Thursday, June 23, 2011

Davis: Eat Triglycerides


Many physicians are frightened of dietary triglycerides, i.e, fats, for fear it will increase blood levels of triglycerides. It’s true: Consuming triglycerides does indeed increase blood levels of triglycerides–but only a little bit. Following a fat-rich meal of, say, a 3-egg omelet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 oz whole milk mozzarella cheese (total 55 grams triglycerides), blood triglycerides will increase modestly. A typical response would be an increase from 60 mg/dl to 80 mg/dl–an increase, but quite small.                        
Counterintuitively, it’s the foods that convert to triglycerides in the liver that send triglycerides up, not 20 mg/dl, but 200, 400, or 1000 mg/dl or more. What foods convert to triglycerides in the liver? Carbohydrates. 
http://www.trackyourplaque.com/blog/2011/06/eat-triglycerides.html

While all of the above is true and easily observed when an individual reduces their carbohydrate intake, the real issue is not "high triglycerides."  In other words, neither triglycerides, or LDL, or some other particle floating around are causing vascular disease or accellerating aging.  I think the driver for all of that, for all of the diseases of "civilization", is the inflammatory cascade that results from excess glucose. All of the other markers and results we recognize - CRP, H1C, small dense LDL, low HDL, high triglycerides, excessive abdominal circumference, high blood pressure, obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, stoke, kidney disease, gout, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, erectile disfunction, depression, Alzheimer's, ALS, MS, Parkinson's - may very well be driven by genetically driven and therefore highly varied responses to the completely novel inflammatory states created by the neolithic agents of disease.  


Even if your MD would not agree that these disease states have a common cause, I suspect they would all agree that 'losing weight' will reduce your risks for most of aforementioned unfortunate ends.


Yes - it's a little more complicated than one could summarize in a paragraph!  But I hope the point was made.  So in return for eating meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, little fruit or starch, and no sugar or wheat, you get a shot at dodging all these nasties, while you look feel and perform better.  


As the philosopher would say, you gotta ask yourself one thing - do you feel lucky?  

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