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https://www.zerohedge.com/political/meat-consumption-and-longevity

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You may be wondering about the “blue zone” areas of the world—those with a high percentage of centenarians. According to Dan Buettner, author of “The Blue Zones, Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest,” the key to a long life is to minimize meat consumption and eat plenty of vegetables.

Don’t the long-lived people living in the blue zones eat a mostly plant-based diet?

Well, actually, no. For example, in Sardinia, Mr. Buettner’s first noted blue zone, meat consumption is higher among the long-lived peasants living in the mountains than those living in the valleys, according to a 2015 study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Say the authors:

“The identification of a hot spot of exceptional longevity, the Longevity Blue Zone (LBZ), in the mountain population of Sardinia has aroused considerable interest toward its traditional food as one of the potential causal factors … Up to a short time ago, the LBZ population depended mostly upon livestock rearing, and consumption of animal-derived foods was relatively higher than in the rest of the island.” [emphasis added]

For Okinawa, his second listed blue zone, Mr. Buettner insists that “Older Okinawans have eaten a plant-based diet most of their lives. Their meals of stir-fried vegetables, sweet potatoes and tofu are high in nutrients and low in calories.” However, that’s not what researchers found in a 1992 study comparing the diets of mainland Japanese and those living on the island of Okinawa.

They found that the proportion of the diet from protein and fats—mainly pork and pork fat, but also fish—was higher in Okinawa. Another fact: the Okinawans love Spam—consuming more than one can per person per week—for a total of just over seven million cans of canned pork annually. Spam is the kind of “fatty, processed meat” that Buettner warns against.

 

Apparently, Monty Python was right.

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In the blue zone of Ikaria, Greece, Buettner describes the diet as plant-based with a “low intake of saturated fats from meat and dairy.” Yet the islanders consume lots of goat and sheep dairy products, which are very high in saturated fat—and as is the custom throughout Greece—they frequently consume fatty lamb.

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Which world population has the longest lifespan? The answer is surprising: bustling, crowded, polluted Hong Kong! According to United Nations data, the life expectancy in Hong Kong is 82.38 years for men and 88.17 years for women. Another surprise: Inhabitants of Hong Kong have the highest consumption of meat and dairy foods in the world, at 500 grams (over one pound) of meat and 281 grams (almost ten ounces) of dairy products per day.

 

Posted

The current position on fats is that trans fats are unconditionally bad for you, but some of the other fats are fine. Like everything else, moderation is key.

One source of trans fats is heat-treated oils and butter, so ghee is bad and re-using cooking oil also. High smoke point oils are better to use for pan frying the same reason.

Mono-unsaturated fats like olive oil are better than poly-unsaturated fats, but omega-3 and omega-6 are both poly-unsaturated fats that are good for you, but again in moderation.

The impression that I get is that a lot of modern diet research is undoing the advice given in previous decades as more effort is expended to examine the "obesity epidemic". There is, however, considerable resistance from vested industrial interests.

 

Posted

Well, the old saying if you take in more calories than you expend you'll gain weight. And of course, the opposite.

Posted

It turns out that the old advice was just bad, because it was too simple - avoid fat and get thin - eat fewer calories and get thin. Yes, a calorie deficit will reduce weight, but if the diet that results is unbalanced, then you won't be able to stick with it, or it might make you ill and force you off it. it's at least as much a mental game as it is a numbers game, it seems.

Fundamentally, though, if your diet is balanced but you're overweight, the proper solution is to train yourself to eat less. if your diet is unhealthy, that's much harder to deal with.

Posted
On 8/4/2023 at 2:39 AM, DB said:

The impression that I get is that a lot of modern diet research is undoing the advice given in previous decades as more effort is expended to examine the "obesity epidemic". There is, however, considerable resistance from vested industrial interests.

 

In the US, connections between diet and health have been clouded by the bad science from Ancel Keys, and enforced by 

This is pertinent;

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3910043/pdf/AJPH.2013.301464.pdf

and this is pretty devastating;

https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa-846.pdf

In a nutshell, when Ancel Keys got inside George McGovern's head, we replaced saturated animal fats with hydrogenated corn oil. The corn lobby won and the American people lost. And others too, as many country's public health apparati take their cues from the American FDA and USDA. 

Also worthwhile (but suspect, as I spotted no mispellings in a quick skim!);

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-conspiracy-robert-lustig-john-yudkin

 

 

 

Posted
17 minutes ago, Ivanhoe said:

In the US, connections between diet and health have been clouded by the bad science from Ancel Keys, and enforced by 

This is pertinent;

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3910043/pdf/AJPH.2013.301464.pdf

and this is pretty devastating;

https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa-846.pdf

In a nutshell, when Ancel Keys got inside George McGovern's head, we replaced saturated animal fats with hydrogenated corn oil. The corn lobby won and the American people lost. And others too, as many country's public health apparati take their cues from the American FDA and USDA. 

Also worthwhile (but suspect, as I spotted no mispellings in a quick skim!);

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-conspiracy-robert-lustig-john-yudkin

 

There is still the perception here that sunflower oil (polyunsaturated) is better than rapeseed oil (I think you call it Canola). The balance of poly and mono saturated fat in each is essentially reversed.

Hydrogenation creates trans fats, and as noted those are unconditionally bad. And all that push to replace butter with spreadables because people became too scared to keep butter out of the fridge...

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