Re: Proof of Myristic Acid Being Bad?

September 12, 2004

Ornish has an explanation:

Your body makes HDL to remove excessive fat and cholesterol in your

diet, like a garbage truck. Most Americans consume a diet high in

saturated fat and cholesterol, so those with higher HDL levels are at

lower risk for heart disease since they will be more efficient at

metabolizing and removing excessive saturated fat and cholesterol. In

other words, those with higher HDL levels have more garbage trucks

(HDL) to get rid of the garbage (excessive fat and cholesterol).

However, when someone on a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet changes to

a healthy low fat, low-cholesterol diet, their HDL levels may not

increase or even decrease because there is less need for it. When you

have less garbage, you need fewer garbage trucks to remove it, so a

reduction in HDL on a low-fat diet is not harmful.

In contrast, someone who increases the amount of fat and cholesterol

in their diet (e.g., an Atkins diet) may increase their HDL because

their body is trying to get rid of the extra garbage (fat and

cholesterol) by increasing the number of available garbage trucks

(HDL). For example, eating a stick of butter will raise HDL in those

who are able to do so, but that does not mean that butter is good for

your heart.

Thus, HDL is predictive of heart disease risk only in populations in

which everyone is eating a similar diet. A low HDL in the context of a

healthy low-fat diet has a very different prognostic significance than

a low HDL in someone eating a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet. People

living in countries that consume a low-fat diet such as in Asia have

low HDL levels yet the lowest rates of heart disease in the world.

At best, HDL is only a risk factor for heart disease. In our studies

over the past 25 years, we used actual measures of heart disease to

see what happened to patients with severe coronary heart disease who

consumed a low-fat, whole foods diet. They showed reversal of their

heart disease using state-of-the-art measures such as quantitative

coronary arteriography, cardiac PET scans, thallium scans, and

radionuclide ventriculography in randomized controlled trials

published in leading peer-reviewed journals. Also, there were 2.5

times fewer cardiac events in these patients. LDL decreased by 40% on

average after one year and HDL decreased by 9%, yet these patients

showed clear reversal of their heart disease in every way we could

measure.

In contrast, no one has ever shown that an Atkins, Zone, or Weight

Watchers diet can reverse heart disease. The only study of the Atkins

diet that used actual measures of cardiovascular disease rather than

only risk factors showed that heart disease worsened in those on an

Atkins diet but improved on an Ornish diet.

Therefore, it would be highly misleading to say that cardiovascular

risk is better on those diets than on an Ornish diet since it is the

only one that has been scientifically proven to reverse heart disease.

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/77/90389.htm?l

astselectedguid={5FE84E90-BC77-4056-A91C-9531713CA348}

> Reduction of dietary saturated fatty acids correlates with

increased

> plasma lecithin cholesterol acyltransferase activity in humans.

>

> Berard AM, Dabadie H, Palos-Pinto A, Dumon MF, Darmon M.

>

> Laboratoire de Biochimie et de Biologie Moleculaire, Universite

> Victor Segalen Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France. annie.berard@u...

>

> Eur J Clin Nutr. 2004 Jun;58(6):881-7.

>

> OBJECTIVE: Increased HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations have

been

> associated with lower coronary heart disease risk. On the other

hand,

> dietary fats are known to influence the fatty acid profile of

plasma

> lipids, including phospholipids that are substrates of lecithin

> cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT), an important enzyme in HDL

> metabolism. The purpose of this study was to examine the

association

> between the saturated fatty acid (SFA) intake and LCAT activity.

> DESIGN: An interventional study was performed in a monk community

of

> 25 men. SETTING: A French monk community, South West of France.

> SUBJECTS AND INTERVENTIONS: The basal diet of the study cohort

> contained SFA in a proportion of 13.5% of their total energy intake

> (TEI). They were submitted to two experimental isocaloric diets

> containing either 8.4% of the TEI in SFA (diet A) or 11% (diet ,

> each lasting 5 weeks. RESULTS: The elevation of SFA in diet B was

> mainly obtained by decreasing carbohydrates. The only significant

> difference among total fats between diets A and B was the myristic

> acid content (0.6 and 1.2% of TEI, respectively). The elevation in

> SFA in diet B resulted in a significant increase of HDL-C (P<0.04),

> while plasma apo A-I concentration and LCAT activity both decreased

> (P<0.02). CONCLUSION: Altogether, these results are consistent with

a

> negative effect of SFA on reverse cholesterol transport.

September 12, 2004

Maybe my last post referencing Ornish missed the point made in this

study..

The study demonstrated a " negative effect of SFA on reverse

cholesterol transport " even though HDL increased and Apolipoprotein A1

decreased (which btw is the major lipoprotein in HDL). So in other

words a bad effect on cholesterol removal was observed in higher fat diet.

My question is how do you achieve isocaloric diets while decreasing

only carbohydrates in the one diet?

> Reduction of dietary saturated fatty acids correlates with increased

> plasma lecithin cholesterol acyltransferase activity in humans.

>

> Berard AM, Dabadie H, Palos-Pinto A, Dumon MF, Darmon M.

>

> Laboratoire de Biochimie et de Biologie Moleculaire, Universite

> Victor Segalen Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France. annie.berard@u...

>

> Eur J Clin Nutr. 2004 Jun;58(6):881-7.

>

> OBJECTIVE: Increased HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations have been

> associated with lower coronary heart disease risk. On the other hand,

> dietary fats are known to influence the fatty acid profile of plasma

> lipids, including phospholipids that are substrates of lecithin

> cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT), an important enzyme in HDL

> metabolism. The purpose of this study was to examine the association

> between the saturated fatty acid (SFA) intake and LCAT activity.

> DESIGN: An interventional study was performed in a monk community of