

Full-fat-dairy for cardiovascular health - proee
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/04/full-fat-dairy-for-cardiovascular.html
Interesting study that suggest full fat dairy is actually healthier than low fat alternatives.
======
jrockway
Interesting. But perhaps people switch from full-fat dairy to the reduced-fat
versions after they realize they've made unhealthy eating choices that have
already increased their risk of cardiovascular disease? I also notice that
"low-fat" foods tend to make up for the low fat in other ways, like by having
more sugar and salt. So people think they are "eating healthy", but they
actually aren't; they're replacing a bit of fat and its soluable vitamins with
high fructose corn syrup. Not good. (And, of course, they don't exercise.)

I also notice that people tend to lump fat from their cheeseburger into the
same mental category as fat from things like avocados, peanuts, salmon, and
olive oil. But the monounsaturated fat from plants and fish is not
particularly harmful for you, except that it's very calorie-dense. Saturated
fat is bad for you beyond the number of calories you get from it.
Unfortunately, dieters don't realize this, and buy their low-fat-but-high-
sugar ice cream while eschewing "high-fat" salmon and peanut butter. Which is
bad for you.

(Personally, I drink 1% milk, but otherwise don't bother with "low fat"
things. But I do avoid sugar and salt, and that has had a measurable effect on
my health. I lose weight faster now that I don't put sugar in my tea, and my
blood pressure has gone down since I stopped eating so much salt. Not that
either were abnormally high to begin with, though.)

Anyway, the problem with the popular notion of dieting is that you don't get
anything out of micro-optimizing away one nutrient.

~~~
donaldc
_Saturated fat is bad for you beyond the number of calories you get from it._

This appears to be an unsubstantiated claim, one that the study cited by the
article is trying to dispel.

~~~
Evgeny
There is more on saturated fat from the same blog author here:

Saturated Fat and Health: a Brief Literature Review, Part I
[http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/10/saturated-
fat-...](http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/10/saturated-fat-and-risk-
of-death-brief.html)

and

Saturated Fat and Health: a Brief Literature Review, Part II
[http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/10/saturated-
fat-...](http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/10/saturated-fat-and-
health-brief.html)

~~~
dejb
His bias shows clearly in my view. He complains about large scale
epidemiological studies (in the links you provided) and then uses what seems
like a relatively small study to back up his claims (in the parent story).

Large scale epidemiological studies may have problems but they are enough to
tip the burden of proof towards those who would disagree with them. It is
certainly better than relying on some notions of the diet that our primitive
ancestors may have had - especially considering that our current circumstances
are very different and our life spans are already greater. To me this is a
case of naturalistic fallacy.

~~~
Daniel_Newby
"Large scale epidemiological studies may have problems but they are enough to
tip the burden of proof towards those who would disagree with them."

No! Other things are often highly correlated with diet, and has massive
effects on cardiovascular health (exercise in particular). Only randomized
controlled dietary trials can be trusted for predictive power.

------
gojomo
Seeing "1%" or "2%" on the lower-fat milks suggests a lot of fat has been
taken out -- you might even naively think 98%+ of the original fat content.
But in fact 'whole' milk is only 3.25-3.5% fat -- not much difference.

And, the process for creating 1% or 2% varieties involves stripping all the
fat out -- taking out other things as well -- then building the milk back up
to the desired fat/vitamin/milk-solid levels with additives.

~~~
hachiya
This is not in conflict with your point above that nutrients are removed along
with the fat in processed milk, that are then readded (e.g. vitamins A and D),
but it's important to realize that those single digit percentages refer to fat
in terms of weight.

Ignoring the water content of milk, and looking solely at the caloric
percentages, the fat ratio is:

Whole Milk: 48% fat

2% Milk: 33% fat

Skim milk: 5% fat

Referring to fat content of foods and beverages by percent of weight is
generally not a useful measure for nutritional purposes. By that thinking, if
one were to drink a few glasses of water and then eat 1/2 a pound of ice
cream, they could claim they had a low fat meal, because the total grams of
fat from the ice cream is small compared to the total water weight of the two
items they consumed.

