998, 7, Chicago, IL
(43) Lawson, L D and F Kummerow, Lipids, 1979, 14:501-503;
Garg, M L, Lipids, Apr 1989, 24(4):334-9
(44) Ravnskov, U, J Clin Epidemiol, Jun 1998, 51:(6):443-460.
See also The Cholesterol
Myths
(45) Felton, C V, et al, Lancet, 1994, 344:1195
Extracted from the must read:
The Skinny on Fats
Saturated
Fats and the Lungs
by Mary G. Enig, PhD
Yes fat? No fat? High fat? Low fat? Wrong questions! A better question
would be, how much of what kind of fat and why? Yes, we need added
fat in our diets or we lose the synergistic effects from the natural
fats in our foods. Such fats provide us with appropriate satiety
signals; they ensure absorption of important fat-soluble vitamins,
phytonutrients and important minerals; and they provide the raw
material for skin health, hormone production and adequate energy
storage.
The use of lowfat diets is increasingly recognized as counter productive.
Without good quality fat in the diet to promote proper satiety signals,
we tend to overeat those foods that are readily available. And since
"readily available" foods are either high in simple carbohydrates
or partially hydrogenated fats and oils or both, and since these
foods promote insulin resistance, it is easy to head in the direction
of obesity.
Saturated fats have gotten a bad rap. For 30 to 40 years, they
have borne the brunt of an anti-fat campaign. This campaign was
promoted by individuals in the fats and oils part of the food industry
who had great influence over government agencies, consumer groups
and the media.
Recommendations about fat in the diet made by government agencies
such as the USDA, the FDA, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute,
organizations such as the American Heart Association and consumer
activist groups such as Center for Science in the Public Interest
invariably paint saturated fat as the one bad actor in the diet
that needs to be fired from the scene.
The spokespersons from these organizations don't understand the
effects of the saturated fatty acids found in the diet and they
don't understand how much and where saturated fatty acids are normally
found in the human body. Everything these organizations report about
fat is based on what they perceive to be the effects of saturated
fatty acids on serum cholesterol levels.
So when a particular fat raises the level of the body's repair
substance, which is what cholesterol is, the question that really
should be asked is whether this is good because the body will now
get the repair substance it needs, or whether it could be bad if
getting more of the repair substance triggers the need for repair.
The former makes sense, the latter does not. A well-known New York
pathologist, Meyer Texon, MD, noted that accusing fat and cholesterol
of causing the injury that led to the atheroma is akin to accusing
the white blood cells of causing infection; they are both there
to help repair.
We need natural saturated fat in our diets. The important phospholipids
that form the membranes in all of our cells are made of mostly (half
or more) saturated fatty acids. This is especially true for parts
of our brains where more than 80 percent of the phospholipids carry
half of their fatty acids as saturated fatty acids.
When it comes to our lungs, the very important phospholipid class
called lung surfactant is a special phospholipid with 100 percent
saturated fatty acids. It is called dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine
and there are two saturated palmitic acid molecules attached to
it. When people consume a lot of partially hydrogenated fats and
oils, the trans fatty acids are put into the phospholipids where
the body normally wants to have saturated fatty acids and the lungs
may not work effectively. Some research has suggested that trans
fatty acids are causing asthma in children.
Recent research shows that having enough saturated fat prevents
stroke; and to protect our kidneys from disease, research shows
we need certain kinds of saturated fatty acids, which are found
only in the natural fats such as animal fats and coconut and palm
kernel oils.
About the Author
Mary G. Enig, PhD is the author of Know Your Fats:
The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils,
and Cholesterol, Bethesda Press, May 2000. Order your copy here:
www.enig.com/trans.html.
A low-fat diet used to be touted as a cancer-fighter.
Recent studies cast that into doubt.
The research found that women who switched to a low-fat diet later
in life did not see a reduced risk of breast cancer, colorectal
cancer or heart disease.
For eight years, researchers in the U.S. conducted three separate
studies of 48,835 women with an average age of 62 who were randomly
chosen to adopt either a low-fat diet or keep eating as normal.
Simply cutting the total fat in the diet generally didn't help
reduce the risk of cancer or heart disease among these women, according
to the studies, which were published in the Feb.
8, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Changing diet after age 50 may not work as well as eating healthy
foods earlier in life, said Mara Vitolins, a dietician who co-authored
one of the papers.
But researchers say older women shouldn't give up trying to eat
healthy. They say the focus should be on reducing saturated fats
and trans fats found in processed foods, meat and some dairy products.
Participants in the study filled out food questionnaires but the
research did not account for types of fat, and the women may not
have reduced their intake by enough to see a difference, the researchers
added.
Cancer can also take years to develop. While women in the low-fat
group did not show a reduction in cancer incidence overall, there
was a small decrease in polyps that are precursor to colon cancer.
Meanwhile, the cancer-fighting benefits of a high-fibre
diet have also been called into question. A review published
in December 2005 found that eating a diet high in fibre does not
reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.
The idea that fibre may protect against colon cancer is based on
the notion that the foods help keep us regular. By bulking up stool,
it was thought that insoluble fibre like wheat bran helps waste
move through faster, diluting carcinogens in the bowel.
But proof that dietary fibre from fruits and vegetables, cereals
or bran reduces the risk of colon cancer has been elusive, with
animal studies, population studies and randomized clinical trials
showing inconsistent results.
The latest study, published in the
Dec. 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association,
analyzed data from 13 international trials involving more than 725,000
men and women who were followed for six to 20 years. During the
follow-up, 8,081 colorectal cancer cases were identified.
Researchers concluded that a diet high in fibre did not reduce the
risk of colon cancer, after adjusting for age and other factors
such as family history, smoking and red meat intake.
Extracted from: Chasing
the cancer answer
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