Lowering Cholesterol With A Diet High In Animal Fat :yikes:

[tex]

Hi All,

Some of you probably remember that back in May, (May 8th, to be exact), I advised Sylvia, (Arosebud), that meat, and fatty meat in particular, will not normally contribute to a problem with elevated cholesterol levels, and in fact, if will actually help to reduce cholesterol levels. This was in reference to her objections to the Paleo diet, based on it's high meat content, about which she was concerned, because she had an elevated cholesterol level. Here's the topic where we discussed it, on May 8th:

http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... holesterol

I told her that I could provide a reference if she wanted to see one, but then when she asked to see it, I couldn't produce it. I couldn't locate it with a Google search, and the computer on which that particular bookmark is stored, would not boot, due to a CPU problem. I don't blame her for probably thinking that I was just blowing smoke, since I couldn't produce the evidence.

Well, I finally had an opportunity to repair that computer last week, and so today, I went through all those zillions of bookmarks, and finally located the one I needed. The article does indeed report the results of a trial where seven patients with severe food intolerances, (and with elevated cholesterol levels), were fed a diet consisting of only meat with a high animal fat content. By the end of the study, the average serum cholesterol reading for the group had fallen from 263 to 189mg/dl, (a huge improvement). Not only that, but their "good" cholesterol had actually improved. Here's a link to the article:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entre ... t=Abstract

As far as I am aware, this is the only research that has been published about the concept of using fatty meat to lower serum cholesterol, since the famous demonstration in the 1930s by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, when he and a cohort lived on a 100% meat diet for a year, to prove to the medical experts of the day, that conventional thinking was wrong:

http://www.biblelife.org/stefansson2.htm

If you've never read this article, I highly recommend it.

The technique appears to work very effectively to reduce cholesterol, but the medical profession as a group doesn't seem to be interested in exploring the concept, presumably because it does not involve any meds, so no pharmaceutical companies are likely to be willing to foot the bill - they make waaaaaaaaaaaay too much money out of their expensive cholesterol suppressing drugs.

Note the last comment in the report, where the author speculates that elevated serum cholesterol levels are probably caused, (at least in part, by some factor in either grains, sucrose, or milk), and not by eating animal fat.

Tex

[starfire]

Good article, Tex, and that's probably the reason people on the Atkins diet end up with lower cholesterol also. I used to be skeptical about that but then my son-in-law proved it to me by lowering his. (He didn't set out to prove it to me - it was a side effect of his effort to lose weight.)

Thanks for doing all that work AND for having such a good memory.

Love, Shirley

[Polly]

Tex,

Thanks for citing this important article. It is reassuring for those about to undertake the paleo diet. Would you please put it in a forum where it can be saved and easily found?

Love,

Polly

[tex]

Polly,

You're certainly correct about it supporting the value of the Paleo diet - not just for people with food intolerances, but for anyone in the general population, who wants to get his or her cholesterol level back into line.

Thanks - that's a good idea. I'll add it to the "Information On Diet" forum.

Love,
Tex