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There are no guarantees and there will always be outliers. Some people can smoke, be alcoholics, eat mostly saturated fats and live to be 90. Some people can also cross in the middle of a busy street without looking and not get run over. Doesn't mean we should make a habit of that though.
As far as saturated fat, the science is pretty clear that it is bad for your cardiovascular health and increases your chances of dying or becoming disabled early.
The one study that everyone is basing their claims on regarding the harmlessness of saturated fat is misleading. Here is the overview from the Harvard School of Public Health.
My husband had a cholesterol reading of 240....his Doctor suggested he take daily red yeast rice,
vitamin B, and flax seed oil....after six months his cholesterol was under 200, and that was just taking the natural herbal medicine....no cholesterol RX's at all.
Red yeast rice has a statin in it, the same as prescription lovastatin. It has the same risks as a statin.
Probably doesn't make any difference: most likely they did not, but people living 50 years ago or even 30 years ago ate bacon fat on veggies, fried a lot of their foods, used lard for baking and frying, and hardly ever had vegetables that were not cooked for hours. Of course they didn't have all the modern conveniences we have so they got more daily exercise. I was raised in the era of only 1 car per family, we walked to our friends houses, we played out side all summer: we had required PE at school, even the first couple of years of college. We did not have remote controls, cell phones, dish washers, rider mowers or even gas ones in many cases, most clothes had to be ironed and some of us didn't even have clothes dryers. Thus we didn't have to work hard to get exercise: we got it daily just doin chores.
My maternal grandfather ran a dairy. He dropped dead of a heart attack at the age of 43 while chasing a cow. He was active, and I know from photos (he died before I was born) that he was thin. His diet was pretty much what you described. I know he smoked a pipe. In the historical time frame you are describing, smoking was also very common, with smoking rates in women increasing rapidly after WWII.
Jim Fixx, the single person who probably did most to promote jogging for exercise in the US, died at 52. He had severe coronary artery disease.
What folks lose sight of is that your blood cholesterol level is also influenced by how much your body makes. Not all of it is from diet. Some people make a lot; others don't. Some people make patterns of blood levels that are dangerous, some have naturally favorable ones. If your genetics favor a bad pattern, just exercising may not be enough.
Cholesterol is only part of the atherosclerosis story, but it is wrong to say it plays no part at all. Inflammation is also involved, and part of the benefit of statins lies in their ability to inhibit inflammation.
From 2001 to 2011 the death rate from heart attack dropped by 39% in the US.
Like it or not, high blood cholesterol is a risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The drop in heart attack deaths is due to multiple factors, including a decrease in smoking rates and better ways to treat heart attacks, but lowering cholesterol plays a part, too. The rising obesity rate threatens to slow the improvement in cardiovascular disease rates, unfortunately.
On the saturated fat issue, the evidence is clear that monosaturated and polyunsaturated fats are better, and trans fats are the worst because they are pro-inflammatory. A recent study that has been touted as showing no harm from saturated fat is misleading.
"But, for now, I’d use coconut oil sparingly. Most of the research so far has consisted of short-term studies to examine its effect on cholesterol levels. We don’t really know how coconut oil affects heart disease. And I don’t think coconut oil is as healthful as vegetable oils like olive oil and soybean oil, which are mainly unsaturated fat and therefore both lower LDL and increase HDL. Coconut oil’s special HDL-boosting effect may make it 'less bad' than the high saturated fat content would indicate, but it’s still probably not the best choice among the many available oils to reduce the risk of heart disease."
Hey my husband died at 43 because he ate poorly and smoked, no exercise. I made him healthy lunches and made healthy dinners, but he would always add a lot of fried food, and sweets.
His arteries were clogged and gave way straight into his heart. The doc said he died so fast he probably didn't even know it.
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Get your c-reactive protein levels checked, those are more relevant to heart disease. Many people get heart attacks and have normal cholesterol in their blood but they still have artheroschlerosis, which is driven by inflammation.
Coconut oil is fine if you use a little bit once in a while (unrefined coconut oil is best because it has anti-oxidants), but you should be eating omega-3 oils too. Flax, fish, hemp, etc. Chia is a good source of Omega-3 and it can be convenient to drink the seeds, or you could put them in your oatmeal instead of the coconut oil.
Get your c-reactive protein levels checked, those are more relevant to heart disease. Many people get heart attacks and have normal cholesterol in their blood but they still have artheroschlerosis, which is driven by inflammation.
Coconut oil is fine if you use a little bit once in a while (unrefined coconut oil is best because it has anti-oxidants), but you should be eating omega-3 oils too. Flax, fish, hemp, etc. Chia is a good source of Omega-3 and it can be convenient to drink the seeds, or you could put them in your oatmeal instead of the coconut oil.
Lowering cholesterol and reducing inflammation are both important, and statins do both.
Saturated fat is not the healthy type of fat. Healthy fats are UNsaturated. Those are the ones with Omega 3 and such.
Saturated fats are 100% healthy. Omega 3's have some special qualities that make them important -- you do need to make sure you get these in your diet (and make sure your children get them too!) -- but saturated fats are in fact good for you.
Saturated fats are 100% healthy. Omega 3's have some special qualities that make them important -- you do need to make sure you get these in your diet (and make sure your children get them too!) -- but saturated fats are in fact good for you.
Please cite the studies showing that saturated fats are healthy.
The one study that everyone is basing their claims on regarding the harmlessness of saturated fat is misleading. Here is the overview from the Harvard School of Public Health.
That paper's from 2014. People aren't relying on that paper. It was clear long before that saturated fat was not a problem.
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