Why the nutritional claims you hear cannot be correct.

I wrote up the following on my website,
http://groups.msn.com/TheScientificDebateForum-

Basically, the point is that most food is about the same in saturated
fatty acid and cholesterol content, so it's very difficult to eat a
diet that would result in significant reductions, even if this were in
fact a healthy thing to do.

Here is the essay:

One thing I have been pointing out to people for years now is that
claims like "saturated fat is bad" or "cholesterol causes heart
attacks" do not make sense on many levels. Obviously, some people find
it difficult to understand the molecular-level evidence. One thing
that is clear to everyone I've talked to is that when you look at
common recipes, you find that cholesterol and saturated fatty acid
contents are similar. Below are some examples taken from a local,
major newspaper, New York's "Newsday:"

Roast Pork With Grapes: 10 grams of fat, 3 of it saturated (SFAs); 75
mg of cholesterol (1/2/2004, page B27).

Beef Picadillo With Toasted Corn Tortillas: 9 g fat, 2 SFAs; 60 mg
cholesterol (8/6/2003).

Chicken Pizza With Vegetables: 9 g fat, 4 SFAs; 50 mg cholesterol
(12/5/2003, page B39).

Pasta With Tomatoes, Chickpeas, and Feta (vegetarian): 23 g fat, SFAs;
33 mg cholesterol (12/17/2003, page B23).

Curried Beef Kabobs: 7 g fat, 2 SFAs; 71 mg cholesterol.

Bean and Corn Burritos With Salsa Fresca (vegetarian): 12 g fat, 3
SFAs; 9 mg cholesterol (8/4/2003).

Individual Greek Pitzas (vegetarian): 16 g fat, 6 SFAs; 33 mg
cholesterol (8/13/2003).

Meatless Pad Thai (vegetarian): 23 g fat, 4 SFAs; 106 mg cholesterol
(2/12/2004).

Chinese Style Beef In Barbeque Sauce: 10 g fat, 3 SFAs; 78 mg
cholesterol (1/26/2004, B16).

Mediterranean Tortellini (vegetarian): 15 g fat, 5 SFAs; 28 mg
cholesterol (1/30/2004, page B31).

Pork Medallions With Pears In Port Wine Sauce: 8 g fat, 2 SFAs; 74 mg
cholesterol (2/3/2004, page B19).

Pork Tenderloing With Orange Balsamic Glaze: 4 g fat, 1 SFAs; 74 mg
cholesterol (10/6/2003).

Tex-Mex Sausage And Rice: 13 g fat, 5 SFAs; 95 mg cholesterol
(1/8/2004, page B19).

Pink Pasta Primavera (vegetarian): 15 g fat, 5 SFAs; 15 mg cholesterol
(9/19/2003, page B39).

Chicken Po' Boys: 6 g fat, 1 SFAs; 60 mg cholesterol (7/29/2003, page
B17).

Inside Out Cheeseburger: 17 g fat, 7 SFAs; 86 mg cholesterol
(7/22/2003, page B19).

Shrimp And Sausage Jambalaya: 6 g fat, 1 SFAs; 106 mg cholesterol
(9/26/2003, page B35).

Buffalo Turkey "Wing" Sandwiches: 16 g fat, 3 SFAs; 74 mg cholesterol
(10/3/2003, page B37).

Lemon Garbanzo Beans Over Polenta (vegetarian): 16 g fat, 6 SFAs; 33 mg
cholesterol (10/31/2003 page B35).

Chilean Beef And Peppers: 13 g fat, 4 SFAs; 59 mg cholesterol
(10/28/2003, page B19).



Most of these dishes are in the 300-500 calorie range, per serving. Of
course, what matters is how satisfying the dish is, because if it is
not, one will likely eat more than one seving, or eat a big dessert.
The only recipes that are significantly different from the ones above
are the ones that use a lot of coconut oil, chocolate, or butter. For
example. a chocolate mousse recipe I found on the internet was as
follows:

Per serving: 122 calories, 3 g, 17 g carbohydrate, 3.5 g fat (3 g
saturated fat), 3 mg cholesterol, <1 g fiber, 351 mg sodium. Calories
from fat: 26%.

Source: http://onhealth.webmd.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=59751

This recipe, if tripled to the amount of calories found in many "main
dishes," would be about 10.5 g fat, 9 SFAs, and 9 mg cholesterol. If
we quadruple it, to 488 calories, which is also similar to many main
dishes, the numbers are: 14 g fat, 12 SFAa, 12 mg cholesterol. I use
this example because it is similar to a typical meal of mine, and also
because it shows what kinds of food you would have to consume large
amounts of in order to be within a range many US "nutritional experts"
claim is unhealthy. It is common for me to eat a lot of whole milk
cheese and yogurt, dark chocolate, and some butter or coconut (either
in the oil or shredded form) with each meal. This is not a diet that
has been found to be unhealthy, actually. The evidence suggests it is
healthy. The only evidence that appears not to involves those that do
not discriminate among the sources of saturated fatty acids and
cholesterol, do not take cooking techniques and "freshness" into
account, do not take iron content into account, do not take "cultural"
or socio-economic factors into account, etc., but instead estimate the
amount of SFAs consumed and then try to see if there is a
"statistically significant" rise in the incidence of one or more
"diseases" among those who eat more SFAs overall. This makes little
sense, since one can now easily devise several different diets that are
tasty (so that many people will continue to eat this way if they know
it is healthy) and consistent with the molecular-level evidence. These
diets can then be fed to species like dogs, which live significantly
shorter lives than humans, but are fairly good animal models for
overall health, and then we would have very strong evidence indicating
which diet is healthiest. Such experiments were done many decades ago,
but are now out of favor, since it is much easier to do a short term
study to determine if a particular "marker" (such as LDL) rises or
falls due to a dietary change, even though it is known that LDL must be
oxidized in order to cause "disease," and so is only a useful marker if
people are eating diets rich in oxidized cholesterol (or diets that
oxidize cholesterol inside the body).

.