Wow, you summarized things that have been rattling around in my brain the last few days.
Most people I know that have adopted a KD have done so because the quality of life is heads and shoulders above anything else they've tried. And since we all die from something, I think it's a reasonable choice to choose overall quality of life.
Also, I'll add that the clients I've worked with that adopt a KD after a SAD don't necessarily consume higher Sat Fat because SAD UPFs generally have so much delicious cheese (cheese-like powdered substance, that is.)
Glad it resonated! I just think folks in the health space generally do a poor job of highlighting trade-offs. As Thomas Sowell said "There are no solutions, only tradeoffs..."
Hope you are well and hopefully will see you IRL sometime soon!
Everyone seems to be throwing the baby out with a bath water and assuming that everyone that adopts a KD will experience plaque progression (and that this will lead to an untimely death from CVD.)
I remember a presentation from Dr. Sarah Hallberg (rest in peace) about the cholesterol numbers she saw of people going on KD and they were a full array. Her conclusion was that we need more research.
There is still a lot we don't know.
We don't know if LMHR people were on a standard American diet (or any number of other diets) if the progression would be better or worse.
We don't know if the control group would have similar progression if they were on KD.
Research papers typically conclude with "more research needed" and I think that's where we are after this study, too.
There was a lot of heterogeneity in the LHMR study and apoe status could well have contributed to that. I would also like to have seen status of participants in regard to things like copper status. Given that copper deficiency reliably causes hypercholesterolemia that could be one other factor (I’m a bit of a fan of Morley Robbins and the root cause protocol). Leslie Klevay spent his entire career looking at this with animal models and identified something like 80 commonalities between heart disease in copper deficient animals and these conditions in humans.
2018 randomized controlled trial (RCT) by Engel et al. in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared butter, cheese, and vegetable oil diets. Butter significantly increased LDL cholesterol (+10%) and apolipoprotein B (a marker of atherogenic lipoproteins) compared to cheese, despite equivalent fat intake. The authors suggested butter’s lack of a dairy “matrix” (e.g., proteins, calcium) may explain its stronger effect.
• A 2020 study by Feeney et al. in Nutrients found that cream consumption (high in SFAs) raised fasting LDL cholesterol and triglyceride-rich lipoproteins more than fermented dairy like yogurt, likely due to its liquid fat delivery and absence of bioactive peptides.
Wow, you summarized things that have been rattling around in my brain the last few days.
Most people I know that have adopted a KD have done so because the quality of life is heads and shoulders above anything else they've tried. And since we all die from something, I think it's a reasonable choice to choose overall quality of life.
Also, I'll add that the clients I've worked with that adopt a KD after a SAD don't necessarily consume higher Sat Fat because SAD UPFs generally have so much delicious cheese (cheese-like powdered substance, that is.)
Glad it resonated! I just think folks in the health space generally do a poor job of highlighting trade-offs. As Thomas Sowell said "There are no solutions, only tradeoffs..."
Hope you are well and hopefully will see you IRL sometime soon!
It would be swell to see you, too!
Everyone seems to be throwing the baby out with a bath water and assuming that everyone that adopts a KD will experience plaque progression (and that this will lead to an untimely death from CVD.)
I remember a presentation from Dr. Sarah Hallberg (rest in peace) about the cholesterol numbers she saw of people going on KD and they were a full array. Her conclusion was that we need more research.
There is still a lot we don't know.
We don't know if LMHR people were on a standard American diet (or any number of other diets) if the progression would be better or worse.
We don't know if the control group would have similar progression if they were on KD.
Research papers typically conclude with "more research needed" and I think that's where we are after this study, too.
There was a lot of heterogeneity in the LHMR study and apoe status could well have contributed to that. I would also like to have seen status of participants in regard to things like copper status. Given that copper deficiency reliably causes hypercholesterolemia that could be one other factor (I’m a bit of a fan of Morley Robbins and the root cause protocol). Leslie Klevay spent his entire career looking at this with animal models and identified something like 80 commonalities between heart disease in copper deficient animals and these conditions in humans.
Any resources on the elevated/disproportionate cream and butter risk?
Here’s a few starts,
2018 randomized controlled trial (RCT) by Engel et al. in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared butter, cheese, and vegetable oil diets. Butter significantly increased LDL cholesterol (+10%) and apolipoprotein B (a marker of atherogenic lipoproteins) compared to cheese, despite equivalent fat intake. The authors suggested butter’s lack of a dairy “matrix” (e.g., proteins, calcium) may explain its stronger effect.
• A 2020 study by Feeney et al. in Nutrients found that cream consumption (high in SFAs) raised fasting LDL cholesterol and triglyceride-rich lipoproteins more than fermented dairy like yogurt, likely due to its liquid fat delivery and absence of bioactive peptides.