dudes, read my lips: don't be scared of eating meat. We've been eating animals for at least 150,000 years, but we've only been trying to digest grains for 10,000.

there are studies, and studies, and more studies, but the epidemiological stuff is the most intriguing. What about all them Eskimos who live on seal blubber and organs, but don't have heart disease? Or all the islanders who live on coccunut, without CHD?


http://www.theomnivore.com/sat-fat-chol-CHD.html

The Masai tribe of East Africa ate ~300g a day of mostly saturated fat, but were free of CHD.

The Samburu tribe, also of East Africa, virtually live on milk, consuming ~400g of sat fat a day through the wet season, but are free of CHD.

The people of the Pukapuka and Tokeluau Pacific atolls ate a bunch of coconuts, obtaining up to 53% of their daily calories from saturated fats, but were free of CHD.

And we all probably know about the French "paraodox", who, depsite eating more saturated fat than any other Western European country, have the lowest rates of CHD


"You may also be thinking that a high level of physical activity was responsible for the low rate of CHD amongst the aforementioned populations. The Masai, for example, walk up to 30 miles a day. That no doubt helped, but not because it was countering any purported harmful effects of saturated fat. After all, heavy physical activity did not help the population of North Karelia, Finland in the 1960's. Despite a high proportion of lumberjacks and farmers, residents of this isolated community suffered one of the highest CHD rates in the world. The population of St. Helena, where motorized transport was rare and the residents were forced to transverse the hilly landscape by foot, was also observed to suffer from a high rate of CHD. Fat consumption was relatively low in St. Helena, but sugar consumption was high (17).

"Perhaps you are thinking that the Masai, Samburu and Pacific islanders are blessed with some sort of genetic protection against the allegedly harmful effects of saturated fat. Hardly. Studies show that when the Masai migrate to Nairobi where they are exposed to a more "refined" diet and sedentary lifestyle, their cholesterol levels rise, discounting the proffered notion that their low cholesterol levels were a manifestation of some sort of advantageous genetic aberration (12). When Pukapuka and Tokeluau residents moved to New Zealand, where they were similarly exposed to processed foods and a more sedentary lifestyle, they experienced a marked increase of gout, diabetes and other degenerative disorders (13-16)"http://www.theomnivore.com/sat-fat-chol-CHD.html



"The incidence of acute myocardial infarction is seven times higher in southern India than in northern India; however, in southern India, dietary fat provides only 3.5 percent of total calories, 45 percent of which is polyunsaturated. In northern India, dietary fat provides 23 percent of total calories, only 2 percent of which is polyunsaturated.(3)
Ischemic heart disease is not a problem in populations whose diet derives over 45 percent of its total calories from coconut-derived fat.(4) The fat contained in the coconut is 95 percent saturated fat. This percentage of fat is even higher than butter and much higher than the common vegetable oils we currently use.
Before Western dietary habits were introduced into the Eskimo population, Eskimos lived almost exclusively on animal meat and animal fat. Yet the incidence of heart disease among the Eskimos was very low and cholesterol levels were below 200 mg.(5)"

http://www.arltma.com/CholMystDoc.htm


what it all basically says is that it ain't saturated fat or cholesterol causing arterial inflammation, but it's the lack of antioxidants, lack of exercise, smoking, stress, synthetic oils, poor omega 3:6 FA ratio