Quote (BigDaddyGurk @ 15 Nov 2017 13:51)
No, actually, saturated fat =/= clogged arteries / plaque build up. That is general consensus now, even the outdated AHA is slowly coming around to that realization, it's just hard to implement/distribute information in a society structured as ours. I'm not saying eating 500g of saturated fat ed isn't bad for you; obviously everything needs to be taken in moderation. But what you're getting at is a very common misconception and I don't want to come off as rude here, but it's simply not correct.
Saturated fat + refined carbs/sugar is very bad, as seen with lots of fast food.
Increased fat consumption is much like the dietary cholesterol craze we saw with eggs when that was thought to be extremely unhealthy. Also sheds a little light on the misconceptions surrounding cholesterol. HDL/LDL isn't simply good/bad cholesterol, LDL technically isn't even cholesterol. Keto diets do show increases in HDL/LDL, but again, does not have a linear correlation so to speak with heart disease or plaque buildup etc.
I was listening to a guy named Chris Kesser iirc speaking, and he brought up the case of a hunter/gather population (chemani? spelling definitely off) in south america I believe, where they follow a predominantly keto based diet - high fats, mod protein, very low carb a.k.a what is naturally available - and one of the things shown in their population was a crazy difference in vascular health in comparison to those in western civilizations. Something like 80-90 year olds having the vascular health of 40-50 year olds, no plaque buildup at all, plus some other stuff I don't remember off the top of my head.
Those populations move. And there is a strong correlation between high consumption of saturated fats and clogged arteries. It's not the relationship everyone thought it was, but it's a real thing. I'm well aware of the recent surge of interest in the idea that saturated fat is healthy, just as I am aware of how lobbyists have pushed that information. I mean, you can probably find population studies showing that high consumption of simple carbs is the greatest thing ever, but I wouldn't want to turn that into a global position.
The only diet studies that have really interested me in terms of health are the studies related to high consumption of nutrient-dense plants. I'm not a vegetarian by any means, but those are the most interesting studies in diet.
Also, I'm not against short-term keto. I just don't like it as a long-term dietary strategy for optimal health. It's better if you're eating a lot of greens, but it still doesn't thrill me. If I had to choose between a high refined simple carb diet and a keto diet, I'll go with keto.