We did the Right Things . . . . .so we thought...
We switched from steak to salmon, from meat to veggies, from fries to broccoli etc. .
We exercised when we could find the time.
But .. an 1990 book called "Heart Failure" labeled the idea that you can reduce cholesterol through diet, a myth and stated that it does not follow that you will live longer when you lower your cholesterol.
Fact is that the largest number of heart attacks occur at a serum cholesterol level that is between 200 and 235 mgs per deciliter of blood.
So back to bacon and eggs for breakfast?
Well . . there appears to be some slowly emerging evidence that it might not have been a very good idea to replace your fat intake with the starchy stuff, especially not with the simpler carbs like white flour and sugar.
And a second increasingly suspect part of our diet could very well be the very thing we were taught to change to : vegetable oils and other polyunsaturated fats. Anything that is high in Omega 6. Our northamerican diets provide us with too much Omega 6 and not enough Omega3. The relationship should be in the range of 2:1 (N6:N3). Better still 1:1
The polyunsaturated fats are less stable and more prone to damage by free radicals and thereby damaging the artery walls with the ensuing hardening and plaque forming. It ain't the fat folks, it never was.
Another thing is still confusing the experts. Your liver is happily turning your carbohydrates into saturated fats!! Might as well eat them yourself. Right? Would be a lot easier on your liver and your pancreas and with less chance of developing diabetes type 2.
What we know so far is that:
Our body needs fat; we do in fact live by the grace of fat and protein. And water .
We need far less carbs than originally was thought, and the carbs that we need should be of a different kind;
Saturated fats from pasture fed cattle are a lot healthier than from grainfed cattle, actually half of it is mono unsaturated.;
Butter from cattle on pasture is one of the healthiest saturated fats because of the high content of Vit A and Vit K2;
Red meat from pastured cattle is healthier than grainfed, high in VitB and if barbequed rare, high in Q10.
Example:... consider a steak--to be precise, a porterhouse, select cut, with a half-centimeter layer of fat, the nutritional constituents of which can be found in the Nutrient Database for Standard Reference at the USDA Web site. After broiling, this porterhouse reduces to a serving of almost equal parts fat and protein.
Fifty-one percent of the fat is monounsaturated, of which virtually all (90%) is oleic acid, the same healthy fat that's in olive oil.
Saturated fat constitutes 45% of the total fat, but a third of that is stearic acid, which is, at the very least, harmless. The remaining 4% of the fat is polyunsaturated, which also improves cholesterol levels. In sum, well over half--and perhaps as much as 70%--of the fat content of a porterhouse will improve cholesterol levels compared to what they would be if bread, potatoes, or pasta were consumed instead. The remaining 30% will raise LDL but will also raise HDL. All of this suggests that eating a porterhouse steak rather than carbohydrates might actually improve heart disease risk, although no nutritional authority who hasn't written a high-fat diet book will say this publicly......
A warning may be warranted: you may get pretty disgusted
"....the French paradox--the French have little heart disease despite seemingly high saturated fat consumption--the real paradox is throughout Southern Europe, where heart disease death rates have steadily dropped while animal fat consumption has steadily risen, says University of Cambridge epidemiologist John Powles, who studies national disease trends."
As mentioned, we need Omega 3 (n-3) far more than we need Omega 6.
On September 8, 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave "qualified health claim" status to EPA and DHA n−3 fatty acids, stating that "supportive but not conclusive research shows that consumption of EPA and DHA [n−3] fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease''... And....The Canadian Government has recognized the importance of DHA omega-3 and permits the following biological role claim for DHA: "DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid, supports the normal development of the brain, eyes and nerves."
Basically our bodies convert EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) into DHA (docosahexaenoic acid)
Be aware that ALA (alpha linolenic acid) is also an Omega 3 but of a variety that needs to be converted into EPA, which needs to be converted into DHA. Our bodies are not really very good at this conversion and if too much Omega 6 is present it is even worse.
In other words getting our Omega 3 from plant material is not really an option. It has to come from seafood, especially cold water fish or from Krill, the mini shrimp like creatures at the bottom of the food chain. Easily digested as it comes in handy capsule form as Krill oil.
