Dairy Fat Intake Linked to Better Cardiovascular Health and Less Risk for Diabetes

The idea that all saturated fat is a health evil permeates the defunct dogma of Western medicine and its Big Pharma toxic pill pushers. It has probably never occurred to them that saturated fat is perhaps the best calorie for energy production, and quite good for long lasting energy if you don’t consume too much. Two studies in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition continue a long list of studies questioning the assertion that saturated fat causes disease, in and of itself.

The first study comes from researchers at the University of Texas School of Public Health. Researchers followed a multiethnic group of 5,209 adults, aged 45 – 84, for 10 years while tracking their diets, and looking into the diets of those who developed cardiovascular disease (316 cases) during the course of the study.  They found that those with the highest intake of saturated fat from dairy had up to a 38 percent risk reduction for developing cardiovascular disease. This is a rather shocking finding for the promoters of skim milk and other no-fat dairy.  On the other hand, the study found that those with the highest intake of saturated fat from meat had up to a 48 percent increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, replacing two percent of meat calories with dairy fat lowered overall risk by 25 percent.

It is likely that many of the cofactor nutrients in dairy help to metabolize the saturated fat, helping to make it a cardio friendly food. In defense of meat fat, my opinion is that it is really an issue of how the beef was raised, and what it was fed. Many sickly and pathetically unhealthy animals have lived on toxic junk food their entire lives and had no exercise – of course their fat is not worth eating. There is no substitute for quality raised and fed meat, such as range raised and grass fed.

Furthermore, those who eat the most toxic meat are also likely to be eating other junk food and also lacking fiber, fruit, and vegetables. This is not rocket science.

In the second study Danish researchers evaluated 340,234 adults from eight European countries for their intake of dairy and risk of type 2 diabetes. This is a very large study representing four million human years of follow up. Researchers found that dairy intake, regardless of the amount of fat taken in, was not linked to the development of type 2 diabetes. To the contrary, certain types of dairy such as cheese and yogurt were linked to a 12 percent risk reduction. 

Americans should keep in mind that the quality of dairy products is much higher in Europe. It is highly advised that Americans consume organic dairy and cheeses of higher quality.

The simple fact of the matter is that there is no need to fear saturated fat. If you consume high quality forms of saturated fat as a reasonable portion of your daily calories, along with omega-3 oils like DHA Docosahexaenoic acid Essential omega 3 fatty acid integral to the health of all cell membranes, nerve and brain function. Must be gotten through the diet via cold water oceanic fish or some very limited plant sources or taken as a supplement., fruit, vegetables, and adequate dietary fiber, then saturated fat is likely to be an energy sustaining friend, which actually helps your metabolism run better, and is not at all associated with risk for disease.

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Fiber Intake Linked to a Longer Life and Healthier Arteries

The importance of adequate fiber intake as a part of a healthy diet has been driven home by two studies published this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  One study proves that fiber helps you live longer, and the other shows that consistent fiber consumption over many years is linked to healthier arteries.

The first study involved 452,717 European men and women followed for 12 years, comparing fiber intake to causes of death.  Fiber was inversely associated with mortality risk.  For each 10 gram increase in dietary fiber intake there was a 10 percent risk reduction in death from all causes.  Fiber offered a 39 percent risk reduction for digestion-related mortality, a 23 percent risk reduction for respiratory-related mortality, and a 15 percent risk reduction for inflammatory disease mortality. 

A second study of 373 people evaluated their fiber intake over a 24 year period, from ages 13 – 36.  At age 36 the participants had their arteries evaluated for stiffness using ultrasonography.  Those with stiffer carotid arteries had lower intakes of fiber over the 24 years.  This study speaks to the importance of a good diet throughout life and makes the point that a low fiber diet results in measurable adverse decline in the health of arteries at the relatively young age of 36.

Fiber is one of the most lacking components in the Western diet, one of several key nutritional substances that when lacking sets the stage for early disease and a shorter life. 

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Olive Oil Intake Reduces Mortality

A study tracking 40,622 Spanish citizens over a 13 year period found that those who had the highest consumption of olive oil, compared to little or no consumption, had a 26 percent risk reduction in death from any cause.

The study also identified a 44 percent risk reduction in death from cardiovascular disease.  While olive oil is a monounsaturated fatty acid, it is known to work synergistically with essential fatty acids, such as DHA Docosahexaenoic acid Essential omega 3 fatty acid integral to the health of all cell membranes, nerve and brain function. Must be gotten through the diet via cold water oceanic fish or some very limited plant sources or taken as a supplement., to enhance their incorporation into cell membranes.

The bottom line is that olive oil should be part of the fat intake of a healthy diet, especially for those who are concerned about their cardiovascular health.

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How cellular pathways converge to regulate food intake and body weight

ScienceDaily (July 3, 2012) — In the complex chain of molecular events that underlie eating behaviors and body weight, the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) enzyme has proven to be a critical link.

See Also:Health & MedicineObesityDiet and Weight LossFitnessDiseases and ConditionsColon CancerCancerReferenceAppetiteSkeletal muscleBlood sugarInsulin-like growth factor

Now, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have identified the mechanism responsible for inhibition of AMPK activity in the hypothalamus, a discovery that not only provides a deeper understanding of energy balance but also reveals a critical integration point where multiple signaling pathways, including PI3K-AKT and mTOR converge.

Described in the July 3 issue of Cell Metabolism, the findings could yield new opportunities for the development of treatments for both metabolic diseases and cancer.

"AMPK is an evolutionarily conserved 'fuel gauge,'" says senior author Barbara Kahn, MD, a scientist in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at BIDMC and the George Richards Minot Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Activated when cellular energy supplies are low, AMPK also functions at the whole body level to regulate metabolism and energy balance.

The Kahn laboratory was the first to describe AMPK's critical role in mediating the actions of leptin, the hormone produced by fat cells that serves as a master regulator of neuroendocrine, metabolic, vascular, sympathetic and immune function. In 2002, Kahn demonstrated that AMPK is activated by leptin in skeletal muscle, thereby enabling the hormone to metabolize fatty acids. Subsequently, in 2004, her laboratory discovered that an opposing scenario takes place in the brain's hypothalamus, where AMPK is inhibited by leptin.

"Having determined that leptin's effects on food intake and body weight depend on the inhibition of AMPK in the hypothalamus, we wanted to determine the signaling events that were responsible for this effect," she explains.

The PI3K-AKT, mTOR-p70S6 kinase and AMPK pathways play distinct and critical roles in metabolic regulation, and each pathway is necessary for leptin's anorexigenic effects in the hypothalamus, which inhibit food intake. Through a series of experiments led by first author Yossi Dagon, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Kahn lab, the scientific team showed that these pathways converge in an integrated phosphorylation cascade to mediate leptin action on the hypothalamus.

"Our findings identify a novel serine phosphorylation site on the AMPK alpha 2 catalytic subunit that mediates leptin's inhibitory effects and is critical for leptin action on food intake and body weight, and further show that ribosomal p70S6 kinase is an inhibitory AMPK kinase," says Kahn. 'These discoveries unify what were thought to be multiple parallel pathways affecting leptin action including PI3 kinase and AKT into a coordinated phosphorylation cascade."

Adds study coauthor Lewis Cantley, PhD, Director of BIDMC's Cancer Center and a leader in the field of cancer metabolism, "Since PI3K, AKT, mTOR and p70S6K have all been shown to be important in cancer biology, this integration of these pathways may be important for cancer and other human diseases and could lead to improved therapeutic approaches."

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions worldwide and increases the risk for developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease and early mortality. "Maintaining normal body weight requires tight control of energy homeostasis, which necessitates a constant flow of metabolic input to the hypothalamus in the form of nutrients and hormones," says Kahn. "Our new results have broad biologic implications, since mTOR-p70S6 kinase and AMPK have multiple, fundamental and generally opposing cellular effects that regulate metabolism, cell growth and development."

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Fast food intake increases risk of diabetes and heart disease in Singapore

ScienceDaily (July 2, 2012) — The dangers of fast food are well documented; the portions are often larger and the food is generally high in calories and low in nutrients. Now, University of Minnesota School of Public Health researchers have examined the eating habits of residents in Singapore and found new evidence that a diet heavy in fast food increases the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.

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The latest research, published online July 2 by the American Heart Association's journal Circulation, found that people who consume fast food even once a week increase their risk of dying from coronary heart disease by 20 percent in comparison to people who avoid fast food. For people eating fast food two-three times each week, the risk increases by 50 percent, and the risk climbs to nearly 80 percent for people who consume fast food items four or more times each week.

Eating fast food two or more times a week was also found to increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 27 percent.

According to University of Minnesota researchers, the few existing studies on the association of fast food and metabolic risk have looked almost exclusively at Western-Caucasian populations from the United States.

"We wanted to examine the association of Western-style fast food with cardio-metabolic risk in a Chinese population in Southeast Asia that has become a hotbed for diabetes and heart disease," said the study's lead researcher, University of Minnesota post-doctoral researcher Andrew Odegaard, Ph.D., M.P.H. "What we found was a dramatic public health impact by fast food, a product that is primarily a Western import into a completely new market."

To arrive at their results, School of Public Health researchers worked alongside researchers from the National University of Singapore. Together, they examined results of a study conducted over a period of 16 years beginning in 1993, which looked at the eating habits of 52,000 Chinese residents of Singapore who have experienced a recent and sudden transition from traditional foods to Western-style fast food.

"What's interesting about the results is that study participants who reported eating fast food most frequently were younger, better educated, smoked less and were more likely to be physically active," said Odegaard. "This profile is normally associated with lower cardio-metabolic risk."

According to the study's senior researcher, Mark Pereira, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the School of Public Health's Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, the new research provides an important perspective on global health and the nutrition transfer when cultures developing in different parts of the world start moving away from their traditional diet and mode of exercise.

"The big picture is that this

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Higher Protein Intake Lowers Blood Pressure in Overweight Adults

Once individuals begin to gain weight then their cardiovascular system is placed into a situation of ongoing inflammatory distress that eventually results in blood pressure elevating.  A new study makes it clear that an increase in dietary protein can have a huge benefit on reversing this trend, helping to lower blood pressure.

Many overweight people actually eat plenty of protein along with a lot of other junk calories, which will obviously not lower blood pressure due to the excess consumption of calories in general.  In this randomized, double-blind study participants consumed 60 grams of protein shakes compared to 60 grams of carbohydrate shakes per day as part of their diet.  The participants were all overweight and had untreated elevated blood pressure.  4 weeks of the additional protein enabled participants to lower their blood pressure significantly, which did not happen in the carbohydrate group.

All calories are not the same.  Adequate protein without other junk in the diet is vital for metabolism to work properly, especially getting higher protein intake at breakfast.  I have previously reviewed the science on this issue in my in depth article, Dairy, and Especially Whey, are Cardio Friendly Foods.  Whey protein has been shown to lower inflammation, boost adiponectin Protein hormone that modulates metabolism including glucose and fatty acid catabolism. High levels are associated with low body fat. (reducing insulin resistance), help weight loss, and lower blood pressure.

Our government insists that all calories are the same and bases public health policy on a flagrant lack of understanding of metabolic efficiency.  It is little wonder that the obesity epidemic has occurred on the watch of federal officials telling people to eat like a pyramid, apparently so they could also look that way. 

If you want to start your metabolic engines, have a high protein breakfast.

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Fast Food Intake Associated with Risk for Depression

Whatever fats you eat are likely to wind up as structural components of your brain cells.  A new study followed 8,964 people who had never experienced depression, for six years to see the impact of fast food on developing depression.  Those who ate the most junk food had a 51percent higher risk for developing depression for the first time.  The moral of the story is that a brain made of potato chips is not likely to function very well.

The study is important because 10 percent of people in the U.S. are now taking brain drugs for their mood issues.  It appears that a fast food diet is a major cause of this problem.  Such food lacks omega-3 oils like DHA Docosahexaenoic acid Essential omega 3 fatty acid integral to the health of all cell membranes, nerve and brain function. Must be gotten through the diet via cold water oceanic fish or some very limited plant sources or taken as a supplement. and further aggravates the deficiency by boosting up the amount of junky fat.  Such diets also lack B vitamins, magnesium, and plant and fruit polyphenols antioxidant shown to affect cell-to-cell signaling, receptor sensitivity, inflammatory enzyme activity or gene regulation. Found in many different fruits, vegetables, red wine, grains, honey, and legumes. that are needed for normal brain function.

Good nutrition is fundamental for a healthy brain.  This long-term study proves the point.  Showing up at your favorite fast food restaurant is a testament to the validity of Pavlov’s dog experiments.  Fast food companies use a wide variety of chemical stimulants to create brain addiction and brand loyalty.  It appears that what they are really creating is a population of depressed people.

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