The Great Cholesterol Con
by Anthony Colpo
List Price:
Our Price: $24.29
You Save: $1.70 (7%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $16.59 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Anthony ColpoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-18
ISBN: 1430309334
Number of pages: 430
Publisher: LULU
Book Reviews of The Great Cholesterol Con
Book Review: Well written, but unconvincing
Summary: 3 Stars
Given the complexity of the subject, it's not surprising that a controversy exists. While the book makes an impressive effort, the emotional tone, sarcasm and missing evidence reveals a strong bias and ultimately fails to prove its case.
In the introduction, the author reveals his bad experience trying to follow the USDA recommendations. When his blood pressure and weight went up, he rightly concluded this advice was not good for him. (He most likely replaced saturated fat with sugar, white flour and salty fried potatoes.) Then he tries a high saturated fat, low carb diet and sees his weight and blood pressure improve. This convinces him that the health officials have conspired to con the public and his confirmation bias leads him on a search for evidence to back up that belief. Studies show that taking the advice of the USDA really doesn't make us any better or worse than average and short term studies show high saturated fat diets really do help many people lose weight and improve their blood pressure. But his conclusion was premature. The effect of reducing saturated fat depends entirely on the foods you replace it with. Using a canola oil based margarine, rich in an omega-3 fatty acid called ALA, like the Lyon Heart study or using unrefined carbohydrates like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans produces a remarkable reduction in heart disease. And in every long term study of high saturated fat diets, they are associated with more heart disease than the control.
In chapter one, the book claims that saturated fat consumption was virtually unchanged during the 20th century. However grain fattened meat only became a staple in the American diet during that time. And according to the USDA food composition database, a T-bone from a grain fed steer contains 5.4 times as much palmitic, myristic and lauric acid as grass fed meat. (So saturated fat increased during the same era that margarine, sugar and white flour increased.) And data show that the campaign against heart disease has resulted in a reduction of saturated fat resulting in a decline of average serum cholesterol from about 240 to about 200. And deaths from heart disease are now less than half of what they were in the 50s (of course smoking has also decreased during that time.)
In chapter two, the book talks about the MRFIT study and says that after seven years of follow up there was no difference CHD or all cause mortality. But heart disease takes a long time to develop. At the 10.5 and 16 year follow up there were reductions in the intervention group. At 16 years, 11.4% reduction in CHD mortality and 5.7% in all-cause mortality.
In chapter six, the book tells us that heart disease is about 7 times higher in Madras than it is in Punjab. But it doesn't tell us that in Punjab they eat a lot of ghee, which although it contains a form of saturated fat, this particular kind of saturated fat lowers LDL.
It talks specifically about the Masai, but according to objective data collected about modern hunter gatherers, they average about half the palmitic acid eaten by most Americans. And their LDL ranges from 50 to 70 mg/dl. In studies, the average person who tries the Cordain Paleo diet sees their HDL go up, and both their triglycerides and LDL go down. The average person who tries a high saturated fat Atkins diet sees both their HDL and LDL go up and only their triglycerides go down. (The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat)
In chapter seven, the book tells us about the MONICA study. If we only compare the average heart disease rate and serum cholesterol BETWEEN one country and another country at one point in time there seems to be no association. But the study measured heart disease and serum cholesterol at the beginning and the end of a ten year period, and 35% of the change in the rate of heart disease WITHIN countries can be explained by the change in serum cholesterol. The fact that heart disease has several important risk factors instead of just one makes it more complicated.
In chapter eight, the book claims that the majority of controlled dietary interventions showed no improvement in total mortality. However, results of these studies depend entirely on what you replace saturated fat with. The Mediterranean diet of Crete during the 50s and 60s when they had the best life expectancy in the world was low in saturated fat. In the US, people who follow the principles of that version of the Mediterranean diet are the healthiest. (Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating)
In the 1950s, Dr. Morrison put 50 heart attack survivors on a 15% fat diet and another 50 survivors were told to eat as usual. Total cholesterol fell from 312 mg/dl to 220 mg/dl in the experimental group. Over a period of 8 years, the patients eating as usual were roughly twice as likely to die as patients in the experimental group.
In the 80s, Dr. Esselstyn used a 10% fat, low sugar, low glycemic index, high fiber diet plus low dose Statins to reverse heart disease. Total cholesterol was maintained under 150 mg/dl putting LDL close to 70 mg/dl. (See Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure.) We know it worked because of before and after coronary angiograms and cardiac PET scans. People given less than a year to live are alive and healthier over 23 years later. During that time no patient died of a heart attack.
Dr. Ornish also reversed heart disease using a similar diet plus exercise and meditation but no Statins. Since then Dr. Ornish has enrolled at least 3800 patients in demonstration projects (to demonstrate savings on surgery) which resulted in over 40 insurance companies including Medicare covering a program in diet and lifestyle for heart disease patients. According to Dr. Ornish, "In brief, we found that almost 80 percent of patients who were eligible for bypass surgery or angioplasty were able to safely avoid it for at least three years."
SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE THAT LDL AND SATURATED FAT ARE IMPORTANT RISK FACTORS FOR CHD
1. Based on modern hunter gatherers and free living non-human mammals, normal LDL levels are 50 to 70 mg/dl. Americans average about twice as much.
2.The average modern hunter gatherer eats about half as much palmitic, myristic and lauric acid as most Americans even though they eat a lot of meat. This is because wild game contains only a fraction of these fatty acids compared to grain fed meat.
3. Arterial plaque contains LDL and cholesterol crystals.
4. Foam cells are an important mechanism of atherosclerosis. And foam cell formation requires elevated LDL.
5. People with familial hypercholesterolemia have an extremely high rate of heart disease.
6. Epidemiology shows the association between serum cholesterol and CHD death rate is continuous, graded, and strong.
7. Atherosclerosis can be induced in many different animal species including non-human primates by raising serum cholesterol high enough and maintaining it long enough. And atherosclerosis can then be reversed by lowering serum cholesterol low enough and maintaining it long enough.
8. The fact that HDL is protective and does the opposite of LDL is further proof of the harmfulness of elevated LDL.
9. Dietary saturated fat down regulates LDL receptors in the liver which causes LDL to build up in the blood.
10. In experimental studies, some peoples LDL goes down much more than others when replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat and/or unrefined high fiber carbs.
11. High blood sugar also increases LDL therefore diabetics benefit much more than others from reducing high GI carbs.
12. Therefore in a person whose cholesterol doesn't go up very much in response to saturated fat but who has a big problem with high GI carbs, a high saturated fat diet could improve their lipid profile and actually lower their risk of heart disease. But this would only happen for a small minority of the population. But if they reduced both saturated fat and high GI carbs their lipid profile would be even better.
13. In clinical trials it has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that lowering LDL with diet and/or medication can prevent and even reverse CHD.
SUMMARY OF ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS
1. Uncontrolled observational studies are not suitable for consistently detecting the cause and effect relationship between saturated fat and heart disease because of confounding variables (the results depend largely on what you replace the saturated fat with as well as other confounding variables such as smoking and hypertension). Also there's no distinction made between healthier sources of saturated fat like coconuts and ghee and less healthy sources like grain fed meat and dairy.
2. Experimental studies that reduce LDL more than 10% for more than 5 years and don't use omega-6 without balancing it with omega-3 as a replacement consistently reduce heart attacks.
3. Modern HGs, the rural Chinese during the 80s and people who practice calorie restriction have extremely low LDL and total cholesterol, but very low cancer rates. And people with stable low cholesterol levels don't have higher cancer rates, just people whose cholesterol level has fallen recently. This proves that cancer causes low cholesterol and not the other way around.
4. Cholesterol crystals in plaque are responsible for inflammation. In animal studies and familial hypercholesterolemia elevated serum cholesterol alone is sufficient to cause atherosclerosis. The cholesterol comes first and inflammation follows.
5. The reason that there's a stronger correlation between atherosclerosis and age than between atherosclerosis and serum cholesterol is because it takes a long time for elevated LDL to do its damage. To see the association all the autopsies would need to be performed on people of the same age.
6. You don't have to eat a lot of saturated fat to eat low carb. Nuts, canola oil, fish and wild game are healthy substitutes for the saturated fat in grain fed meat and dairy.
At least the book acknowledges other risk factors for heart disease including smoking, hypertension, diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, stress, inflammation, too many refined carbohydrates etc. The more risk factors you improve the better the results, but ignoring saturated fat, puts the reader at a serious disadvantage.
Summary of The Great Cholesterol Con
heart disease, cholesterol, saturated fat, fat,Low Fat Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Low Fat Books
Harriet Roth's Deliciously Healthy Jewish Cooking: 350 New Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol, Low-Sodium Recipes for Holidays and Everyby Harriet Roth
Plume; Published: 1998-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $50.00
Dr. Eden's Healthy Kids (Plume)by Alvin N. Eden, A. Boyar
Plume; Published: 1987-07-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
101 Low Fat Good Eating Recipes (The Corinne T. Netzer Good Eating Series)by Corinne T. Netzer
Dell; Published: 1993-01-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.98
Price in other shops:
101 Low Cholesterol Recipes (Corinne T. Netzer Good Eating)by Corinne T. Netzer
Dell; Published: 1993-02-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.62
Price in other shops:
100 Low Fat Soup and Stew Recipes: The Complete Book of Food Counts Cookbook Seriesby Corinne T. Netzer
Dell; Published: 1997-03-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.55
Anti-Cellulite Dietby C. Hartsough, Price
Putnam Adult; Published: 1991-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.33
Price in other shops:
Eater's Choice: A Food Lover's Guide to Lower Cholesterolby Ronald S. Goor Dr., Nancy Goor, Dr. Ron Goor
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 1999-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.28
Price in other shops:
Low-Fat Stir Fry Cookbook: Recipes for Healthy Eating (Low Fat Ways to Cook)by Sunset Books
Sunset Publishing Corporation; Published: 1995-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $36.99
Vegetarian Soups for All Seasonsby Nava Atlas
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 1996-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.97
Eat More Weigh Less: Dr. Dean Ornish's Life Choice Program for Losing Weight Safely While Eating Abundantlyby Dean Ornish, Dean, M.D. Ornish
Perennial; Published: 1994-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.70
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Perfect Health Diet: Four Steps to Renewed Health, Youthful Vitality, and Long Lifeby Paul Jaminet, Shou-Ching Jaminet
YinYang Press; Published: 2010-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.95
Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About Itby Gary Taubes
Knopf; Knopf; Published: 2010-12-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.27
Price in other shops:
Nutrition and Physical Degenerationby Weston A. Price
Price Pottenger Nutrition; Published: 2008-01-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.09
Price in other shops:
Know Your Fats : The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterolby Mary G. Enig
Bethesda Pr; Published: 2000-05-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.27
Price in other shops:
The Statin Damage Crisisby Duane Graveline
Duane Graveline MD MPH; Published: 2009-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.32
Price in other shops:
Statin Drugs Side Effects and the Misguided War on Cholesterolby Duane Graveline
Duane Graveline MD MPH; Published: 2008-05-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.64
Price in other shops:
Fat and Cholesterol are Good for Youby Uffe Ravnskov
GB Publishing; Published: 2009-01-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $27.11
Price in other shops:
Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage)by Gary Taubes
Vintage; Anchor; Published: 2008-09-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Ignore the Awkward.: How the Cholesterol Myths Are Kept Aliveby Uffe Ravnskov
CreateSpace; Published: 2010-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.08
Price in other shops:
The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid Itby Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
John Blake; Published: 2008-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: