Elevated atherosclerosis risk on a high animal saturated fat + higher starch paleo diet?
Created June 21, 2012 at 5:55 PM
Is there research on the cardiovascular risk for someone on a grain-free paleo diet who eats a relativity high starch carb diet along with a high animal saturated fat intake?
Perhaps anthropological studies?
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5 Answers
Saturated fats are good for you. Studies done with the standard American diet have failed to find a correlation between saturated fat intake and heart disease, mortality, or most other ailments.
For more info, see http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/02/04/the-new-usda-dietary-guideline/
Also, if you eat a lot of PUFA, your body stores the fat as PUFA, which is more susceptible to oxidizing, and thus can be inflammatory. Thus, (in my opinion), saturated fat is better for you than PUFA, and should be eaten liberally, regardless of ones carbohydrate intake.
In addition, the scientific studies have not looked at grass fed animals and saturated fat content, so the scientific studies are using the "worst" type of saturated fats, and still come to the conclusion that they are not bad for you.
I agree that PUFAs are bad. Good point there. But if you are eating a paleo high starch diet you wouldn't have high PUFAs.
Richard Feinman says that the ???deleterious effects of fat have been measured in the presence of high carbohydrate. A high fat diet in the presence of high carbohydrate is different than a high fat diet in the presence of low carbohydrate.???
It's possible that Paleo carbs possess magic powers that prevent this evil synergy, but it's not something I'd hang my hat on.
"Relatively high-starch" is so ambiguous it's nearly impossible to answer the question. Relatively high-starch compared to what? Ketogenic? SAD? Sedentary vs extremely active? As a general rule, anyone following a Paleo diet is going to be on the lower-end of the curve when it comes to starch intake. Someone who is using starch as a fuel source for activity or sport is going to be even lower. Finally, someone who is only eating the right type of starch and limiting other forms of carbohydrate it going to be even better. It's a sliding scale that's very difficult to answer outside of an N=1.
Dose makes the poison probably applies. Mass quantities of fat and starch together could very well be synergistically bad.
On a 2000 cal/day diet the mass quantities I'm thinking about would be 350-400 g starch, or 1500 calories. A diet high in fatty/starchy Little Debbies is what you need to stiffen up the arteries. Not meat and a sweet potato.
There is dose and there is also daily repetition of small doses.
Atherosclerosis has a lot of possible causes, but the one I see which could be related to the sat fat/high carb scenario is diabetes. I'd suggest getting a blood glucose monitor and checking your blood glucose levels. If they are high and don't come down a few hours after a meal, talk to your doctor. It's not related to the amount of carbs you eat so much as whether you're insulin resistant and can't clear the glucose out of your bloodstream.
I would like to know about this as well. Back when I was doing an atkins type low carb, everyone seemed to warn against carb creep as they said combining high fat and high carb was a dangerous combo. Now that I'm paleo I eat a healthy amount of carbs (potatoes, rice, starchy veggies) without thinking twice. Should I be concerned about combining such high levels of fat with moderate levels of carbs (75-150g daily).
Well fat eaten with starch would lower the glycemic effect of the starches. So that could help with diabesity as opposed to starch alone. But heart disease?
thhq
(10591)
on June 21, 2012
at 08:03 PM
On a 2000 cal/day diet the mass quantities I'm thinking about would be 350-400 g starch, or 1500 calories. A diet high in fatty/starchy Little Debbies is what you need to stiffen up the arteries. Not meat and a sweet potato.
ThinnerStrength
(2204)
on June 21, 2012
at 07:51 PM
I agree that PUFAs are bad. Good point there. But if you are eating a paleo high starch diet you wouldn't have high PUFAs.
ThinnerStrength
(2204)
on June 21, 2012
at 07:50 PM
There is dose and there is also daily repetition of small doses.
thhq
(10591)
on June 21, 2012
at 07:45 PM
Dose makes the poison probably applies. Mass quantities of fat and starch together could very well be synergistically bad.
ThinnerStrength
(2204)
on June 21, 2012
at 06:38 PM
Well fat eaten with starch would lower the glycemic effect of the starches. So that could help with diabesity as opposed to starch alone. But heart disease?
ThinnerStrength
(2204)
on June 21, 2012
at 06:09 PM
I think anything higher than 150 is high. Or perhaps higher than the glucose needs of the body.
scottts
(2698)
on June 21, 2012
at 06:00 PM
What do you mean by relatively high starch? Is about 80 grams a day in starch high? I wish such a direct study existed, but I don't know of any.